Anxiety is an enemy of business negotiations – how to deal with it?
Anxiety often accompanies the process of preparation for business negotiations and often adversely affects their progress and results. In order to ease their fears, the negotiators make decisions that may torpedo their efforts – for example they present too low first bids, react too quickly or make violent concessions that lower the achievable result.
How to deal with the feeling of anxiety and how to make it an ally in the negotiation process? Below you will find the three most effective methods.
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Good preparation for business negotiations
Anxiety immediately before the meeting or during negotiation has obviously a negative impact on performance. However, feeling anxious before business negotiations, thanks to the phenomenon called pessimization, may positively affect their course. Anticipating potential difficulties increases motivation. Thanks to it, negotiators or members of negotiation teams pay much more attention to the proper preparation of the entire process and the development of BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement). WITH BATNA, we know what options we have, even if we end negotiations without agreement.
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Frequent negotiation practice
Building self-confidence through practice is one of the best methods of dealing with anxiety. Numerous studies show that anxiety causes the negotiators to temporarily lower their faith in their own skills. At the same time, we must realize that negotiations are a process that generates a certain level of conflict and discomfort, we need to get used to them. How to achieve it? The best method is regular negotiation training, thanks to which it is possible to eliminate the negative effects caused by feelings of anxiety.
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Focus on opportunities
Negotiators often extremely focused on likely threats and negative results of business negotiations. They spend long hours analyzing possible mistakes that they can commit in the negotiation process and on analysis of potential risks. Such an attitude makes the feeling of anxiety increase. And as a result, the likelihood of failure also increases.
Focusing on opportunities allows you to effectively eliminate anxiety. Thinking about opportunities facilitates the preparation of an effective negotiation strategy and selection of the best techniques. The result is a higher probability of success. And that’s what it’s all about!
In Eveneum we conduct effective negotiation training, individual coaching and assist in negotiations. We pay special attention to:
- preparation for business negotiations with the Eveneum Method and
- effective negotiation training – eg Negotiating Coaching
- supporting negotiators during real negotiations through the Negotiation Shadow program