Walk me through the hardest negotiation you've led with another team or an outside partner. What did you give up to get the deal?

Asking what they conceded is the quickest way to tell a negotiator from a steamroller — a deal where the other side got nothing usually wasn't a negotiation. It also shows whether they mapped the other side's interests well enough to trade things they held cheaply for things they valued.

• What did the other side actually need, versus what they asked for?
• Which concession was hardest, and why that one?
• How did the agreement hold up afterward?

The other side's interests mapped before positions hardened, concessions traded deliberately rather than surrendered under pressure, a walk-away point they can name, and an agreement both sides honored afterward.

Victory described as the other side folding, concessions they can't name or reframe as generosity, no walk-away point ever defined, or a deal that needed renegotiating within weeks.