You are on page 1of 4

What Makes A Good Negotiator?

What are the traits of an effective negotiator? Do attorneys, politicians, realtors, car
salesmen, or other professions automatically make a person a good negotiator?
Not necessarily. Do certain professions receive specific negotiation training? Not
always. Listen to what attorney and author Leo Reilly had to say about negotiation
training in his book, How to Out Negotiate Anyone (Even a Car Dealer), I
negotiated the mergers of businesses, the dissolution of partnerships, and how
much audited taxpayers would pay to the IRS. And, like almost every lawyer or
businessperson I have ever met, I did this with no formal instruction on how to
negotiate. Reilly goes on to say, Negotiating is a fundamental business skill, yet
most of us are ignorant of how to handle the most basic negotiations.
This brings us back to the question, What makes a good negotiator? The truth is
you will find negotiators in all shapes and sizes. Negotiators will use different
strategies, tactics, and traits to successfully negotiate various conflicts, deals,
purchases, and anything else negotiable. There is no one size fits all. In fact, you
may find successful negotiators that abhor other successful negotiators practices.
While both may be successful, they may use completely different styles, strategies,
and tactics to get the job done.
We are still left with the initial question. To supply an answer and provide
something that we can all benefit from regarding our own negotiation styles and
practices, I looked to three opinion polls that Chester L. Karrass wrote about in his
book The Negotiating Game. These polls looked at attorneys, accountants, retail
buyers and real-estate brokers to see how they viewed negotiations. Additionally,
the literature of diplomacy, business and collective bargaining was probed for a
deeper insight into the personality makeup of successful men and women in
general. Karrass writes that as a result of the studies, the ability to measure
bargaining skill objectively and to understand how the attitudes of these various
professional groups differ with respect to the qualities necessary for a first-rate
negotiator was now available.
Nearly five hundred negotiators took part in the survey, and it not surprising that
there were significant differences between the answers of the various groups.
Industrial negotiators, such as salespeople, engineers, buyers and contractmanagement people differed in their responses compared to commercial
negotiators such as attorneys, accountants, real-estate brokers and retail-clothing
buyers. As a group, those in commercial activities placed greater emphasis on
analytical ability, self-esteem, and patience. Attorneys and accountants see
negotiation as a problem-solving affair rather than as a quest for reaching
objectives. No other professions surveyed were so emphatic on these points.
Karrass reports that this study provides two clear lessons: 1) the difference in
opinion between various professionals is significant, and 2) when members of

different professions assist one another at the bargaining table they are likely to
view negotiations traits in diverse ways. We are now back where we started;
acknowledging that there are many ways to negotiate and successful negotiators
come in all shapes and sizes and possess various traits.
However, the professionals that were surveyed, and who should know the most
about negotiation, collectively believe that the following seven traits are most
important:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Planning Skill
Ability to think clearly under stress
General practical intelligence
Verbal ability
Product knowledge
Personal integrity
Ability to perceive and exploit power

This is not a bad list. Im sure we can all agree that these traits are important
during negotiations. Are they the be all and end all of negotiation? No. Are there
other traits we can develop to improve our negotiation success? Certainly. The list
does give us a good start in answering our question of what makes a good
negotiator. It would benefit anyone who wanted to improve their negotiation skills to
critique these traits within themselves and work toward developing these traits to
their maximum potential.
Besides the list above, I think it would be beneficial to examine all the traits and
how they were ranked by attorneys in the survey. The following is pulled from the
Appendix of The Negotiating Game. The traits are ranked from highest
importance to lowest among each group.
TASK-PERFORMANCE GROUP

Planning
Problem-solving
Product Knowledge
Initiative
Reliability
Goal-striving
Stamina

AGGRESSION GROUP

Power exploitation
Persistence
Team leadership
Competitiveness
Courage

Risk-taking
Defensiveness

SOCIAL GROUP

Personal integrity
Open-mindedness
Tact
Patience
Personal attractiveness
Trust
Compromising
Appearance

COMMUNICATION GROUP

Verbal clarity
Listening
Warm rapport
Coordinating
Debating
Role-playing
Nonverbal

SELF-WORTH GROUP

Gain opponents respect


Self-esteem
Self-control
Ethical standard
Personal dignity

Risk being disliked


Gain bosss respect
Organizational rank

THOUGHT GROUP

Clear thinking under stress


Analytical ability
Insight
General practical intelligence
Decisiveness
Negotiating experience
Broad perspective
Education

There you have it. Different groups of traits that are important to negotiations, and
how surveyed attorneys ranked the traits when asked, what makes a good
negotiator? We may never have a definitive answer to the question, but I can
guarantee that anyone who focuses on improving the traits listed above will not
only become a better negotiator and attorney, but a better person and member of
society, and I think we can all agree that would be a worthy goal.

You might also like