In this episode of ChoinqueCast, host Jim Emerick sits down with Susie Tomenchok, negotiation and leadership expert, author, and executive coach at Inturri Consulting, to explore why negotiation is not about manipulation or winning at someone else’s expense. Susie explains how adopting a negotiator’s mindset can help leaders communicate more clearly, understand other people’s interests, build influence, and navigate high-stakes conversations with greater confidence. Susie shares how her career began in telecommunications, where she was thrown into multimillion-dollar negotiations involving executives, attorneys, and major companies such as Discovery, Viacom, and Boeing. Those experiences taught her to recognize the role of timing, leverage, relationships, emotions, and preparation in negotiation. She also explains how the same skills apply to everyday leadership, from framing an ask and practicing silence to understanding power dynamics and moving from a scarcity mindset toward greater collaboration. Drawing from her book, The Art of Everyday Negotiation Without Manipulation, Susie introduces her PACE and CLAW frameworks and explains why preparation, awareness, listening, leverage, and reflection matter well beyond formal dealmaking. She and Jim also discuss feedback, career self-advocacy, AI’s impact on leadership, and why strong people skills, judgment, curiosity, and influence are becoming even more important as technology changes the workplace. Expect to Learn:Why negotiation and leadership rely on many of the same skills, including listening, framing, understanding interests, managing leverage, and communicating clearly.How preparation can help leaders move from a scarcity mindset toward seeing more options and opportunities in difficult conversations.Why understanding the interests, relationships, emotions, and power dynamics of other people can lead to better outcomes without manipulation.How Susie’s PACE and CLAW frameworks make negotiation strategies practical enough to use in everyday workplace conversations.Why feedback can reveal blind spots that are impossible to see from your own perspective and why evaluation and coaching should be treated differently.How everyday situations, from career conversations to family decisions, contain opportunities to negotiate and advocate for yourself.Why leaders need strong people skills, judgment, influence, and curiosity as AI increasingly takes over tasks based primarily on technical knowledge. Episode Breakdown with Timestamps: 00:00 – Trailer and Episode Preview 01:20 – Welcome & Introduction to Susie Tomenchok 06:36 – Lessons From Real-World Negotiations and Manipulation Tactics 10:44 – Why Negotiation Skills Are Leadership Skills 14:44 – The PACE and CLAW Negotiation Frameworks 16:55 – Feedback, Blind Spots, and Becoming a Better Leader 20:10 – Writing The Art of Everyday Negotiation Without Manipulation 31:07 – Closing Remarks & Thanks Disclosure: Portions of this episode (such as the introduction or promotional segments) use AI-generated voice narration produced under human editorial review. 🔗 Connect with the Guest, Susie Tomenchok: 👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susietomenchok/ 👉 Website: https://www.susietomenchok.com/ 👉 Negotiation Love: https://www.negotiationlove.com/ 👉 Podcast – How to Get What You Want: https://getwhatyouwant.buzzsprout.com/ 👉 Apple Podcasts – How to Get What You Want: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-get-what-you-want/id1650026356 🔗 Connect with the Host, Jim Emerick: 👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimemerick/ 🔗 More from Choinque: 👉 Website: https://www.choinque.com/blog 👉 Facebook: https://facebook.com/918903204639744 👉 Instagram: https://instagram.com/choinquecast 👉 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@choinque 👉 X: https://x.com/choinque 👉 Email: iamgood@choinque.com 🔗 More about Leadership Courses: 👉 Schedule: https://www.academyleadership.com/Emerick 🔗 Follow the Podcasts: 👉 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/choinquecast/id1290927745 👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/56oY3glVaoTXmmcWWGQGry?si=69f1cd525a5d4be5 👉 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAA4czS4aI7V5g3i2Sd4bUQ