Chris Voss

Principles are our summary of their public statements.

• Use Mirroring and Labeling

  Negotiation

  Repeat the last few words someone said or label their emotions to encourage them to keep talking and reveal more information.

  Source Chris Voss: How to Succeed at Hard Conversations, 2023  (opens in a new tab)

• Question the guarantee of compliance

  Decisions

  Always ask how complying with a demand guarantees the promised result. This forces more communication and provides information to diagnose the other side's true intentions.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Chris Voss: How to Succeed at Hard Conversations, 2023  (opens in a new tab)

• Use How and What Questions

  Negotiation

  Ask open-ended questions starting with 'how' or 'what' to force the other party into slow, deep thinking and to gauge their sincerity.

  Supporting quotes

  • “If I got a cutthroat aggressor on the other side, I'm going to drop into passive aggressive behavior to slow them down and wear them out.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Establish a Truth Baseline

  Negotiation

  Since people tell the truth consistently but lie in many different ways, identifying a person's 'truth pattern' is the key to detecting deception.

  Supporting quotes

  • “learn the difference between your gut and your amygdala, for lack of a better term, your fear centers, and know which one is which. And listen to your gut.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Delegate to Recharge

  Leadership

  A leader must trust their team and hand off responsibilities to avoid burnout during long-term crises.

  Supporting quotes

  • “you're harder to kill. If you've been humanized, you're harder to harm.”

• Accept Strategic Implementation

  Career

  Professionals must focus on executing the strategy effectively, even if they didn't make the final high-level decision.

  Supporting quotes

  • “you're harder to kill. If you've been humanized, you're harder to harm.”

• Niche down for specific industries

  Strategy

  Adapt core methodologies into specialized versions for high-stress industries like real estate to increase relevance.

  Source Chris Voss: How to Succeed at Hard Conversations, 2023  (opens in a new tab)

• Leverage Specialized Experience for Authority

  Brand

  Voss built a global brand by documenting his unique FBI career and sharing that expertise through books, teaching, and media. Specialized government experience can be a powerful foundation for a private sector career.

  Source Wikipedia: Christopher Voss  (opens in a new tab)