There is no denying that the world today is changing rapidly, and with- it various professions are being affected drastically. However, some elements remain the same. No matter what job you have today, you’ll always need to learn how to negotiate.
The art of negotiations is a crucial part of one’s daily life, whether its at work, home, or even with friends you’ll always find yourself negotiating. So, the question here is “can a person learn the art of negotiations or is it related to instinct and character?”. People’s negotiation skills are developed over time and affected by their experiences. Nevertheless, people can learn and improve their negotiation skills by understanding the main principles of negotiations.
The first principle in negotiation is never to mix how you feel about the person you are negotiating with and the subject matter. One must realize that since your dealing with another party, then you should consider the other party as your partner and not your enemy. In other words, if you could have ordered the other party what you want, you wouldn’t have got involved with any negotiations in the first place. Of course, it is easier said than done. However, it is one of the most crucial points in the success of negations.
The second principle focuses on the interests of the parties involved in the negotiations. When it comes to negotiations, a person must understand and examine the part of people involved in the negations, and not focus on positions. Understanding the interests of the other parties would eventually increase the possibility of reaching a win-win situation. Ensuring a successful negation means that a person must understand the needs and wants of the other parties.
The third principle focuses on developing criteria that must be fulfilled before talking about any suggested solutions. This point talks about deciding on what are the main criteria you want to fulfil before starting the negotiations; to avoid rushing into solutions that would force you to compromise. Coming up with solutions without having clear criteria is a widespread mistake when it comes to negations; usually, this type of negations result in a compromise rather than a win-win situation. Therefore, establishing criteria and not rushing into solutions would prevent a person from falling into the hole of compromisation. Also, this principle opens the world of lots of options to choose from and not get stuck to a specific solution. When all parties develop their clear criteria before negations, chances of reaching a win-win situation increases.
The fourth principle is to have more the one option to choose from, when it comes to negations, try to have different options that fulfil your criteria, because it merely gives the other party the sense of choice, and hence increases the rate of success.