Artykuły dot. negocjacji

Negotiator – the Profession

listopad 28, 2015 - Artykuły dot. negocjacji

Negotiator / Knowledge base  / Profession

Negotiator – the Profession

In this article I will share with you two remarks concerning professional negotiators. I will outline what I believe to be the key competencies, so that you will know what to develop to be more effective. I will also write about the role of negotiators in judicial contexts so as to describe where I see a potential for better cooperation between lawyers and negotiators. Key competences One could present a long list of competencies useful for negotiators backed up with fine arguments, but I have selected four which actually will boost your skills. They are all interlinked. Firstly, listening. By listening I mean total focus of one’s senses and feelings on the speaker. Amongst the received information should be content and emotions, as well as needs which stand behind them. Secondly, understanding. We understand someone when our thoughts on something are close to what someone else thinks about the subject. The challenge is that the speaker has to translate their thoughts into words (in the process, some facts will be withheld and some created on the spot, for various reasons) and we then interpret those words through our filters. This makes a long communication channel, prone to mistakes. A negotiator with professional knowledge will be able to receive the message possibly close to the intention of the speaker. Thirdly, the ability to look from another person’s perspective. This means the ability to feel someone’s situation and look with their eyes. It is a powerful way to understanding. Fourthly, rapid learning. Every case is different, even when a negotiator works in a small field or segment. This is because people are different and negotiators work with people. It is important to be able to quickly get to know people. This means getting past their walls, with which people shield themselves from strangers. For example, we restrain from talking about private matters when meeting someone for the first time. Another thing is discovering a human being without their mask (from the authentic side, not through the image they create). Invaluable role of negotiations (and mediations) I will now focus on aspect of cooperation between lawyers and negotiators. Just as hard skills are losing their primary position in business in favor of soft skills, so are negotiations based on legal code in favor of negotiations based on psychology. Both are of course needed, but we should know when each is most suitable to use. It is natural that the person leading a case (e.g. a lawyer) will talk with parties to determine if going to court is necessary. If they manage to reach an agreement, that is good. If they don’t, the case is directed to court. The thing is this rarely works the other way around. If a case is in court and the end is nowhere nearer, why not ask a negotiator to talk to parties and see what can be done? It is possible that such an intervention will result in an agreement. Having connections among negotiators and mediators, I observe many cases which could be potentially resolved through negotiations based on psychology. Meanwhile, some cases go on for years.