What factors can you identify that will affect/impact your negotiation skills or strategy, as well as your options and outcomes?

Based on your reading and the assessment, prepare a 3-4 page paper to address the following issues:
Discuss the results from the negotiator assessment. Consider your negotiating style in the four key areas (creating value, claiming it, empathizing with others, and asserting yourself) and discuss what strategies you can use to strengthen each particular area.
Discuss your responses to questions and the feedback provided. What factors can you identify that will affect/impact your negotiation skills or strategy, as well as your options and outcomes?

My results from the assessment:

Heres how you compare with other test takers on both dimensions:

Wherever you are on these scales, try to stretch yourself in both directions by being simultaneously more empathetic and more assertive. Review questions 1, 2, 4, and 9 below. Try one or two new moves in your next negotiation and make sure to really do it. Youll be doubly rewarded. Strengthening your interpersonal skills leads to better outcomes.

Responses to questions
Now lets look at how you answered each question and consider how you might adapt your approach to meet different goals.

1. Your place or mine?

Your answer: I prefer a neutral site, where no one has an advantage.

Sometimes (in salary negotiations, for example) the venue isnt even up for discussion. But conventional wisdom says that when you do have a choice, you want to meet on your own turf to maintain a power advantage. To a point, that can work. If youre selling a product or a service, for instance, introducing customers or clients to the team who will be fulfilling the contract may seal the deal.

But meeting at their office can show flexibility and a willingness to go the extra mile, which can be equally important if you are wooing a prospective customer or investor. You may even gain an edge by being at their place, because youre likely to learn a lot more about who they are. And if you have a tense relationship, its easier to walk out of someone elses office than to storm out of your own.

2. Outnumber the other side?

Your answer: It doesnt matter much if Im on the bigger team or the smaller one.

Yes, there can be strength in numbers, especially if different members of your negotiating team have special expertise or they all will play a role in implementation. Bringing an impressive team to the table can also signal your commitment to the deal. And for complex transactions, its helpful to have colleagues who can coach you during private caucuses.

But with a larger team, you must have a clear plan for managing the process. And its essential to resolve any internal differences about the deal beforehand. You dont want to invite the other side to play divide and conquer.

Small, well-prepared teams are usually more agile, provided they have been given the discretion to craft creative solutions. In todays fast-moving world, the ability to respond quickly to new proposals is a definite advantage at the bargaining table.

3. Make the first offer?

Your answer: I like to make the first offer in order to shape the other sides expectations.

Street wisdom says never to make the first offer, because doing so signals weakness. Plus, the other side might surprise you by offering you a better deal than you would have asked for.

But there can be good reasons for going first. Studies show that initial demands strongly influence counter-offers. Working from your number is advantageous if you can provide a plausible reason for what you put forth. In short, where you begin often affects where you end up.

4. Your approach in the beginning?

Your answer: I state my position strongly early on but may become more flexible if my counterpart seems trustworthy.

While youre working out the substantive terms of a deal, youre also implicitly negotiating how to negotiate. Will this interaction be an exercise in joint problem-solving, or will it be a hardball haggle?

You cant unilaterally decide that question. Whoever sits across the table is likely to have opinions about what the issues are and how to handle them. And peoples approaches to negotiation differ. Some are collaborative. Others are not.

Its always in your interest to elicit constructive behavior if you can. But doing so presents difficult choices. For instance, its unrealistic to expect other people to be more cooperative than you are but being open and flexible may be misread as a sign of weakness.

Before committing to one relational approach or another, try to get a good read on the other party. Even when youre working under a deadline, take some time to establish a positive atmosphere. Dont jump to conclusions about your counterpart. What looks like hostility might really be defensiveness (or simply a bad day for the other party). Once you both get settled, try making a small concession and see if it is reciprocated. If it is, then youre most likely headed in the right direction. If not, you may need to express yourself more firmly.

5. Address easy or hard issues first?

Your answer: I prefer to start with the easier issues in order to build a relationship.

There are good arguments for all these options. But keep two important caveats in mind: First, you may not know which issues are going to be hard and which will be easy until you sit down to negotiate. So be prepared for surprises, pleasant and otherwise. Second, dont fall into the trap of dealing with one issue at a time. Doing so might seem orderly, but it basically sets up a series of win-lose transactions. Its far better to evaluate different packages of items in the aggregate, in order to enable value-creating give-and-take.

6. Show your cards or hide them?

Your answer: I acknowledge some of my prioritiesespecially the obvious onesbut also keep some close to the vest since the other side may exploit my needs.

If only one party knows the others preferences, he or she can both expand the value pie and capture most of it. The party in the dark may be left only with crumbs.

People understand this intuitively, which explains why many seemingly simple transactions are protracted. If no one reveals preferences, no one gets exploited. But potential value may be squandered, too. Taking the initiative to share information is usually wise, but do it carefully, step by step, to encourage reciprocity.

7. Start high or low?

Your answer: I ask for much more than I expect the other side to give in order to leave room for concessions later on.

Figuring out how much to ask for is like judging your driving speed as you hurry to a meeting. You probably can exceed the posted limit, but not by so much that youre stopped by the police, given a ticket, and forced to reschedule your appointment.

In negotiation, there are two kinds of upper limits. You hit one of them if your demand is taken seriously and the other party walks away. You may try to lure them back, though doing so will make them skeptical about whatever demands you make going forward.

Here’s the other upper limit: A bold offer may provoke an equally aggressive counteroffer. Perhaps both sides can back down by making concessions, inch by inch. But that kind of process can drive out value-creation.

The punch line? Research suggests that the higher your aspirations, the more youre likely to get. Thats the good news. The bad news is that youll also be more likely to walk away empty-handed.

8. Increase your demands?

Your answer: I sometimes do.

This tactic is straight out of the hard-bargaining playbook. Its supposed to have two advantages. One, of course, is getting a better outcome on that particular issue. The other is signaling that tomorrows terms will be even worse if agreement isnt reached today. Its a high-risk move, though, as it forces the other party to relinquish something that they believed theyd already secured. It undermines trust.

Nevertheless, its sometimes appropriate. Lets say that youre negotiating a service contract and youve provisionally made certain concessions. If another provider subsequently offers more generous terms, you can reasonably ask the first candidate to match or top the competing bid.

Its also both fair and wise to increase your demands when you and the

How you can incorporate at least two of the tips provided in the Can we call a truce article with the results and feedback from the negotiator assessment to more effectively deal with conflict in the workplace?

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