Have you ever wondered if your negotiation style is too tough or too accommodating? Too cooperative or too selfish? You might strive for an ideal balance, but, chances are, your innate and learned tendencies will have a strong impact on how you negotiate.
Wise negotiators seek to identify these tendencies and enhance them according to the situation.
Individual differences in “social motives,” or our preferences for certain kinds of outcomes when we interact with other people, strongly affect how we approach negotiation, according to Carnegie Mellon University professor Laurie R. Weingart. Drawing on the social motives that drive our behavior, Weingart and other psychologists have pinpointed four basic negotiating personalities:
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Four Basic Negotiator Personality Types: How These Archetypes Impact Your Negotiation Style and Choice of Negotiation Strategy
Individualists concentrate primarily on maximizing their own outcomes and show little concern for others’ outcomes. According to studies of businesspeople and students, about half of U.S. negotiators have an individualist negotiation style. Instead of creating value, individualists tend to claim it, argue their positions forcefully, and, at times, make threats.
Cooperators focus on maximizing their own and their counterparts’ results. Composing about 25% to 35% of the U.S. population studied, cooperators are motivated to ensure that each party in a negotiation receives her fair share. Cooperators are more open to value-creating strategies—such as exchanging information and making multi-issue offers—than individualists are. (Note that although individualists outnumber cooperators in the United States, in other cultures, cooperators can be more prevalent than individualists.)
Competitives are motivated to maximize the difference between their own and others’ outcomes. Because of their strong desire to “win big,” competitives—about 5% to 10% of U.S. study participants—tend to engage in behavior that’s self-serving and that blocks collaborative solutions.
Altruists, a rare breed in studies of American negotiators, strive to maximize their counterparts’ outcomes rather than their own. Though few of us are pure altruists, virtually all negotiators behave altruistically under certain conditions, as when dealing with loved ones or those less fortunate than we are.
Is one negotiation style “better” than another? Most research suggests that negotiators with a primarily cooperative style are more successful than hard bargainers at reaching novel solutions that improve everyone’s outcomes. Negotiators who lean toward cooperation also tend to be more satisfied with the process and their results, according to Weingart.
At the same time, claiming value and lobbying tenaciously for your position can be equally important negotiation strategies. So, strive for balance: focus on building a cooperative relationship and creating value, then work to claim as much as you can of that value for yourself.
Can you identify your negotiation style? Share it with us in the comments.
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Build powerful negotiation skills and become a better dealmaker and leader. Download our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
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Claim your FREE copy: Negotiation Skills
Build powerful negotiation skills and become a better dealmaker and leader. Download our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Adapted from “Is Your Bargaining Style Holding You Back?” First published in the Negotiation Briefings newsletter, December 2009.
Individualistic leadership styles might have become more isolated over the years due to the historic popularity of charismatic and transformative leadership styles (as demonstrated by such memorable leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John D. Rockefeller). However, individualistic personalities might be becoming more influential due to the high demand in business industries for highly skilled personnel, especially in areas of technology and scientific development and research. I wonder if individualistic leadership styles will hold up against more competitive personality types as demand for these particular talents goes up according to an increased technological focus in the modern workforce.
Can anyone help explain the difference between Individualists and Competitors? Is it just that the individualist is indifferent to the outcome of the other party and the competitive actually wants the other party to “lose”? I’m sure there’s some nuance there that I’m not seeing.
Negotiation Strategies and Concepts you ever wondered will have a strong impact. Drawing on the social motives that drive our behavior, Weingart and other psychologists and negotiators have an individualist negotiation style. The parallel you directed countless theatre plays and operas all over Europe. Best wishes to you and your family and all the best to you as well.
The common mantra”It’s just business, it’s not personal” enables the third piece of the Dark Triad in human psychology by creating a justification for the removal of compassion during negotiations. Narcissistic, Machiavellian, and lacking empathy. This seems to be related to the large percentage of Individualists.
It was a thorough research, in family negotiations I am an example of an altruist negotiator. you can’t win your own family but take the best options possible.
One big disadvantage of some one who is a individualist is that people get tired of them. If you are always 100% driven towards your own goals, no one will want to do business with you.