Negotiation skills

What does "negotiation competence" mean?

Negotiation skills are an important key competence for specialists and managers. Those who can negotiate are better able to clearly define and express their interests. In addition, people who know how to use suitable negotiation styles, strategies or techniques in negotiations and are prepared to make compromises demonstrate a high level of negotiation competence. Competent negotiation also means that the parties involved understand how to derive firm positions or boundaries for the negotiation from their interests.

In summary, negotiation competence is an overarching soft skill that includes other skills such as assertiveness, clarity and determination. Of course, social skills such as empathy, the ability to engage in dialog and politeness are also among the most important prerequisites for conducting negotiations effectively.

Why negotiation skills are important

In everyday working life, there are always situations in which different opinions, plans, visions or ideas clash. Managers in particular are faced with major challenges. They have to represent their interests to management and, in turn, the interests of management to employees. In addition, negotiation situations arise with business partners or customers that need to be resolved time and again. If negotiations come to nothing, lead to an undesired goal or fail to materialize at all, this is as frustrating as it is ineffective. It is therefore all the more important that managers and employees understand how to protect their interests in negotiations and assert them using the appropriate techniques and methods. However, petty power games in which the wishes of one party are ruthlessly pursued must be avoided at all costs. At the end of a negotiation, there should always be compromises that satisfy both sides.

What negotiation strategies are there?  

Basically, negotiation strategies can be divided into four main areas: Giving in, pressure, evasion and partnership. In practice, however, there will rarely be a strategy that uses only one of these four components. For example, pure pressure in negotiations will rarely lead to the goal, while evasion alone will also not bring any results.

The Haufe Akademie offers suitable seminars and training courses in which you can learn practical negotiation strategies and apply them directly at work or in your private life.

Can you learn to negotiate?

People like to talk about the negotiating skills that some people are supposed to have by nature. Certainly, some of us are more talented when it comes to achieving our own goals. But professional and competent negotiation can be learned. Everyone can strengthen their individual skills, their communication, their rhetoric, their appearance and their competence so that they go into their next negotiation with more confidence.

The Haufe Akademie gives you the opportunity to successfully train your personal negotiation skills. Do you still have questions about individual offers or do you need an overview of further training with the Haufe Akademie? Then please write us an e-mail or contact us directly by phone !

Acquire negotiation skills now and develop key competencies effectively and practically with the Haufe Akademie .