When people think about negotiation, they immediately think of having to influence someone else but Erica Ariel Fox says you have to manage yourself first.
She introduces the big four concept:
- Your Dreamer, or inner CEO. This part of you operates on intuition, and imagines big possibilities for the future
- Your Thinker, or inner CFO. This part uses facts and logic to make rational assessments, to evaluate options and manage risk
- Your Lover, or inner VP of HR. This part of you runs on emotion, values relationships, and excels at communicating with other people.
- Your Warrior, or inner COO. This part of you thrives on action, wanting to close the performance gap and getting things done, tell the hard truth, and take a firm stand for your values.
Without the CEO, you could miss the vision that is essential to an innovative strategy. No CFO, and the budget collapses. Without HR, the right people do not get hired or developed. If the COO’s absent, it’s all talk and no action.
The Big Four represent your capacity to dream about the future, to analyse and solve problems, to build relationships with people, and to take effective action; they enable your visioning, thinking, feeling, and achieving; they make it possible for you to take four approaches to leading and living: inspirational, analytical, relational, and practical.
Ideally, you have these 4 c-level executives operate within you in balance, they are available to you and you can call on each one when the time is right. Negotiating with yourself means letting your Big Four consider which of them is in the best position to get the result you want.
Read more: Erika Fox. “Winning from Within: A Breakthrough Method for Leading, Living, and Lasting Change” HarperBusiness
Carlose Lopez 