Negotiation for Success

Problem-Solution Essay

Every time you need to resolve a problem or reach an agreement with other people, you need to be able to negotiate. We need to negotiate every day with our co-workers, our boss, and people from other businesses. Negotiating is a skill that you will use often as a professional and knowing how to negotiate effective will help ensure your success in business. The problem is that many people are not very good negotiators. That is because many people pursue only two approaches to negotiation; the hard approach and the soft approach.

If you are a hard negotiator, you are concerned with winning and with reaching the decision that is best for you. You are not very concerned about the other person or your relationship with that person. Hard negotiators will concentrate on getting the decision they want. They will not stop until the other person agrees. In the end, hard negotiators may get what they want but they may hurt their relationship with the other person and that person may not want to work with them in the future. In contrast, soft negotiators are more concerned with avoiding conflict. They do not want to have a conflict with the other person. This approach to negotiation is not good because soft negotiators often agree to decisions that are bad for them or bad for their business. Subsequently, they might be unhappy or disappointed because they believe they have lost the negotiation.

Instead of a hard or soft approach, successful negotiators; like myself, take a win-win approach. In the win-win approach, negotiators try to confer on a decision and to agree on something that benefits both sides involved. They also try to keep a good working relationship with each other so they can continue to work together in the future. How can you negotiate a solution that is a win-win for both people? There are two important techniques that will help you to do this. The first technique is to listen and to understand each other. The second technique is to work together to reach a solution. A solution that is good for both people. Let’s look at an example: imagine you work for a company that makes clothing and to make your clothing you need to buy fabric from another company. Let’s say you like to buy fabric from the EAST DANE because this company makes good fabric and sale at a fair price. But recently, you have had a problem. The problem is that the EAST DANE company has been laid sending you the fabric that you need. This is causing you problems because your company cannot make your clothing on time. So, what should you do? The first thing you need to do is to make sure you understand each side of the problem. To do that you need to listen carefully to each other. First, you should listen carefully to the EAST DANE side of the problem. The EAST DANE might say: Oh! We are having problems with the output because the machines at my company are so old and so on. Do not interrupt him or talk about your side of the problem. Instead, just listen and make sure you understand him. After you have heard and understood the other person, you should explain your circumstances. When you do this, do not blame the other person for the problem. If you blame the person, they may get angry and may not want to talk to you anymore. One way to avoid blaming someone is to use “I” statements. That means you start sentences with the word “I” instead of “You”. Do not say to the EAST DANE that you are causing us problems. That might make the EAST DANE angry. Instead, you could say: I am worried because the fabric is laid and we cannot make our clothing. This way you are explaining how you feel and how the problem affects you.

Now that you both listened and explained your sides of the problem, you are ready to find a solution together. This step can be difficult because each person may want a different solution but instead of arguing for your solution, you should talk about all the possible solutions and then agree on one that is good for both of you. For example, both you and the EAST DANE might agree that you will buy some fabric from another company now and some fabric from the EAST DANE company later.

As a result, in this solution you both win because you get the fabric you need now and the EAST DANE can continue to sell you fabric in the future. As you can see if both people in a negotiation try to understand each other and work together then both of them can win and feel happy with the solution.