Balance Negotiation Power

Negotiation requires a lot of give and take. At different times, the power shift can be in your favour or against based on how you implement the negotiation skills. The following strategies can be implemented to balance this imbalance of power – 

Protect: Emphasise on protecting your interests by refusing to be swayed away by arguments from the opposite party.

Impose: It may be beneficial to impose cultural norms on other parties, e.g., asking for a contract.

Exploit: When you have bargaining power, exploit it.  It can be beneficial to use other party’s cultural norms against them and this forms a major part of negotiation skills. E.g.: Forcing them to concede in order to save face.

Modify: You may have to alter/modify your negotiation skills, thinking, expectations and behaviour to suit the other party and the situation.

Respect: You may choose to express overt respect and acknowledge the foreign culture to integrate yourself with the other party.

Challenge: You can politely challenge or call into question your opponent’s cultural paradigms. E.g.: Asking them why they are so concerned with time constraints.

Explain: Sometimes you may be required to explain certain cultural paradigms that might constraint the negotiation.

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Exchange: Acknowledging and accepting the cultural differences of both the parties can be a good way of moving towards resolution.

Integrate: When counter party holds more power, it may be beneficial for you to adapt to their cultural negotiation style.

Each of these strategies also depends on, the trust afforded by each party, the complexity of negotiation and how much the parties depend on each other.

Originally Published on LinkedIn.