7 lesson of negotiation I learned from Mr. Imam Siddique on Big Boss 6

One of most fascinating character or may be the most fascinating character in Big Boss 6 was TV Anchor, Image Consultant, Fashion Icon and Casting Director Mr. Imamuddin Siddique. Though participants inside the house loved to hate him and they never lost a chance to pounce upon him at even single opportunity available. To make the situation tough was somewhat biased host, who preferred to play the role of judge rather than the role of unbiased host. I went along with the impression created about him by the show, but later, I could see the persona of mentally and emotionally strong individual, who was playing his card very well, tormenting his opponents, clearing his route of journey to be the winner of Big Boss 6. And not surprisingly, at least for me, he was declared runner-up. In fact, for me, he was the winner and a teacher.

His stay at Big Boss house taught me following lesson of negotiation.

1)      Know the colour of your skin and be comfortable with it: First step of negotiation is knowing and assessing your strength, your offering, your weakness and accepting it to the core. It is like getting ready for the battle.

If I have to go by the physical traits of Mr. Siddique and if I have to take it as true, he appeared to be bit feminine. In Indian society, it is still considered as bad thing. He was sneered at in Big Boss house by fellow participants. Rajiv Paul went ahead and tried to dominate him at every single opportunity by his rough temper and abusive words. But under that feminine demeanor, he proved to very strong emotionally and mentally. He knew his strength: mental and emotional strength, clarity of purpose and objective, ability to define a road map to achieve success and experience of going deep down the psyche of people for selecting them for his work as Casting Director.   

2)      Be quick in identifying strength and weakness of your opponent; adapt yourself to the conditions as day progresses: Second step of negotiation is knowing your opponent as well as possible.  It is also minute by minute mind game, where you should always be alert to protect yourself and counter attack if earlier information and preparation comes short of requirement.

 As a wild card entrant, he had seen the behaviour and personality traits of other participants of the game. He had his game plan ready before entering the house for everybody. Dynamics of the house and strength of other participants kept changing every week on the basis of viewers vote and Mr. Siddique was quick in changing his tactics accordingly.  

3)      Disrupt the calm water and go fishing: At times, during the negotiation, you may face the situation of thaw, an impasse, calmness, where you don’t get the clue of outcome for you. Best thing to do in this situation is to disturb everything to wake everybody up. Of course, not so that it collapses everything. It should be meant to shake and wake everybody up. It should be meant to force the opponent to open up with their offerings.

Since it was a ninety day long battle to win the Big Boss and dynamics inside the house was changing on the basis of vote of viewers every week, there would have been time, when signal about probable strong contenders were confusing. That’s why, we saw Mr. Siddique making some outrageous moves and statement to disturb the atmosphere of house to polarise the contestants and know their respective position. It seemed almost all the contestant played according to game planned by him. He used to challenge the patience and wit of contestants to such an extent that they used to crack open at times.  

4)      Be a tough nut to crack: When you are one the negotiation table and trying to pierce through the mind of your opponent to know his position, he or she would also be doing the same. So, when counter attacked, don’t crack up like a small baby and either submit or walk out.

 When you are going alone against 12 opponent, you have to be emotionally and mentally strong enough to withstand the pressure of strong fight back. There were time, when fellow contestants were abusive towards Mr. Siddiqui, particularly Rajiv Paul, but he never seemed to back out. He withstood the polarisation of all the housemates against him and not only reached the finale but emerged runner-up.

5)      Don’t take the image and impression of your opponent or moderator to your mind: While getting into any negation, you may face the situation where your opponent or referrer may be at formidable position, but you should not take it to your mind. It will weaken your position.

 His fellow contestants were somewhat known face of TV and they had their fan following. They all were against Mr. Siddique, whose core role was to be behind the camera. Show host Mr. Salman Khan also seemed to be going along with other contestants and on one occasion, he even had ugly spat with Mr. Sidddiui. But at no point of time, he let anybody grab his ground with his famous ‘Time Out’ punch line. Everybody tried to pander the ego of Mr. Salman Khan during the show, but not Mr. Siddiqui.

6)      Play your cards well: Once you have laid the roadmap of your strategy, you need to execute it well. If you let the loopholes exist in your execution, you are bound to lose the ground.

Mr. Siddique’s tactics was to bash the strong contestant so much so every week that it makes him or her crack up and come out with their ugly side on television. As everybody was pretending to be ‘goody two shoes’, his strategy even made crack them up and he successfully did it with emotionally strong person Urvashi Dholakia.     

7)      Show no mercy : Yes, show no mercy; this word is for temples, mosque and churches, not for negotiation table, where you have to earn your livelihood.

With his pinching words and outrageous action plan, he made every contestant show their ugly side on television, where they were pretending to be good. He frustrated them, he made them cry and at times took the decision to leave the Big Boss house. He showed no mercy on anybody.

So, for me, real winner of Big Boss 6 was Mr. Imammuddin Siddiqui and he taught me the strategy and tactics of negotiation.