Negotiation

In the negotiation exercise, I feel that I did exceptionally well. I scored in the top 5 of those who had the same role as me. I was actually pretty surprised, Karen is an excellent negotiator and even though I didn't show it, it felt uneasy not knowing what she had on her paper. I know that I had to judge the importance of each area by how hard she pushed, her body language, and her tone. I made it a point to be more lenient on things that were not important to me, but make it seem like I was giving up a lot. This made it much easier to be more pushy when it came to what I wanted. When she made up some story about where she lived, and how it would affect her in the moving expense area, I countered with an equally elaborate made up response.

I didn't know Karen at all, so I can't say that I had any preconceived notions about how she would attempt to influence the negotiation. I had very little time to decide what she was like and how she was going to act. I must say that even on the walk out of the classroom, I began talking to her to see what I could do to exploit her weaknesses (not in a mean way). I feel like this is my general approach to many things in my life. I definitely understand the importance of knowing your opponent, because if you know everything about them while maintaining some sort of mystery about yourself, you will always have the upper hand. I was definitely satisfied with my performance. When we were done negotiating I let her in on some of the tactics that I had used. I think she was a bit surprised on how deceptive I was. I carefully chose the areas I would emphasize and the ones I would make to seem as unimportant in order to gain an advantage.

The main thing that I learned from this is no matter what tactic I used, I was most happy that in the end we were both pleased with the negotiation. Although it may seem like I was being deceptive to get my own way, I definitely made her feel like she was a winner as well. In a business setting it should always be both parties that walk away feeling good. If one leaves with a bitter taste in their mouth, it surely is the start to a shaky relationship.