Contracting and Negotiating 3

Running Head: NEGOTIATION 1

NEGOTIATION 6

Negotiations

Edwin Villa Rivera

MKTG 410

American Military University

14 March 2021 

Introduction

Human is a social animal and the survival of a human being is dependent on the fellow humans. In these daily interactions, many conflicts emerge as every human is capable of making their own decisions and at times these decisions do not sit well with fellow human beings. In such situations, a mutual point can be reached through negotiation. Negotiation is the skill and art of finding a middle ground where the interest of all stakeholders can be met. Although negotiation is a very need skill in life in general as well but it carries special significance in professional life as well. Negotiation might seem like an easy task but it requires extensive preparation. The planning and preparation phase is essential for the success of negotiation. There are many factors that are given due credit for the success of negotiation including a comprehensive understanding of dal making tactics, agile strategies, emotional intelligence, and the right mindset. Although all these factors carry due significance emotional intelligence is most crucial because negotiations often do not go as planned. They need quick strategy making and changing policies at the run time and to do so, emotional intelligence plays a central role. Emotions are central to any negotiation because it is humans who are involved in the negotiation process and humans are what they think and believe. It is their emotions that actually make or lead the situation. If one is able to control his or her own emotions while interpreting the emotions of the other party or individual involved, then the negotiation process can easily be diverted to the direction one desires. If one can successfully control and manage the emotions in the negotiation room, he or she can control the negotiation results as well (Gavin, 2019). This essay will discuss what roles emotions play in the negotiation process and how understanding the emotions is equivalent to undertaking the negotiation and using this information for one’s leverage.

Effect of emotions on Negotiation

Researchers believe that the success of negotiation has a direct link with the emotions being communicated and comprehend during the negotiation process. When the negotiating teams enter a room for negotiation, the emotions communicated at that time set the time of the negotiation process. This does not mean that there are always positive thoughts, joy, or happiness while initiating the negotiation. Because at large every negotiation process is a combination of a number of emotions including excitement, anxiety, self-doubt, confidence, etc. These emotions could be about oneself or one's team as excitement could be about a new beginning or anxiety about the results, self-doubt about whether they are making the right decision, and self-confidence about the success of the negotiation. Similarly, these emotions can also be about the opposing party as well. The anxiety could be about tempting a new party or self-doubt about how to deal with them. These emotions are natural and hence cannot be negated. The real point of focus here is how to handle these emotions. There are two categories of emotion here, one which can be controlled and one which is no directly under the control of the negotiation team. The first category is one's own emotions and these emotions can be managed. While preparing for the negotiation, one can read the emotions being experienced, if these emotions are negative, they can be converted into positive emotions. Research states that if one initiates the negotiation with anxiety, there is a high probability of success as compared to anxiety. A similar relation exists between self-confidence and self-doubt. Self-confidence is a positive emotion while self-doubt is not a positive emotion and it does not communicate good energy while initiating a negotiation. To leverage one's emotional strength for success in negotiation, the starting point is understanding one's own emotions and using them for positive outcomes. On the other hand, the next step is understanding the emotions of the rival or the competitive party (Woods, 2016). Negotiation is not just about understanding and responding to what one is saying. It is understanding the underlying meaning and comprehending what the body language states ad what is being communicated among the team members of the other negotiation team. All these factors carry huge significance and if these emotions are understood and well interpreted, and can easily lead the negotiation process.

Emotional intelligence in negotiation

High emotional intelligence is very effective for successful negotiation skills. Understanding one's own emotions and understanding the emotions of the other party is essential to successful negotiation. It is a strong sense of emotional intelligence that makes the negotiation interesting and one is able to reach a mutual point of understanding. The goal here is not to take advantage of the other party. The objective behind negotiation is to achieve a mutually beneficial point. No negotiation can be successful if it only befits one party at the expense of others. Negotiation experts state that the true art of negation lies in listening between the lines. This can be done when one understands that when an individual speaks, the message is not just communicated by words but also through the underlying meaning, gestures body language and it collectively communicates what is being implied. Emotional intelligence is reading these signs which are bring communicated among the team members and between the teams. The decision-making during the negotiation ought to be based on the emotions of the competitive team. There is a number of the way people experienced emotional intelligence during the negation. It can be through controlling one's own emotions, or emotions of one's team Ian other way is to read the emotions of the opposite team through their body language, their implied meanings, and the response of the team members when a team member states something. In brief, for successful negation, one has to identify the emotions experienced by oneself and also the emotions experienced by the other team and effectively manage these emotions (Kelly, 2016).

Leveraging emotions for negotiation

When emotional intelligence is put into practice then one can use emotions as leverage during the negation process. But to do, there are six steps one has to follow. To begin, one has to answer that what he or she wants to feel before going for negation. This question has to be answered honestly. The negation process can only be lead through positive energy and here one can tell whether they want to be confident, calm, or excited. Once it is established that what the needed emotion is, the next step is understanding why that emotion is needed. In this step, the person going for negation has to understand that why they want to feel excited, joyous, confident, or calm before going to the negotiation table. This is needed because the person understands the significance of the emotion and develops an understanding that how his emotion could help them during the negotiation. The next step is understanding how one can feel that emotion. In other words, it is easy stating that one wants to feel confident for negotiation but if they actually have self-doubt, the journey from self-doubt to elf-confidence is not easy but it has to be figured out. One has to understand how they can go from anxious to calm or afraid to excite and from self-doubt to self-confidence. The fourth step of the process is comprehending and forecasting what are the weakest emotions or the points which could lead to one's weak area. The person preparing for the negotiation must answer that question that what could rebalance them during the negotiation. This prepares them beforehand for any negative occurrence where they could lose balance. Because the next step is devising a strategy or mind policy on how to recover the posture ad balance. This step could involve multiple factors which could result in rebalance and multiple ways to regaining the balance. Finally, the individual is asked how they feel after the mind exercise of putting emotional intelligence into practice for leveraging their own emotions during negotiation. The same can be done to understand and control the emotions of the other party. Conclusively, emotional leverage through emotional intelligence can be used to succeed in negotiation (Elfenbein, 2014).

References Elfenbein, H. A. (2014). Emotional Intelligence and Negotiation: The Tension Between Creating and Claiming Value. International Journal of Conflict Management, 41-49. Gavin, M. (2019, August ). THE IMPACT OF EMOTIONS IN NEGOTIATION. Retrieved from Harvard Business School: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emotion-in-business-negotiation Kelly, E. J. (2016). Importance of emotional intelligence in negotiation and mediation. International Comparative Jurisprudence, 55-60. Woods, E. (2016, November). How to Gain and Use Leverage in Every Negotiation. Retrieved from ICMA: https://icma.org/articles/article/how-gain-and-use-leverage-every-negotiation