Emotions control every action, including negotiations – and depending on how emotions are expressed, either party could agree or disagree mid-negotiation. Whether you or the counter party feels anger, excitement, or anxiety, recognizing when you are feeling most dominated by these emotions is the first step in controlling the flow of the entire situation. One helpful strategy to utilize prior to engaging in negotiations is Principal-Agent Theory, which proposes the existence of doubt when the intention of a mediator or expert is called into question. Such doubts can incite anxiety, impacting both parties’ emotions at the point of negotiation.

To maintain a productive environment, it is prudent to handle and recognize emotional triggers prior to the negotiation so that the process can progress seamlessly without any inconvenience.

Preventative Measures: Steps to Minimize Emotional Responses

Knowing The Events Leading To Emotional Stimuli

Prior to participating in negotiations, participants have to dedicate time to analyzing the events that will lead to emotional stimuli. These events can cause a participant to self-doubt, feel worried or even over-expressive towards the opposite party. Knowing these hypotheticals makes it much viable to assess and strategize the entire scenario in a matter of ease.

Advance Planning

Emotions can cause problems during discussions, therefore it is important to prepare adequately before negotiating. If you have a plan and are punctual, you will be able to remain calm and focused throughout the discussions. Staying calm is aided further by the fact that when one is prepared, emotional outbursts are less likely to happen.

Key Takeaway: Adequate preparation and planning can also assist in avoiding emotional outbursts during a discussion.

Managing Counterpart’s Emotions

In addition to dealing with your emotional state, you must attend to her counterpart’s emotion as well. You can analyze the body language and other non-verbal cues to understand how your counterpart is feeling, so you can modify your approach accordingly.

Judgment and Identification

Try to notice your counterpart’s feelings by interpreting the verbal cues that accompany his speech as well as the non-verbal cues like gestures, face expressions, or tone of voice. If you notice emotional cues early, you will position yourself better to achieve the desired outcome.

Open-ended Questions

Counteracting negative emotions or focusing the discussion can be done by using open-ended questions. This approach enables the counterpart to state the major issues causing discomfort. This also helps in de-escalating tense situations in discussions by providing sufficient room to talk.

Contemplate emotions on your counterpart’s side and how they can be managed by looking at their behavior and asking pertinent questions.

Various Emotions that Warrant Different Approaches: Negotiations

In a negotiation, some of the most common emotions that arise includes anger, anxiety, empathy, and even happiness. Knowing how these emotions work within the context of the negotiation process will give you an edge over your opponent.

 Anger

Those who display anger tend to utilize it as a tool to ‘win’ an argument. Unfortunately, exhibiting anger has its own set of negative consequences by endangering a certain relationship or causing irreparable damage. My recommendation here is to follow the old adage of keeping calm and carrying on. It is never acceptable to let an increase in blood pressure dictate actions.

Anxiety

If there is an emotion that most certainly impacts your ability to negotiate, anxiety is that one emotion. Trying to manage anxiety can be tough, however, it can be easily altered by changing perspectives. Instead of thinking of it as anxiety onset, it could be thought of excitement. Taking time beforehand along with practicing a few scenarios can help in turning this anxiety in the negotiation to energy that can be used positively.

 Cheerfulness (Happy Mood)

A friendly disposition goes a long way in promoting trust thereby enhancing decision making. All through maintaining a happy front along with great collaboration, the set objectives can be fulfilled smoothly and without delay within the context of the negotiation.

Empathy

Involves the feeling that validates your counterpart’s emotions. Empathetic listening non-verbally can extend beyond words through eye contact, nods, and open arms that can signal that the person is actively listening, enabling good communication, and helping to build trust.

Key Takeaway: Different emotions have different impacts during negotiations. If understood, these can be managed and responses tailored to achieve desired results.

Tips to Avoid Judgment During Negotiation Scenarios

In the case of negotiations, split second judgments can be made based on set emotional targets, but such targets should be avoided. To assist in this, collection of information should be done preemptively so outcomes of disputes do not end up being hostile. Here are some of them:

Get Some Perspective

Before the negotiations, take time to research the other side as much as possible. With this knowledge, carefully review their stance, and fill in any voids so as to avoid rushing to judgment.

 Face Your Anxiety Head On

Anxiety should not be the one determining how negotiations with affect you. Take time to get ready and prepare for the negotiations, as that will eliminate much anxiety and ensure maximum performance.

Maintain Healthy Skepticism

Experts do not and should not live in a bubble, unhappy with trusting them could affect the outcome whether positive or negative, so care should be taken to whom, which expert or mediator to believe and for what purposes. The provided advice should be scrutinized so that the recipient is not misguided.

Key Takeaway: Judgments should not be made on the last moments of decision-making without any reasoning behind it.

Dealing with Emotions In Written Communication

You’ve probably experienced that not all negotiations are done in person. Emails and written correspondence can at times misconstrue messages and portray emotions of all sorts. To reduce this, consider the following strategies.

Move Emotions To The Center Stage

Make sure to state all the reasons that have motivated you in the body of your email rather than assuming the other party already knows what you want out of the negotiation. This will allow each and every party member to understand all collaborators’ objectives and simultaneously negotiate out the conflicts as they arise.

Prefer Zoom or Physical Meetings

Schedule Zoom meetings or other phone calls conferences instead of sending out emails. It is easier to see how the other party is feeling by their tone of voice and body language, which cannot be seen when communicating through writing.

Key Takeaway : Effective communication through emotions in an email or dedicated virtual conferences can help create better understanding and therefore, create better negotiation outcomes.

Mediated Action Steps: Taming Emotions in Negotiations

Here is an understandable Action Plan that will facilitate the ability to manage emotions during negotiations.

Identify emotional triggers: Consider scenarios that occur and cause a certain reaction of emotions on your tableaux.

Prepare for Battle: Plan for the negotiation so that you feel most comfortable when the time arises.

Read your counterpart: See how your partner is feeling based on the cues they are relaying.

Change emotions: Do not stay anxious. Remove the anxiety and instead feel excited.

Engage in empathic communication: Value the importance of listening to your counterpart and responding in a way that conveys understanding and acceptance towards them. Listening or responding to someone is not just a matter of exchanging information, but an act that yields emotions.

 Conclusion

To achieve success within the negotiation framework, it is important to manage and control emotions accordingly. With the right preparation ahead of time, understanding of yourself, empathy, and emotional triggers, would soften even the most complex and difficult negotiation situations. They allow you to manage and deal with any emotions arising from you or your opponent.

Categories: Negotiation Skills