What's your personality?

In business, especially in business negotiations, you are always dealing with people: their personalities, their needs and their opinions. Business decisions are sometimes influenced by personal issues and not solely by business strategy and the bottom line.

On this blog we’ve discussed issues like motivation, behavior and traits of a good negotiator because it is important to be aware that personality and personal needs come into play at the negotiating table.

Personality affects issue such as aspiration and goals. Chester L. Karrass, in his book The Negotiating Game, identifies the relationship between personality and aspiration levels. He tells us that someone that is achievement oriented, who believe that hard work pays off, has a high aspiration level. And in negotiations, those who have a high aspiration level reach higher goals.

Dr. Karrass recommends paying serious attention to the personalities of people on your negotiating team. His research found that personality factors are extremely important in effective negotiating.

Personality is defined as the essential character of a person. Usually we can find a group of traits that define a personality type. For example, in this article (http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/191402/communications/how_to_communicate_to_the_four_main_personality_types.html) Lee Hopkins classifies four general business types:


Extrovert


Amiable


Pragmatic


Analytical


He then suggests tailoring your message so that you can communicate effectively with each person. Clearly, personality influences how you understand and how you communicate.

There are tests designed to discover your personality type. A very popular test is the Myers-Briggs, which classifies personalities into sixteen distinct types.

Figuring out your personality, the personalities of those on your negotiating team and the personalities of those sitting opposite you on the negotiating table will be very valuable.

Do you prefer to negotiate with certain personalities? How does it influence the outcome of a negotiation?

The Making of a Good Negotiator

Are good negotiators born or made? Certainly, there are innate personality traits that make some people become good, or even great, negotiators.

However, there are some negotiation skills that can be learned, which also improve your negotiation ability.

Here are some traits and skills of a good negotiator:

Practical intelligence/common sense
Verbal ability
Ability to think and communicate clearly under stress
Personal integrity
Good self-esteem
Emotional intelligence (ability to understand others, their motivations/reactions)
Aspiration to achieve
Planning skill
Product knowledge
Ability to research and understand market conditions
Ability to stay calm under pressure
Ability to deal with uncertainty

It could be argued that even if you are not born with some of these traits, you can develop them over time. Sometimes you can compensate for any areas of weakness by becoming highly adept at other areas. For instance, you may not have great verbal skills and so you communicate better in writing.

Just having or developing these traits is not enough. These traits simply provide the foundation for being able to negotiate well. Negotiation itself is a skill that you can learn through training seminars like the many offered by Karrass.

Which do you think the number one skill or trait needed by good negotiators?

Are you a bully?

We are all familiar with bullies. We were probably harassed by a bully at least once during our school years. Some kids grow out of bullying when they leave school. Others go on to be adult bullies. In fact, many people deal with bullies at work. So much so there is even a group called the Workplace Bullying Institute.

Webster’s defines bullying simply: to treat abusively. Bullies use abuse to intimidate others and to try to get their way. According to the article “Dealing with Difficult People: The Workplace Bully” by Susan David, in the workplace, bullies engage in tactics such as falsely accusing others of errors, being intimidating, and being harshly and unfairly critical. Read the article here:

http://www.allbusiness.com/society-social-assistance-lifestyle/religion-spirituality/12361401-1.html

Some negotiators who are bullies feel that abusing their opposition will make them prevail in the negotiation. In negotiations, bullies are dismissive, they criticize constantly and they may engage in non-verbal intimidation like staring down. Bullies try to create unpleasant conditions in order to lower the opposition’s resistance.

But here’s the thing: no one likes to be abused. And it’s a universal business truth that people like to do business with people they like. Being likeable is a huge factor in getting ahead in any aspect of life. Logically, the obverse is also true. Being unlikable will set you back and no one is more unlikable than a bully.

In the end, a bully will not get his or her way in a negotiation because the opposing party will not want to continue talking. A bully can never be a good negotiator because a successful negotiation usually results in a Both-Win situation for all involved. A bully is always looking out for his or her own success, often at the expense of others.

Have you dealt with a bully in negotiation? Have you been a bully in negotiation? Please share your experiences in the comments.

Simon Cowell's Salary Negotiation

We came across this article by Paige Albiniak in Broadcasting & Cable magazine

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/Fates_Fortunes/20841-Simon_Cowell_s_lessons_in_salary_negotiation.php

about how American Idol judge Simon Cowell negotiated a contract worth $45 million per year over three years.

Negotiation skills are an important part of salary negotiations. In Cowell’s case, he came to the negotiating table with power. He is an important part of a very popular show, which brings in viewers and dollars to the Fox network.

Simon Cowell got what he wanted because he was able to convince his employers that he was worth what he was asking. As Albiniak writes: “(Cowell) knows a few incredibly important things: he knows his own worth, he knows the worth of the show and he knows how much he personally contributes to that worth.”

In essence, what Cowell brought to the table were two indispensable items in negotiation: confidence and knowledge.

Any negotiator must be confident in his or her position. Lack of confidence will be seen as a weakness, which can be exploited by the other party.

It has been said many times that knowledge is power, and nowhere is this more relevant than at the negotiating table. Specifically, in salary negotiations, knowing what other people make in your field or in your region will give you a solid base to make your argument.

Author Albiniak recommends checking salary ranges for your job title at websites such as salary.com and payscale.com. On salary.com, it is recommended that anyone negotiating a job should reach five agreements:

1. Agree on a benchmark job.

2. Agree on your proficiency and performance level.

3. Agree on the market value of the job.

4. Agree on where your salary should fall.

5. Agree on what performance is necessary for future salary increases.

Read more here:

http://www.salary.com/personal/layoutscripts/psnl_articles.asp?tab=psn&cat=cat011&ser=ser031&part=par172

Do you have any tips on how to succeed at salary negotiations? Please share in the comments.

Be More Persuasive

Perhaps one of the most valuable talents/skills that a negotiator should have is being persuasive. After all, if you can’t persuade other people to consider your side you won’t get very far.

Here are a few negotiation tips to increase your power of persuasion.

Focus on the other person’s positive attributes

Find an attribute you like about the other person and then compliment her/him on it. This tip comes from a Harvard Business blog:

Be sincere, genuine and likeable

This tip comes from Pat Price in Best Management Articles:

Ask questions rather than make statements

This tip comes from Calvin Sun in the Tech Republic:


Dr. Chester Karrass, in his book Give and Take, suggests the following:

• Start with easy to settle issues rather than the more charged ones
• Deliver good news before bad news
• Emphasize where you are in agreement
• Present both sides of the issue
• Pay attention to your end argument, since it is the one the other person will remember the most
• State your conclusions explicitly
• Repeat your message to create acceptance

What persuades you?

Negotiation = Entrepreneurship?

Do you have to be a negotiator to be an entrepreneur or do you have to be an entrepreneur to be a negotiator?

There is synergy between these two roles. Merriam-Webster defines an entrepreneur as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” According to Dr. Chester Karrass, good negotiators have a high need for achievement.

To achieve, it could be argued, you have to be ready to take risks. The overlap between an entrepreneur and a negotiator comes down to assuming risk. So, people who do best in negotiations are hungry for success, and are willing to take a risk to reach that success. Ditto for entrepreneurs.

It is not really surprising that good negotiators are entrepreneurial, because what they are doing is putting themselves out there in a bid to succeed. So, you don’t have to an entrepreneur to be a negotiator, but you must be entrepreneurial.

According to Lyve Alexis Pleshette, writing in the PowerHomeBizcom website:

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol69/entreskills.htm

there are five skills every entrepreneur needs:

1. Sales and marketing skills
2. Financial knowledge
3. Ability to self-motivate
4. Time management skills
5. Administration skills

To those very necessary skills, we would add negotiation skills. Entrepreneurs will not succeed in getting their businesses off the ground if they don’t negotiate for what they want.

Conversely, perhaps learning the skills of negotiation also increases your entrepreneurial spirit. As you become a more confident negotiator, you will also become more able to identify what you want and how to get it.

Your thoughts?

Interview with Dr. Chester L. Karrass

I know there are a lot of seminars which present nothing more than prevailing wisdom. Information that is perhaps useful, but not really insightful. I want to offer people something different; knowledge that goes beyond what they already know.

My research focuses on one core question: What makes someone a successful negotiator?

One of the first things I turned to in my research was an examination of how the great industrial pioneers who built this country succeeded. I found that when you look closely at the activities of Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford, or more recently, Sam Walton, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, they share an important trait. Each is highly entrepreneurial and they carry this entrepreneurial approach into their negotiations. This common negotiating approach is an important part of their success.

My research identifies the most successful negotiating approaches commonly used among people who consistently negotiate good agreements. A good deal of my investigation involves discussions with high-level executives from top American corporations. Once we start talking, most of these individuals are really amazed at how many negotiations they actually conduct every day.

I test my theories through a series of negotiating experiments and identify the most practical and successful negotiating skill sets. These specific negotiating skills are examined, explained and practiced in the Karrass Effective Negotiating Seminar. The result is that people learn how to apply these skills in their work. They become better negotiators. The results they are able to achieve immediately after attending the seminar prove this fact.

This new knowledge goes far beyond what people are able to pick up on their own. The seminar format and content appeals to business executives at the highest levels and also helps lower level managers understand how to think like top executives. The results of my research and experiments identify many practical negotiating skills that help people create better business agreements. These skills also help any business person look at business transactions in a different, more entrepreneurial way.

Negotiating Satisfaction

A negotiator should approach their negotiation much like an investor approaches the stock market. With today's wild swings in the stock market, this can be quite a challenge! But, here's what I'm talking about.

Prudent investors look to increase the value of their money. They look at growth potential, expected dividends, and the risks associated with an investment. Investors attempt to calculate the present value of the potential investment given the expected growth rate and dividend payouts. In this way, their investment decision is balanced against the associated risks; compared to other potential investments; and a decision is made to buy or not. Is this potential investment fairly priced, over-valued or under-valued?

A good negotiator does the same thing -- but on a very subjective level. Negotiators need to focus on the present value of satisfaction; determine the value of future satisfactions (and dissatisfactions); and compare this to making a deal, making no deal, or working to create a better deal.

This brings up a fundamental but subtle point about any negotiation. The flow of positive and negative satisfiers in any deal is in the mind of each participant. Some participants are optimistic about the future. Others are pessimistic. Some want immediate satisfaction, while others are prepared to wait.

Much of your strength as a negotiator comes from your ability to provide satisfaction to the other party. You can help increase the present value of the deal by getting the other party to place a higher value on future satisfaction. You can do the same thing by showing the other party that future dissatisfactions are unlikely.

Concessions can play a big role in creating a flow of satisfaction. But this flow between people is not a simple as it looks. Before you start making concessions to increase the other party's satisfaction, think about how you want to do it. Take into account who will benefit, in what way, when, and from what source.

A concession can provide satisfaction to the reciver now or later. Maybe the receiver wants to take it all at once or a little at a time. A concession can direct its benefits to the organization, specific parts of the organization, third parties, to the other negotiator on a personal level, or to all of them at once. Make sure your well meaning concession does indeed provide satisfaction -- and not doubt, or dissatisfaction. Concessions can move people closer together (raise satisfaction) or move people further apart (decrease satisfaction). Be careful!

Every negotiator has the same role to perform: to raise the present value of future satisfactions for the other person and help the other party reach a decision that will provide satisfaction to both parties.

Good Suppliers Make Customers Better

In the July, 2007 issue of GLOBAL LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES magazine, they report on their annual survey of the best suppliers in the transportation industry.

Out of the 1800 nominated suppliers they selected the best 100 and looked for what set them apart from their peers. The most common 10 qualities that users looked for in their vendors were:

Reliability (of course) --- "When a vendor has proved itself to be rock-solid, an enduring partnership is assured."

Repeatable excellence --- Good performance is expected routinely, but nearly a quarter of the finalists had a record of exceeding expectations on many occasions.

Value and cost savings --- This may be a good place to comment that you will not find in these top ten qualities any mention of lowest price, cheapest or lowest bid. The most important financial measure was creating value in increasing sales, production efficiency or other revenue related measurements.

Expertise and knowledge base --- Customers are looking to their suppliers to provide best practices specific to their market, product and industry.

Problem solving ability --- "Many of our nominations were based on companies that had experienced emergencies, but thanks to the supplier's response cost and delays were minimized."

Continuous improvement --- "Especially for technology vendors, companies want to see a plan for product development, so they know their needs will be met in the years ahead." Suppliers that help their customers be "first to market" will always be the least threatened in a competitive marketplace.

Support --- So many manufacturing and transport firms have experienced multiple rounds of downsizing that they now must rely on their vendors to do many of the functions they no longer have manpower to do. Winning suppliers now manage local and remote inventories, provide computer interfaces for the elimination of paperwork and quicker deliveries, assume maintenance functions……….

Positive culture --- The phrase most often mentioned in all of our nominations was "can do". "The greatest accolades were bestowed on those vendors that took on any challenge and found a way to accomplish a goal without complaints or excuses."

Global capabilities

Strong management --- Strong and long-term supplier leadership insures that no matter how many people in the selling functions leave and are replaced, agreements will be honored. In other words, there will be no erosion of commitment no matter who is managing the account.

I think these 10 winning characteristics provide a great checklist for self-evaluation, no matter where you are in the supply chain.

Remember, having all these positive characteristics does not matter much unless your other party is aware of them!

Negotiating Essential To Your Career

A recent newspaper article talked about the importance of 'negotiating' relationships inside your own organization. Getting promoted may depend upon your ability to negotiate internal relationships.

Telecommuters may go nowhere – career wise.
(Los Angeles Times – January 17, 2007)

Maybe Woody Allen was right, that 80% of life really is just about showing up. At least that's what most executives seem to think about people who work from home. Telecommuters are less likely to get promoted than peers who head into the office every day, according to a global survey of 1,300 executives. (Conducted by Los Angeles-based executive search firm Korn/Ferry International.)

Executives are concerned about promoting a hardcore telecommuter to a management position in which face time with employees is essential. . . 61% dinged telecommuters as being poorer bets for advancement.

If you're not cultivating the right network of people, you won't move up in any setting, whether you're telecommuting or not," said Jennifer Allyn, a human resource manager for accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which allows many employees to telecommute. But she and other executives recognize the pitfalls for workers, offering materials to help telecommuters and employees who travel frequently to maintain strong office relationships.

Employees are quick to cite the advantages of their home office routine, including no time lost to commuting, the ability to work in pajamas and bedroom slippers, and quieter surroundings. Human resource managers say telecommuting and other work-life programs cut turnover and improve productivity.

The findings of this study speak to a "general fear" that workers who have the boss's ear in the office will get promoted ahead of an off-site colleague who is doing better work. So if you are a telecommuter, beware. Find ways to regularly interact and negotiate with others in your organization. Use these opportunities to develop your relationships. Your career could depend on it!

Note from the Author . . .

We are very pleased with the readership of this site, but we would like to ask a favor.

If you don't have a comment on a particular article, how about a question regarding negotiation?

Perhaps you would share with the readership a difficult negotiating problem you have or are encountering.

We would like to hear from you. Is there a topic you would like us to discuss?

Jim Sauerwein