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Vol. 3, No. 7  

The Journal of Leadership Applications

Editorial Comments 

The theme of this issue is negotiation. Negotiation is an essential leadership skill. At the higher levels of organizational management it becomes a critical skill, an important part of what is now called "strategic leadership." I'm not certain where the term "strategic leadership" originated. However, I became extremely interested when asked to speak on this topic to senior corporate and military leaders three times within a couple of months in 2001. 

It seemed some very successful leaders had a terrible time when suddenly promoted to high level responsibilities --- at the corporate level in industry and the general or admiral level in the military. An unfortunate number of these truly superior lower level leaders failed when they got to the top rungs. It wasn't that they quit leading in the way that got them to the top - it was that they continued in the same way despite their considerably broader responsibilities. So, the ability to negotiate becomes a must at the top levels. However, I've found the ability to negotiate useful at all levels of leadership.

Here is a little about each article we have this month.

How to Negotiate

           William A. Cohen,  Touro University International and The Institute of Leader Arts

My article this month is adapted from the book Now to Make it Big as a Consultant, 3rd edition, published by AMACOM in 2001. This is probably the only article I've written on leadership which you can use in negotiating the price for the next car you buy. Nevertheless, the techniques work, and you'll find as a top leader that similar techniques are sometimes useful in negotiating with other executives at your level in your organization or in other external organizations.

The Art of War    (A Complete Book)

            Baron Henri Jomini

This is one of the finest book on strategy ever written. Jomini was one of Napoleon Bonaparte's strategists. He served as a general and Chief of Staff in the French and later the Russian armies. From the title you know that he was writing about strategy in war. However his concepts and theories are directly applicable to business with a little imagination, and I have assisted other non-military organizations in using them. 

Interestingly, during the American Civil War, it was Jomini's theories that were used in prosecution of the war by both sides. In those days, it was Jomini, and not Clausewiz who was thought to be the ultimate strategy genius. 

It was said that two books were in every general's saddlebags during the Civil War: the Holy Bible and Jomini. Both Jomini and Clausewitz were contemporaries during the Napoleonic Wars. However, Clausewitz didn't become popular until after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Prussians won, and it was assumed that in achieving this victory they had followed the theories of the Prussian, Clausewiz, rather than the Swiss, Jomini. Ironically, it appears that the Prussians, too had used Jomini's concepts to help formulate their strategy. However, like many things in life, once an idea becomes fixed, it stays that way. I guarantee that you'll learn a lot of strategy by reading this classic.

The Use of Heuristics in Persuasion: Deriving Cues on Source Expertise from Argument Quality

Torsten Reimer
University of Basel and North Dakota State University

Rui Mata
Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development, Berlin

Markus Stoecklin
University of Basel

Which has the greater effect on negotiation, the quality of the argument or the expertise of the individual making it? Many researchers say that it is clearly the quality of the argument made that holds the ultimate sway. However, since ancient times, speakers, negotiators, and leaders have been cautioned to establish their expertise before trying to make their arguments. The authors of this academic article would agree. They argue that even if quality of argument is important,  it does not rule out that receivers still make use of the expertise heuristic. "Receivers," they say, may consider argument quality to infer the expertise of the source. The authors show that a classic study (Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981) may be interpreted by this alternative explanation and present a study, in which the effect of argument quality on receivers' attitudes was partially mediated by perceived source expertise. 

A subscription to The Journal of Leadership Applications continues to be free, supported by the Institute of Leader Arts. We solicit your comments and articles. Please write me personally at wcohen@stuffofheroes.com . 

William A. Cohen, Editor

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