Negotiation Skills
Index
Introduction
Behaviour Patterns of Skilled Negotiators
Planning for Negotiations
Process of Negotiations
Negotiation Styles
Negotiating Power
Negotiations and Bargaining
Summary

Introduction
Negotiation may be defined as a process of conferring, discussing or bargaining among two or more parties with different needs and wants to reach an agreement in business or diplomacy. It is resorted to by management to either jointly solve disputes, disagreements or to bargain new wage and salary structure with the representative union.
Behaviour patterns of skilled negotiators
1.) Behaviours that are avoided
Using irritators- E.g. saying ‘generous offer’ in reference to one’s own proposal, using ‘fair’ or ’reasonable’ in reference to own offers which may offend the other party. Skilled negotiators use these irritators about 2 times per hour compared to 11 times by average negotiators in the face-to-face negotiations. Making counter proposals- this can be considered for instance when following a proposal immediately with a counter proposal.
Avoiding ‘Defend / Attack Spiral’ - Using emotional or value-loaded behaviour to attack the other party or to defend own proposal, the process goes in to a spiral and the line between defend / attack blurs.
Avoiding dilution of argument-more arguments lead to more dilution because the opposite party would use the weakest justification to hit back. Thus the weakest argument dilutes the stronger ones and becomes the common denominator of the process in hand. Skilled negotiators use them less often.

2.) Behaviours that are used frequently
Giving advance indication of behaviour supporting agreement- For example, saying “can I ask a question?’ Labelling behaviour beforehand has some advantages. It draws the attention of listeners to the issue stated, slows down the negotiations as parties take time to gather their thoughts before they can respond and reduces ambiguity and leads to clearer communications.
Giving reasons before indicating disagreement
Testing understanding and summarizing- This is used by negotiators to check and establish whether the previous statement has been understood by the other party.
Seeking more information- It gives control over discussions, more acceptable alternatives to disagreements, keep the other party active, leaving little time to think and give time to negotiators to collect own thoughts.
Sharing feelings-Psychologists are of the opinion that expressing feelings helps build trust.

PLANNING FOR NEGOTIATIONS
Planning for negotiations is the foundation for being successful in negotiations. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.
(1) Time spent in planning for negotiations
- It is not the amount of time but the quality of time spent that determines the success of negotiations.
(2) Exploration of range of options in negotiations-
Securing a win-win situation for both the parties.
(3) Focusing on common ground-
Paying more attention to areas of common ground is more rewarding than concentrating on possible areas of conflict.
(4) Freeing issues from sequencing and scheduling-
Each issue is planned independent of the other without any regard to their sequence.
(5) Concentrating on long term and not short term issues
(6) Setting limits about objectives- Determine the maximum, minimum and target value.

PROCESS OF NEGOTIATIONS
Effective planning for negotiations increases the power of persuasion. Including management meetings, conflict resolution sessions, teambuilding, Joint problem solving, handling inter-personal issues
(1)Giving one’s viewpoint
(2)Giving one’s viewpoint and analysing B’s objections and own counters
(3)Finding the common ground of agreement -areas in which there are no disagreements. Negotiation Styles
(1)Factual style-point out facts in a neutral way, share details with others, look for proof and documents of statements, use keywords like: clarify, define, explain, fact etc. The guidelines here are:
a) be precise in presenting