An FBI Agent's Playbook for Everyday Negotiation

Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Careers, Business

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most of us think of negotiation as something reserved for high-stakes boardrooms—or even hostage situations. But Christopher Voss, former FBI lead hostage negotiator and bestselling author of Never Split the Difference, says negotiation is everywhere: in salary talks, in team meetings, even in conversations with your kids. And the secret isn’t control. It’s influence. In this episode of Hello Monday, Jessi Hempel sits down with Chris to explore how we can all become better negotiators by focusing on empathy, collaboration, and trust. Drawing on decades of experience, Chris shares practical tools you can use to move conversations forward—whether you’re asking for a raise, dealing with a difficult boss, or navigating conflict at home. Chris and Jessi discuss: Why negotiation is really about collaboration and long-term relationships How to shift from seeking control to building influence The power of labeling emotions to build trust and lower defenses Why “no” is often more powerful than “yes” How to recognize when a negotiation is over—or when it’s time to walk away Strategies to reframe salary conversations and show your value Chris’s methods aren’t about winning at someone else’s expense. They’re about creating better outcomes for everyone involved. If you’ve ever wondered how to be heard, respected, and influential in your work, this conversation offers a masterclass. This episode was recorded live in-studio. For an extended, behind-the-scenes version, watch on LinkedIn Premium. Continue the conversation with us at Hello Monday Office Hours! Join us Wednesday at 3 PM ET on the LinkedIn News page.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the old days in hostage negotiation,
0:02.0	bosses would say, when is this going to be over?
0:05.0	And I would always say, when the bad guys feel like they've got everything they could.
0:08.0	From the news team at LinkedIn, I'm Jesse Hempel, and this is Hello Monday.
0:16.0	It's our show about the changing nature of work and how that work is changing all of us. Today I want to take you
0:22.0	back to 1993, to a corner in Park Slope, Brooklyn. There's an armed bank robbery occurring at
0:29.1	that very moment, I mean a national headlines bank robbery. The NYPD got involved and eventually
0:36.0	the FBI. Now what turned the tide on this conversation, it was actually the work of one person.
0:43.3	That person is Chris Voss, the lead negotiator for the FBI.
0:47.3	On that day, he figured out how to get inside the bank robber's heads
0:51.3	to figure out what they really needed in order to be able to
0:54.4	truly de-escalate the situation and walk away feeling like they had won something. They
1:00.2	hadn't fully lost. And walking away feeling that way is why those employees of that bank,
1:06.0	well, they got home safely. Now this is just one early example of the magic of Chris Voss. We had him into the studio
1:13.7	here at LinkedIn for a very special conversation with our premium users. In fact, if you are a
1:19.0	LinkedIn premium member, you can catch the full conversation. We'll drop a link in the show notes.
1:23.9	It's really worth it. Today, we bring you the highlights from that conversation. Chris wrote a book
1:29.3	on negotiation. It's an international bestseller and really one of the best books I've ever read on the
1:34.3	topic. It's called Never Split the Difference, negotiating as if your life depended on it. He's got a very
1:42.0	specific style and the best part about it is that you can learn it.
1:46.7	Like really, anybody can learn it.
1:49.6	Today, Chris and I are going to go deep on some of the techniques,
	...

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