Do you ever notice how anxiety affects a crucial conversation?
Studies repeatedly demonstrate that people who seem anxious and/or angry before any crucial
conversation negotiate less effectively. Because negotiation happens every day with every employee and customer, this critical skill is a must-have. A business simply cannot survive poor
negotiation.
We as leaders have a few options:
- We can hire individuals who negotiate well;
- We can implement better training and mentoring with strong experiential learning;
- We can bring in third-party negotiators.
- We can ensure a minimally stressful work environment.
I encourage you to read Alison Wood Brooks’ article in the December 15 issue of Harvard Business Review:
“People experiencing anxiety made weaker first offers, responded more quickly to each move the counterpart made, and were more likely to exit negotiations early (even though their instructions clearly warned that exiting early would reduce the value they received from the negotiation). Anxious negotiators made deals that were 12% less financially attractive than those made by negotiators in the neutral group.”
To read the article:
https://hbr.org/2015/12/emotion-and- the-art- of-negotiation