The act of negotiation is a blend of science, art and intuition. It is one of the biggest cornerstone of human interaction, a skill that shapes our personal, societal and professional relationships with one another.
Negotiation can simply be said to be a means of reaching an agreement between two or more parties involved.
In the current state of my country where the economic situation keeps deteriorating by the day coupled with the constant act of traders trying to link every price increase to the fluctuations of our NGN/USDT pair, negotiation is sure an important skill to survive.
Goods and services rise in cost daily, often without justification as traders blame the dollar rate increases even when it didn't happen, so you sure know we need this for our survival, hehehe.
The art of Negotiation however goes beyond just the haggling of high prices goods are placed at; it spans through everything in life even to high-stakes political deals. Negotiation most times isn't just about winning or achieving your pre-planned goal but rather, it involves finding a balance between the parties involved.
Concepts Of Negotiation
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Interest: The parties involved in negotiation have defined goals they are willing to achieve. Having a defined interest before starting the art of negotiating is the good way of a negotiator.
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Leverage: This could be said to be the edge you have above other parties in negotiation. It defines your negotiating power, what exactly can you offer? That! Is your leverage.
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Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement: All negotiations must not be successful. The question every negotiator gets to answer becomes what best alternative he has when this fails.
Weighing the merits and demerits also strengthen your zeal to see to the success of a particular negotiation.
Understanding these concepts help negotiators to be flexible during negotiations.
Qualities Of A Good Negotiator
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Preparation: This can be said to be the foundation of negotiation. Going into a negotiation deal without preparation is more like preparing to lose the negotiation already because it simply means you don't have a strategy.
Preparation makes you clarify your objectives, your priorities and your best alternative should the deal break off. -
Mastering Communication: Negotiation is mostly about talking but doesn't always should be you talking rather involves body movements atimes.
Body movements, eye contacts and tone of voice sometimes convey deeper meanings than the words themselves.
Effective communication in negotiation involves articulating your own words well and actively listening to the other parties talk their positions too. -
Flexibility: Negotiation comes with unexpected twists; it's not always a rigid act as this could easily lead to stalemates.
Negotiating with open mind willing to accept an alternative provided it suits you is a quality of a good negotiator. -
Knowing When To Walk Away: Not every negotiation results to a satisfactory agreement.
Knowing when to give up a particular negotiation is also what a good negotiator ought to have, however, it should be a last resort. -
Continuous Improvement: Taking a moment to always go over your strategies, knowing what worked, what didn't and what you could do differently next time is the way of a good negotiator.
Effective negotiation is an art that requires a combination of preparation, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and strategic thinking and whenever one is lacking, you risk not just losing the negotiation but also risk damaging relationships.
This is my entry for today's December inleo prompts
You too can check it out.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day 👍
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