Importance of Skillful Negotiations
The Treaty of Hudabiyah
Navigating problems that arise every now and then requires careful thought. The Prophet himself faced such a situation when vis a vis the Meccans who were demanding him to sign a treaty which was not fair by the Muslims and which many of his companions were not happy about. However he went ahead and signed the treaty which finally turned out to be a great victory for Islam.
Lessons Learnt:
1) Leaders must make informed decisions even if they may not be popular. However when making such decisions the leader must have all the facts in front of him. This is what we call informed decision-making.
2) Leaders must be able to think outside the box and have the ability to see beyond the obvious.
3) Leaders must have the guts to make decisions which may be temporarily disadvantageous to the organization though they anticipate long or mid-term benefits based on their gut feeling combined with all available evidence. It takes guts to take hard decisions, but with risk comes a lot of benefit too. Nobody ever prospered without taking risks.
Win-Win Situations
The bottom line is anyone can make the right decision when it’s a win-win situation, but the most successful people are those with a vision who can see what others cannot and willing to take the risk.
A really good example of visionary leadership is the purchase of Alaska by US Secretary of State Henry Seward under the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. It was purchased for USD 7,2m USD in 1867. It was then dubbed as “Seward’s Folly” Today Alaska is worth over USD 500 Billion and even more.
Another lesson in leadership was the Quran instructed th e Prophet to forgive those responsible for the loss of the Battle of Uhud (The Archers who left their post of defense), in addition he was asked to consult them (get their advice). Can you imagine asking advice from an employee or a t eam who messed up your company. Let’s see the wisdom in this – Your organization loses a huge contract because of the sheer irresponsibility of one team but you want them back in your fold to face the future challenges. So you decide to forgive them but they have lost their conf idence and may want to quit short term. So you win back their confidence by asking them your advice.