Positive Communication & Negotiating Style, Essay Example

Some people consider negotiation as a natural talent but the research by Elfenbein, Curhan, Baccaro, Eisenkraft, and Shikaro proves that effective negotiation skills can be learnt. The surprise from the study was that intelligence doesn’t make a significant difference in the ability of a negotiator to achieve desirable results. One of the most important things in building effective negotiation skills is self-believe that one can become a good negotiator and not being afraid to protect personal interests even if it means being selfish. Similarly, it always pays to learn more about the other party and adopt behavior that does not insult the other party or makes it adopt a non-cooperative attitude. In addition, practice is always the main key to improvement over time and one should not be afraid to seek feedback from friends and counterparts regarding one’s personal strengths and weaknesses.

Another thing I learnt is that there are basically two major approaches to negotiations which are positional bargaining and integrative or interest-based bargaining. Positional bargaining involves claiming a position or adopting an idea and then trying to defend with all efforts. It is also more common of the two approaches to negotiations because it seems the obvious approach to most people. The other approach which is integrative bargaining involves maximizing interests of all parties involved in the negotiation and reaching a win-win solution.

There are several differences between positional bargaining and integrative bargaining one of which is that positional bargaining focuses more on the claim or position while integrative bargaining is more interested in the reasons or interests behind the position or a claim. Positional bargaining tends to be competitive and often leaves bitter feelings between the negotiators while integrative bargaining tends to be cooperative and builds positive relationship between the negotiators. The negotiators in positional bargaining assume that they already know what they and the other party want while in integrative bargaining, the negotiators assume that do not really understand each others’ interests and motivations, thus, try to learn about each other as much as possible through communication.

In the beginning, positional bargaining and integrative bargaining confused me because they seemed almost similar but I eventually reached the conclusion that they both are same and the difference is in the degree to which both parties are able to protect their interests because even integrative bargaining often involves giving up something. Integrative bargaining results in all parties achieving their objectives to a greater degree because they learn about each other and work together as compared to positional bargaining that involves competitive rather than a cooperative attitude.

Lessons

The lessons I have learnt from these articles is that communication is extremely important as well as the need to learn about the negotiating partners. This is why I will not only try to learn about other parties on the negotiation table but will also do research on them before the actual negotiation takes place. In addition, I will also brainstorm to anticipate potential interests of other parties that they may not disclose but would be important to them. Moreover, I will make sure that I feel the other negotiators feel valued and respected so that they are more motivated to work together and it also paves the way for successful negotiations in the future.