Integrity refers to ethical consistency—acting honestly, fairly, and in accordance with moral principles, even under pressure. It underpins trust and credibility in procurement and negotiation.

Rationalising belongs to the push influencing style . It uses logic, facts, and evidence to convince others, leveraging authority or data. It contrasts with pull techniques such as inspiring and consulting, which engage others collaboratively.

Soft skills are interpersonal and behavioural capabilities that enable effective collaboration and impact, such as communication, influencing, and managing change. Technical/market knowledge and numerical skills are valuable but are classed as hard/technical skills rather than soft skills.

Developing negotiation strategy requires stakeholder consultation to align the negotiation with organisational objectives. Strategy defines direction; tactics are the methods used to achieve it. Planning strategy first ensures tactics serve long-term goals effectively.

Soft skills are interpersonal attributes that enable effective collaboration and impact. In the L5M15 context, influencing skills are highlighted as critical to negotiation and stakeholder engagement, whereas financial acumen, computer skills, and domain knowledge are typically classified as technical/hard skills.

Meredith Belbin’s research found that high-performing teams have a balanced mix of complementary roles rather than simply highly skilled individuals. The nine Belbin roles (e.g., Plant, Coordinator, Implementer, Completer Finisher) reflect diverse strengths that, when combined, improve overall team performance.

Ingratiation involves using flattery, praise, or friendliness to increase likability and influence. It’s a soft tactic often used to build rapport and reduce resistance before discussing substantive issues.

A cold (detached) and tough (adversarial) style discourages collaboration and may escalate conflict. CIPS categorises influencing behaviour across two dimensions—warm vs cold and tough vs soft—with “cold and tough” seen as destructive.

Pull tactics engage, involve, and motivate others (e.g., inspiring with vision, inviting joint problem-solving, exploring interests). Push tactics rely on directing, arguing, or asserting with facts and logic. Thus “inspiring” and “negotiating” are pull; “rationalising” and “asserting” are push.

Conscious incompetence means recognising a skill gap—you understand what’s required but haven’t yet mastered it. It’s the second stage in the four-stage competence model: (1) Unconscious incompetence → (2) Conscious incompetence → (3) Conscious competence → (4) Unconscious competence.