What is Your Negotiation Style?

What is Your Negotiation Style?

negotiation style

A good negotiation style can come in handy in both your career, and entire life. But just as your personality differs from everyone else’s, your negotiating style may vary too. As an attorney, you will discover you have to wear many hats throughout the years, according to each case. And depending on what is at stake in a negotiation, if you want to reach your goal, you may need to be adept at employing in a different style to meet the conflict at hand.

The Aggressor

Perhaps you lean toward an aggressive style in negotiating or must use that tactic to push the process along. This usually means making it obvious that you won’t back down easily, and you should be comfortable issuing ultimatums. Others may consider you to be making threats—even if they are somewhat veiled—but in some cases (and depending on what your client wants too), it may be in your best interest. Even with a more aggressive stance, you may be able to promote greater diplomacy and reach a resolution more expediently.

The Collaborator

If you find yourself in a more relaxed meeting during a legal negotiation, such as a mediation, working in a collaborative manner may help bring everyone to the table in a motivated fashion, promote a faster resolution, and also help preserve long-term relationships—whether in dealing with a business partner during a dissolution or contract revision, or a life partner, during a divorce.

The Cooperator

As the cooperative negotiator, you tend to worry about all sides, employing a milder demeanor, and showing concern for everyone involved. In this role, you may work harder to reduce any signs of tensions on the disputing parties, but the real key to this style is inducing the others to cooperate in reaching an agreement.

The Competitor

This negotiation style tends to be flashier, encompassing many of the same qualities as the aggressive negotiator, with an intense focus on the deal at hand. If you are this type of negotiator, you may talk more than you listen, and spend little time worrying about the other side. There may be little wiggle room for bargaining in your mind, and hostility for the other party may even be common.

Greater Triumph is Accompanied by the Win-Win Attitude

You will probably find the greatest success in being well-rounded when it comes to negotiations, acting in the best interest of your client—and especially if they are interested in continuing any sort of relationship with the with the other party involved. Remembering that most parties will consider themselves to be right can be extremely helpful, along with trying to put yourself in their shoes in understanding why they are suing—or why they performed the action that prompted a lawsuit to begin with. No matter what your ‘style’ is, the best qualities you can have as a negotiator are good listening skills, understanding, a constant aptitude for learning, and a propensity for logical argument.

Call Us Now for More Information

Are you interested in becoming a skilled negotiator? Our mission at CDTA College of Law is to educate, train, and develop extraordinary legal advocates. Your legal education will be comprised of bar-tested academic subjects, skills training, and values reinforcement. Upon completion of your 4-year course of study you will be fully qualified to take and pass the California Bar examination. Call us today at (760) 342-0900 or find out more online here.

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