“All really great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction.”
-Marya Mannes
Picture a house at the end of a dead-end street. A police helicopter hovers overhead, bathing the scene in a spotlight. An army of cops are massed on the perimeter.
A heavily armed SWAT team has their guns trained on the house, waiting for the command to unleash hell.
A man is holed up inside, sweating profusely, clutching a gun. His ex-wife and kids are huddled in the corner. He screams his demands out the window: a taxi to the airport and a fueled-up plane to take him out of the country. If these demands aren’t met, there’s going to be bloodshed.
Then a car rolls up to the scene not the requested taxi, but an unmarked sedan. Out steps a man.
Though average in size, he radiates an aura of total control and confidence.
He coolly walks around to the back of his car, pops the trunk, and straps on a bulletproof vest.
For this highly skilled Hostage Negotiator, it is. He has seen and conquered this situation a hundred times before.
The Negotiator begins to converse with the hostage taker: for the release of the hostages, and eventually for his peaceful surrender. It might take hours, even days, but the Negotiator’s focus and discipline never waver.
Everything he says, every phrase he utters, is part of a strategy to build a bridge of trust. For everything the hostage taker says, and every demand he makes, the Negotiator has a response that steers the encounter in the direction he wants it to go.
He can already envision how this situation is going to end; now, it’s simply a matter of guiding it there. Like a world-class chess player, he’s always thinking several moves ahead
The Negotiator is highly trained and commands respect from his fellow man. He is a force to be reckoned with—on and off the job. In other words, you might say he’s a Mack.