What kind of negotiator are you?

Hello! 

This time I am talking about negotiation styles in my blog. We started the lesson by group discussions that were supposed to make us understand what type of negotiators we currently are and what skills we would like to improve. I felt like this exercise was useful as it introduced different dimensions to negotiation and helped to recognize these dimensions in our own life. On the lecture I felt like the accommodating and collaborative styles were the most natural ways to negotiate. However, I think that all the styles are needed and therefore I’d like to improve especially my competing negotiation skills as I believe these skills would be useful in my future career. What is more, I would also like to further improve my collaborative negotiation skills on the short term as I feel like this area is very crucial and can be utilized in everyday situations. 

On the lecture I got a feeling that the different negotiation profiles are to a great extent generalizations. I think that in many situations the negotiator uses many different styles in order to reach the goal. I believe that the choice of negotiation style greatly depends on the person you are negotiating with in addition to the situation and the matter discussed. For example a competitive negotiator is likely to use different styles in order to get a win depending on who he is negotiating with. 

After the firs exercise we had a group negotiation. We were representing a company and the groups were divided according to the city in which we were working according to the assignment. My group was representing the company office in Lappeenranta. We were to discuss about the arrangements of the company day. We were negotiating about wether it should be arranged or not and how often and where it should take place. There was also a surprise moment which were given to us just before the meeting (Lappeenranta office was to be closed in a matter of months =D). The negotiation went well however and the whole group came to an agreement fast. It was decided that the company day would be organized every other month and that there would be a Skype meeting on the months in which there was no company day. The purpose of the company day was also increased as clients were decided to be invited into the day in addition to family members (some of us had problems with leaving children to home while traveling to another city). Also the place would differ equally between Tampere and Helsinki and there would also be a few meetings on a summer cottage or other place every year. 

I think that the nature of this exercise was very collaborative and accommodating as we tried to sole each other’s problems and general problems in an innovative way. I think this was a good style because the atmosphere was warm and understanding. I also feel that this kind of negotiations are common in working life. In my own experience it is good to preserve a positive and collaborative atmosphere with the colleagues when negotiating. This usually leads to the best solution for everybody and also avoids conflicts between the negotiations. However, this greatly depends on the nature of the top under negotiation in addition to external factors or history which might affect the negotiation. 

That’s all for this week. Have a good exam week everybody!