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Several years ago, only a few researchers paid much attention to the role of emotions in negotiation. How feelings can influence the way people overcame conflicts, reached agreements, and created value when dealing with another party was virtually the least among the things they wanted to invest their time to research. Rather, they paid more attention, particularly, to the ways in which parties can identify and consider alternatives, use leverage, and execute the choreography of offers and counteroffers. In fact, negotiation was more understood from the perspective of how to get the most money or profit from the process.
But in the recent years, several researchers have examined how specific emotions such as anger, sadness, disappointment, anxiety, envy, excitement, and regret can affect the behavior of negotiators. What happens when these emotions are felt by parties in negotiation? What happens when they are expressed? For instance, research shows that those prone to anxiety will have to take steps in dealing with this otherwise, they will continually experience suboptimal negotiation outcomes when brokering a deal.
Alison Wood Brooks, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, conducted an experiment in one of her MBA classes. She paired her students, each to read a different account of a (fictitious) troubled relationship between a supplier and a client. The students were told that the two parties signed a detailed contract eight months earlier, but now they’re at odds over several of the terms (sales volume, pricing, product reliability, and energy efficiency specs).
Each student assumed the role of either client or supplier and received confidential information about company’s finances and politics. Then, she tasked each pair with renegotiating. Of course, this is a process that could lead to an amended deal, termination of the contract, or expensive litigation.
The interesting thing about this simulation is that one side of each pair was given top-secret instructions before the exercise began: “Please start the negotiation with a display of anger. You must display anger for a minimum of 10 minutes at the beginning.” In fact, they were also given specific tips for showing anger like interrupt the other party, call her “unfair” or “unreasonable,” blame her personally for the disagreement, raise your voice.
The pairs were spread over the building in such a way that they can’t see other student’s behavior. After 30 minutes, she brought them back to the class. Guess the outcome of the simulation.
During the debriefing, the pairs were surveyed to see how angry they felt and how they fared in resolving the problem. It was discovered that the more anger the parties showed, the more likely it was that the negotiation ended poorly – for example, in litigation or an impasse (no deal).
Control your anger when negotiating
Anger is a strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism: the feeling that makes someone want to hurt other people, to shout etc. It is obviously a negative feeling. If one views negotiation from the perspective of competition and not collaboration they will probably believe that anger is a productive emotion. But successful and well experienced negotiators concentrate on expanding the pie through collaboration rather than quickly high-jacking the lion share.
Of course, anger could produce concession from the other party, but you will probably have damaged a long-term relationship. If one allows the proceedings to escalate because he is angry, one will end up bringing the negotiation to an impasse.
Anger will make it difficult for one to be mindful of his own interests during the negotiation as well as judging properly other parties’ interests. More so, angry negotiators may seek to harm or revenge against their counterparts, even though a more cooperative approach might increase the value that both sides can claim from the negotiation.
Building rapport before, during, and after a negotiation can reduce the odds that the other party will become angry. Smart negotiators engender cooperation by helping their counterparts see that they are seeking a win-win solution rather than trying to get a bigger slice from the fixed pie.
In heated negotiations, hitting the pause button can be the smartest play. You may not close the deal in one day, so, deciding to take a break might be helpful in allowing the tension cool off. Moreover, when you feel pleased about an outcome, it may be wise to keep it to yourself. This will help reduce the odds of stirring up envy, anger, and tension during the negotiation.
Godwin Erondu
Erondu is a business coach and CEO of Wisdom Coach International
