The 5 Lessons Winston Churchill Can Teach You To Become a Great Negotiator
Improving your negotiation skills is a must.
Negotiating is a subtle and delicate art that few people master. Yet, knowing how to negotiate is a necessity in life. Indeed, there will always be times when you are in situations where knowing how to negotiate is an important advantage.
To strengthen your negotiation skills, I think there is nothing better than to be inspired by personalities who have made history by their talent in this field.
In this article, I will focus on Winston Churchill. Nicknamed the “British Bulldog” because of his ferocity and focus during negotiations, Winston Churchill mastered all the facets of successful negotiation: bluffing, anger, silence, countermanding, pressure, humor, or concessions.
Winston Churchill's negotiation skills enabled him to stand up to the powerful men of the 20th century: the skillful Franklin Roosevelt, the manipulative Joseph Staline, and the tempestuous Charles De Gaulle.
Whether it was during the 3 years of negotiations for Operation Overlord or the 8 days for Yalta, Winston Churchill always knew how to keep the vision and the course he was given to best serve the interests of his country in one of the worst crises in history.
Here are the 5 key techniques of his method.
1. Mastering your subject at 110%
Winston Churchill was a very thorough person. He wanted to gather opinions and data on everything before entering into a negotiation. He was capable of disturbing any staff member at any time to obtain essential information.
For Churchill, a subjectively formulated argument is less relevant than an objective chart or map that will support the point.
He thus charged his friend Frederick Lindemann, the “scientific lobe” of his Churchillian brain, to synthesize useful statistics (ammunition, supplies, etc.) with his intelligence team. Based on this data, Churchill then had the “weapons” to persuade the American generals or Roosevelt, who were more concerned with fighting Japan than Germany, to intervene on the Old Continent.
In addition, before the Yalta summit of 1945, he took care to organize bilateral meetings to test the positions of his allies. Questioning and researching to support your point of view is essential to gain credibility in a negotiation.
You need to be 110% on top of your subject.
2. Enter into the logic of the other person to better influence them
Before negotiating with someone, Churchill seeks to know who he is dealing with. The goal is to identify the psychological levers on which to work not to manipulate but to influence.
The American president wanted a quick landing. Churchill was opposed to it. He knew that Roosevelt was a very cerebral person. He used this to his advantage by opting for a rational and detailed presentation with facts and figures on the armies, photos of the Atlantic Wall, and timetables.
Facing Joseph Stalin, Churchill used metaphors, because he knew that the Russian dictator was a fan of simplicity and concision. Thus, Churchill made a sketch explaining the strategy of bypassing Germany (which he advocated), giving the map of Europe the silhouette of a crocodile.
Churchill was able to adapt his arguments to each of his interlocutors. He enters into the logic of the other person to better influence him. Moreover, he knows how to strengthen relationships by savoring moments of shared relaxation such as when he shares a meal with the Roosevelt family.
Empathy and active listening are among the skills to master to become an outstanding negotiator.
3. Confront decision-makers at the heart of the action
To reinforce his vision, Winston Churchill never limited himself to abstract demonstrations. He liked to take his partners with him to the theater of operations. In the hushed surroundings of palaces or meeting rooms, the technical elements of a discussion remain virtual.
In 1943, to convince the American General Staff of the relevance of a landing in Sicily - one of the peripheral interventions aimed at weakening Hitler -, he organized the conference in Casablanca rather than at the White House and took them around the troops in a jeep.
If Churchill had been able to fly over the Atlantic coast with Generals Marshall and Eisenhower, he would have done so so that the United States would no longer underestimate the German forces mobilized in their multiple bunkers.
One of the great secrets of Winston Churchill's negotiation method was to use life-size demonstrations to bring his opponents into the heart of the action.
4. Know how to give ground and evolve when necessary
A great negotiator must know how to give ground and move on. It is a subtle art to be mastered to perfection. Winston Churchill knew how to do it better than anyone else.
In 1915, the landing in the Dardanelles Strait was a fiasco because it was postponed for several months following multiple negotiations between the protagonists.
The young Churchill, first lord of the Admiralty, had not modified his plans, while the balance of forces on the ground had changed. Learning his lesson, the “Bulldog” reoriented his policy and made compromises. He agreed to the Normandy landing, which he had opposed, in exchange for several operations in the Mediterranean.
Churchill left the leadership of the Yalta conference to Stalin, at his home in the Crimea, to give him the confidence to co-construct a global solution.
To become a leading negotiator, you must avoid being stubborn about your initial demands. You must be willing to renegotiate when elements of the context have changed. By putting your opponents in a comfortable position, you will then get what you want more easily.
5. Accepting doubt and transforming it into an opportunity
Despite appearances, Winston Churchill was a man of many doubts. He accepted this trait of his personality and knew how to turn his doubts into opportunities.
His doubts allowed him to explore several possibilities before deciding on a course of action. Once reassured, Churchill knew how to exploit the hesitations of his interlocutors.
By listening to his interlocutors, he was able to take advantage of their doubts to explain his geostrategic vision based on concrete data. He also never hesitated to demand the presence of real decision-makers around the table to accelerate the outcome of negotiations.
As he wrote in 1944 to a Roosevelt who was too fond of collegiality:
“It will become impossible to act if everyone has to consult everyone else on every subject before a decision is taken...”
This last technique of the Churchill method consists in accepting your indecision as a normal step, before letting the opposing opinions express themselves to better dismantle them to bring them towards your vision.
Final Thoughts
Strengthening your negotiation skills is a must. To do so, nothing better than to learn from famous personalities in history like Winston Churchill. We have a lot to learn from them.
The 5 lessons I have highlighted in this article will help you take your negotiation skills to the next level. After that, you will need to practice regularly to seek continuous improvement.