Negotiation - Interview Paper

When I was trying to think about what I would like to do in the future, I was not exactly sure. As a basketball player, I know I would like to keep playing even after I graduate from college, but I also know that you cannot be a basketball player forever. Although, I know I am not going to be a player forever, I can defiantly see myself staying in the basketball field as a coach, assistant coach, or some of the administration positions. The fact that I want to keep be involved in basketball in the future helps me to pick which two people I want to interview.

The first person I interviewed was my coach, Tricia Cullop. Coach Cullop came to the University of Toledo On April 28, 2008 with the daunting task of rebuilding a Mid-American Conference powerhouse. Considering the Rockets experienced a five-consecutive losing campaign prior to Coach Cullop's arrival, UT's quick turnaround has truly been a testament to her coaching ability.

The second person I decided to interview is Mike O'Brien. Mike O'Brien is in his 10th year as the athletic director at the University of Toledo. O'Brien has been an instrumental force in initiating one of the most ambitious construction schedules in school history. No fewer than five major projects have been completed during O'Brien's reign, as well as numerous smaller ones. He has guided the Rockets into position as one of the strongest programs in the Mid-American Conference, both on the field and in the classroom.

The first thing I wanted to know is what types of negotiations they typically engage in. from hearing their answers, I realized that almost everything involve types of negotiations. Negotiation is an interpersonal decision making process necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly. Today you can hardly make decision alone, there are almost always more people involve.

As a basketball coach in a division one school, the usual negotiations you encounter during the year are for practice time, camp dates, budget issues, recruiting, and scheduling. You also negotiate with your players to get them to work together toward a common goal. Some of it might sound easy, why is it necessary to negotiate about practice time? Why can't you just pick a time? The answer is that you need to take to consideration when your players have classes, and then you need to negotiate with the coaches of other sports and talk about when your team can practice and when they can use the gym to practice. As a coach you also need to "sell" your team when it comes to recruiting. You need to explain to young basketball players why they should join to your team, and why your team would be the best options for them. You need to really have good reasons because you are probably not the only one who is trying to get this player.

As an athletic director, Mike O'Brien negotiates with donors as to their level of giving, with Learfield Sports and their commitment to University of Toledo. Also, he has to negotiate with representatives of coaches as to their specific contract. One of the main reasons that Since becoming the school's 13th athletic director on Jan. 22, 2002, the Rockets have won or shared MAC titles in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, women's cross country, men's golf, women's soccer and women's swimming, is because he had the negotiation skills to get good coaches.

So who do they negotiate with? As an athletic director, in most cases, you negotiate with the head of the company or their chief representative of the company that what to donate to the university. And when it comes to the coaches' cases, it would probably be with an attorney or agent, most of the time you do not negotiate with the coach. The reason that coaches or players have agents is because they need somebody who is a really good negotiator to do all the negotiation part for them.

As a coach you negotiate with your assistant coaches if they handle the specific duty. Coach Cullop said that she negotiates with the men's basketball and volleyball coaches of the University of Toledo for camp dates and practice times, and her administrators for budget issues. For recruiting, if you are interesting in a player, you negotiate with her AAU coaches, high school coaches, parents, and the player. For scheduling games against other teams you negotiate with coaches from other institutions. This year for example was really hard for the Toledo Women's Basketball Team to schedule games. Because of last year succeed, teams did not want to come and play against Toledo, and as a coach you need to negotiate with them and tell them about the benefits they will have from playing against your team. Obviously the final group coaches negotiate with it the players. Everyday, every practice, every practice, and every meeting between the head coach to the players involve negotiation.

There are a lot of challenges in negotiating with others. The example of scheduling games for the basketball team is one of the biggest challenges, according to Tricia Cullop. When other schools learn that Toledo have only lost four games on their court in last season, ranked 37th in the country in attendance, and won the post-season WNIT against several BCS opponents, they don't want to schedule a game they feel they might have a chance of losing. When trying to negotiate with these schools, it is really hard to find things to say to change their mind. Coach Cullop say that the second biggest challenge is recruiting. "Obviously, we want to continue to get better. As we pursue top-notch talent and they see that we are already successful, they are scared that if they choose Toledo they may not get much playing time." As a coach, you need to give confidence to the player, the other party. And you always need to be aware that it is a competition because other schools would like to have this player as well. Practice time and camp dates are pretty easily worked out with the men's coach and volleyball coach as they all respect one another, and they all have the same goal. The obstacles Coach Cullop and the basketball program face with their budget have been somewhat relieved with some outside fundraising efforts they have established in the past three years.

Someone who really helps with this challenge is Mike O'Brien. He says that it is not easy to find resources available during these "financial times" so that is why it is really important to know how to negotiate with the resources that you do find. One of the challenges as an athletic director is to understand that everyone has their needs and wants during the process of negotiation, and you need to find what is the best why

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