Jeff Weiss '86 teaches leadership strategies to two very distinct audiences, as an adjunct professor at both the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. The principles of his teaching, however, are important to both aspiring corporate leaders and military cadets, Weiss said.
"The core concepts are very similar, the tools are very similar, but the application is quite different," he said. "People are people regardless of where they are in the world, regardless of what situation they're in."
At Tuck, Weiss said that students focus on scenarios like negotiating business terms for a purchase, acquisition or investment. At West Point, students discuss cross-cultural ethics such as negotiating with Iraqi police, local leaders and clergy.
In both classes, Weiss said he addresses similar themes.
"We focus on things like helping the negotiator be aware of their assumptions, measuring future success systematically, getting prepared for negotiations, changing the game in negotiations, getting into the other party's shoes, managing the relationship and managing perceptions," he said.
Weiss grew up in Andover, Mass. and went to Phillips Academy Andover. He graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in government.
In 2004, Weiss began teaching at Tuck, and he started teaching at West Point the year after.
Weiss said his academic and working experiences inspired him to move into teaching.
"I've had a lot of wonderful opportunities provided to me by wonderful teachers and wonderful clients and I felt like it was time to give back," he said.
After receiving his law degree from Harvard Law School, Weiss worked for the Harvard Negotiation Project, a think tank that researches dispute resolution and negotiation strategies. He became involved with the project through Roger Fisher, a Harvard professor and the program's director at the time. In the 1980s, he helped start Conflict Management Group, a not-for-profit consulting firm that assists world governments in conflict management.
Recognizing the importance of negotiation strategies in business transactions, Weiss and other individuals involved in the Harvard Negotiation Project founded a consulting firm in 1997 called Vantage Partners, LLC., a spin-off of the initial think-tank that caters to the needs of major corporations. In 2008, Weiss co-founded the West Point Negotiation Project, which develops conflict resolution strategies for small unit leaders in the military.
At Dartmouth, Weiss was the second co-Editor-in-Chief of World Outlook an undergraduate journal of international affairs. He also was as an undergraduate advisor, an intern at the Office of Residential Life and a member of the Green Key Society.
Working with undergraduates on issues relating to residential life was "one of my early lessons in conflict resolution and problem solving," he said.
Weiss has remained actively involved in the College as an alumnus. As a former Alumni Council representative, he has headed several committees including the Student Life Committee and the Executive Committee. He was the class of 1986 president and a member of his Class Executive Committee for several years.
