master the gap

15/06/2021

Introducing the Chief Negotiation Officer!

“In new research from McKinsey & Company, 93% of business leaders of companies with more than $1 billion in revenue reported “great interest” in introducing a new role to improve negotiating results: that of chief negotiation officer. Furthermore, 70% agreed that a “negotiation centre of excellence” would have a broad impact on negotiation outcomes for their suppliers, customers and M&A efforts.” World Economic Forum

Ellen Onkelinx

The craft of negotiation in procurement is a powerful tool for the bottom line, but also to make bolder, measurable commitments toward ESG efforts.

04/06/2021

When you start a new coaching journey, you cannot predict where it will take you. It is choosing to challenge the status quo, to take a leap of faith and be vulnerable and to invest in your personal growth. This goes for both the coach and the coachee.

Since my life is already very busy, I am fortunate enough to have the privilege to choose who I want to invest in (and who not). And when I meet someone I want to invest in (like this morning), it gives me this wonderful and energizing feeling of anticipation.

What does life have in store for you? Where will your growth take you?

03/06/2021

When giving trainings for the union of belgian advertisers (UBA Belgium), people from all different backgrounds and industries join and share their experiences. And what a lucky trainer I am with such a great dynamic and active group of participants again today. 🤩

Interessante bijeenkomst: Master Class: Negotiation Skills (nl)

20/05/2021

🎵 "When I was just a student girl
I asked a business, can you help me?
Can you spare a minute?
Can you share your knowledge?
Here's what they said to me...

Please don't bother me
I’m too busy to lend my ear
You're wasting my precious time
Please don't bother me" 🎵 (based on "Que sera")

After having been confronted with these kind of replies (or even worse, a complete lack of reply) all too often when I asked professionals for an interview for my thesis as a student, I actively decided to SAY YES TO EVERY INTERVIEW by a student.

Many many student interviews later, I still strongly believe that it is our moral duty to give back to the younger generation.

So I was very happy this morning to share my insights about "Gender diversity in Boards of Directors" with a Master Student in Business Economics from Universiteit Gent.

And what better day to do this interview, than on a day that the Board meeting of Wit-Gele Kruis Vlaanderen takes place, a Board that has a gender diversity of 50%-50%. 👍🤩

08/05/2021

What makes you a good leader? Someone to turn to when the going gets tough, someone to make decisions based on good judgement?

“Leaders with good judgment tend to be good listeners and readers—able to hear what other people actually mean, and thus able to see patterns that others do not. They have a breadth of experiences and relationships that enable them to recognize parallels or analogies that others miss—and if they don’t know something, they’ll know someone who does and lean on that person’s judgment. They can recognize their own emotions and biases and take them out of the equation. They’re adept at expanding the array of choices under consideration. Finally, they remain grounded in the real world: In making a choice they also consider its implementation.”



Ellen Onkelinx

How to improve your decision-making

07/05/2021

Just finished Part 2 of my negotiation webinar for a first group of Stibbe lawyers.

Whenever I work with lawyers, I get thrown back in time to the moment I started working as a lawyer (back in the year 2000 - say what? 21 years ago? 😲).

I was quite intimidated by all the formalities and the seeming prevalence of the mind & head. I decided to persevere, finish my 4 years of traineeship, win as many cases as possible and get admitted to the Brussels Bar. The exact day that the latter happened, I quit. I didn't have another job and I really liked my law firm & colleagues, and yet I just knew my purpose laid somewhere else. I jumped into the unkown and followed my heart.

When talking to the lawyers today, it is wonderful to see how much more humane the legal profession has become. Of course lawyers still need to be assertive and fiercely defend their client's interests, yet there seems to be so much more room for a collaborative & win-win approach, for the presence of both the head AND the heart.

04/05/2021

Are lawyers born Negotiators? Or are they mostly drilled to defend their position like it were a stronghold?

Bravo Stibbe (lawfirm) for investing in the personal growth of your lawyers and emphasizing the importance of both the strategic and the human side in negotiations. What an energetic first group of lawyers today for my webinar on negotiation (part 1)! 👍

04/05/2021

The wonderful crossroads beween negotiation & emotional intelligence.

How to emotionally prepare for a negotiation, triggering empathy or competitiveness and priming both yourself and your counter-party? Kellogg Professor Leigh Thompson provides the tools to recognize and influence situational cues that lead to more ‘win-win’ outcomes when negotiating.

“Rarely do negotiations take place in an emotional vacuum. In fact, most situations contain cues that can trigger competition or empathy. Thus, the social-psychological context is critical. As our research shows, cueing competitiveness or empathy makes negotiators more likely to act deceptively or honorably, respectively (...)

In thinking about your own negotiation context, aim for a self-management approach. That means identifying cues that could influence your behavior in an imminent negotiation.”

The findings imply that people can take practical steps to recognize and influence situational cues to find the “sweet spot” in their negotiations and achieve more win-win outcomes.

28/04/2021

Thank you for sharing European Leadership Programme!

What skills would you add?

26/04/2021

Very interesting read on dealing with differences.

“It’s easy to spend your life with people who think like you. Yet hanging out with like-minded people is the opposite of open-mindedness. (...)

The path to accepting differences in values begins with the mindset of learning, a recognition that listening does not equal agreement, the curiosity and patience to listen to a different point of view. Finally, it requires the discipline to stay in the dialogue even when what’s being said doesn’t reflect your personal values. Stay in the dialogue because it doesn’t reflect your personal values. You’ll discover there is rich learning about your differences and likely more similarities than you initially realized existed.”

Remember: In sameness we connect, in differences we grow!

It’s easy to spend your life with people who think like you. Yet hanging out with like-minded people is the opposite of open-mindedness.

26/03/2021

This is what I answered when the ELSA Belgium law students expressed their gratitude yesterday evening after my introduction webinar on negotiation.

I absolutely loved their energy, curiosity and eagerness to learn. And if my energy can help them grow a little, it makes me very very happy ! 🤩

17/03/2021

They even made a trailer 😁

You're wondering what we're up to next to our webinar on contract automation with ClauseBase and well here's a sneak preview of an event that will be launche...