Many of us have viewed ‘negotiations’ on TV: hardline executives beating down the opposition to get what they want, at any cost and without giving in on even the smallest point.
However, in reality, negotiating is a multi-faceted skill. It is not just about shouting, refusing to compromise and being louder and more aggressive than your ‘opponent’. Negotiation is a skill that requires tact, diplomacy, integrity and the ability to compromise.
Purpose Of Negotiation
Negotiation is in itself, quite a gentle concept. It is about successfully resolving situations where there may be conflicts in terms of what you want and what the other party may want.
Ultimately we should all be aiming for a kind of ‘win-win’ situation, whereby both parties feel that the negotiation was fair and reasonable.
Negative negotiation is when one person feels that they ‘won’ and the other person feels very much like they lost out and were beaten into submission!
The Art Of Compromise
Within any negotiations, compromise can be key, simply because one person will have to compromise or the negotiations will simply go on forever.
However, the trick is to prepare for the negotiation and know what areas you are willing to compromise on, before you sit down at the negotiating table!
If you decide in advance the areas that you are willing to compromise on, those that you simply cannot compromise on and those where you could be prepared to compromise, then it will be very hard to ‘catch you out’ during the negotiations, because nothing will take you by surprise.
You may well be asked to compromise on X. But prior to the negotiations, you decided that you would not be prepared to compromise on X. That is fine. You should simply respond that X is something on which you cannot compromise. But the art of compromise then takes over!
After refusing to compromise on X, you should then offer something that you will compromise on! So you can say that you will not compromise on X, but that you are more than willing to compromise on Y. An explanation of why Y may be beneficial to the opposite party should also be offered!
If You Don’t Prepare ‘Compromises’…….
Failure to plan what areas can be compromised on can leave a person exceptionally vulnerable during negotiations. Negotiations can be highly pressurised environments and sometimes, when stress levels are high it can be difficult to think through clearly and to be aware of all the possible implications of what you are being asked to compromise on.
But if you have given no thought to what you will compromise on during the negotiations, you may be asked to compromise on B. You have not paid any attention to B and the implications of compromising on this and you are being pressurised for an answer, so you state that you will compromise, only to find out later that this means you have given away more than you wanted to.
Compromise Is Not About Weakness
Compromise is not about being weak or being unable to stand up for yourself. Indeed, compromise is actually about being professional, about being mature enough to know that you cannot (always) have everything your own way and there are always times when it can be helpful and productive to give a little ground, so that you can effectively bring about resolution. Instead of seeing a compromise as giving in, it should instead be seen as a means of demonstrating a professional attitude that will facilitate a speedy and swift resolution to the negotiations!
