1 minute read
Legend Chris Voss
Chris Voss
When it comes to negotiating, Chris Voss, a former international hostage negotiator for the FBI, is most definitely a legend.
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Voss's career took him from the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, to negotiating with all sorts of bad guys, from kidnappers to bank robbers and terrorists. At the pinnacle of his career, Voss became the FBI's lead international kidnapping negotiator. Author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It injects emotional intelligence and empathy into negotiation strategies. Today, the Founder and CEO of The Black Swan Group Ltd. solves business communication issues by leveraging his once hostage negotiation tactics.
Voss spent 24 years working in the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit. During that time, he was trained in the art of negotiation by the FBI, Scotland Yard, and Harvard Law School. He is the recipient of the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service and the Attorney General's Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement.
In his book, Never Split the Difference, Voss offers his readers some of the skills that helped him save lives and shares nine principles, tactics and strategies. Voss uses what he calls Tactical Empathy, which, plainly stated, weaponises empathy and leverages emotional intelligence to influence your counterpart's emotions and make your way to optimal outcomes. In his book, Voss explains the importance of seemingly small but important details such as paying attention to your tone of voice and how you enter into a conversation.
Voss also offers some perhaps unconventional and most definitely controversial ideas such as, we are not rational beings, there is no such thing as 'fair', compromising is the worst thing you can do, and the art of negotiations lies in mastering the No. Ideas that may be scoffed at if it weren't for Voss' proven track record of saving lives and talking criminals and hostage-takers out of, or into, just about anything.
Whether you're in high-stakes negotiations or fighting over what to watch on Netflix, Voss's strategies can improve your persuasiveness and help you negotiate your way to a better deal.
