Firm Introduces Negotiation Skills Audit Certification Course

 Guardian & Spot Legal Consulting has introduced the International Negotiation Skills Audit Certification course, which is the first in Africa.

Addressing a large audience at its four-day workshop in Lagos recently, Senior Consultant and Programme Officer at Guardian & Spot Legal Consulting Nigeria, Mr. Charles Okeibunor Ayaunor, described negotiation as a common tool engaged by everyone regardless of age or education, but however explained that competent negotiation remained a rarity.

“From nations to businesses and individuals, the difference between superior and inferior deals is in the negotiation tactics deployed. Incidentally, Africans over time have mostly been at the receiving end of unsatisfactory bargains,” he said.
He added that it was an invaluable opportunity for Guardian & Spot (G&S) Legal Consulting to collaborate with the Dispute Resolute Centre of Bond University, Australia in achieving the overall goal of bringing a course to Nigeria that would perfect the negotiating skills of participants and make superior negotiators out of them.

“We are excited by the rich mix of the class of participants comprising of  frontline decision makers in Corporate Organisations, Multinationals, Government authorities, Conglomerates and senior Professionals because we know that your shared experiences will be a substantial addition to this course,” Ayaunor said.

He explained that there were four levels of competence to every learning process, broken in two stages, the “unconscious incompetence” and “conscious incompetence”, followed by “conscious competence” which comes with knowledge and the ultimate “unconscious competence” which is gained by practice.

Pleased with the knowledge gained during the workshop, one of the participants, Mr. Charles Uwensuyi-Edosomwan, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said "On behalf of the class, I will like to thank the organisers of the course for a job well done. Prior to my attendance, I expressed scepticism about what new thing could be learnt in negotiation, since negotiation forms a constant interface in my daily practice.

“But the last four days have proved me wrong and I have realised how little I knew about effective negotiation. I have also learnt that achieving superior results when negotiating requires unique skills and abilities.”

Commending the training further, he said it would make a huge impact in expanding the frontiers of people's careers and improve outputs in both single and multi-party negotiations. “I would without hesitation recommend this course to government authorities and private sector players”, he added