SUMMARY NOTES FROM UDEMY COURSE TAKEN ON “NEGOTIATION: UNDERSTANDING PERSONALITY TYPES FOR EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATION” BY GAVIN PRESMAN

“We negotiate from the cradle to the grave, when we were infants we traded tears for attention”. - Chester Carras.

Over time, we have once or twice found ourselves in various situations that required us to ‘come to terms with a friend, roommate, colleague, or even a total stranger. In essence, every statement or bargain, interrogation or inquiry made to get something done or make the other party see from your perspective, contributes to the ever wavy process of negotiation.

Negotiation is a discussion used to settle disputes and reach agreements between two or more sides. Negotiation is a processor “give and take” resulting in a compromise where each side concedes the benefit of everyone involved. To be a successful negotiator, you need a variety of skills - one of which is understanding the personality type of your fellow negotiator (or the other person you are negotiating with).

Negotiation simply is the art of coming to terms with closing deals. Closed deals, unfortunately, come to be after a series of endless dialogues agreements and disagreements, some of which at one point or another may have required that the negotiators take a couple of recesses and session breaks. In the negotiation practice, people from diverse personalities from diverse backgrounds, cultural beliefs, idiosyncrasies and religions meet at the same table for just one goal- make the other party do what they want. This one goal may be marred where negotiators constantly disagree on certain terms, or where one negotiator is not willing to submit to the proposal of the other negotiator - though, negotiation is not a battle where total submission by one person is required.

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UNDERSTANDING PERSONALITY TYPES

However one negotiates, understanding the other party’s personality is very crucial. Understanding your personality and the other parties allows one to adapt more effectively to become a sound and better negotiator. Successful negotiators can endure, engage, and excellently convince the other party regardless of his initial stance. Where there are two negotiators of absolutely conflicting energies, such negotiating environment tend to be stricter and tenser than where we have two or more negotiators who understand the other party’s personality well enough to allow for a less tensed condition and a subsequently productive negotiation.

In any system or circumstance, the individual with the widest range of responses is likely to control the system. For a negotiator to succeed in his field, especially where he is exposed to meeting colleagues with repulsive personality traits, he must be able to effectively adapt. Drawing an inference from Darwin’s theory of evolution, which is very much grounded in the notion of ‘survival of the fittest', it can be deduced that it is not only the fittest, nor is it the strongest that will survive, instead the most adaptable to change will survive most. When one realizes the type of personality trait he possesses and the personality change also adopted by the opposing negotiator, then one is able to adapt more effectively.

In this course, we considered;

1.??????How the science and art of personality can be used in all of our negotiations and interactions to get better results using the colour effects as proposed by Hippocrates and;

2.??????The 8 aspects of personality types.

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“THE COLOUR EFFECT” AS PROPOSED BY HIPPOCRATES

These four colours explain what personality traits and behaviours are dominant in various negotiators. This concept dates way back to Hippocrates, the great philosopher - inventor of the Hippocratic Oath. About two thousand years ago, that there were four archetypes of people who were believed to behave dependent on the kind of liquid found in their bodies. Subsequently, when pathologists and specialists in anatomy started having the opportunity to cut people open, they realized the differential liquid part of this theory was wrong, but the thesis of his theory was born out of constant observation around people.

For instance; where Michael is rushed to the hospital after suffering a fracture or broken arm from playing ancient tennis, he would probably react in line with either of the behavioural characteristics attached to these four basic colours – Red, Green, Blue and Yellow.

1)????RED (Extrovert, High energy, Action-oriented, Direct and Authoritative);

Barge into the doctor’s office after banging really hard on the door (or not even knocking at all). He would then rant and complain about how long he has been made to wait at the reception. He would further request for a speedy treatment to be given to him as soon as possible!

2)????GREEN (Value-driven, Democratic, Desires to understand and Relationship driven);

Gently knock on the door, ask the Doctor about his wife and children, how he balances family and work life. He may further proceed to reflect on why he played ancient tennis in the first place before explaining his reason for his visit. They are quite earthy in their approach.

3)????BLUE (Introverted, Desires to understand, Analytic, Prefers written communication and Precision)

Those who possess the blue archetype would be quite cold in the way they project themselves. They would weigh and balance situations around them calmly. They love precision and detailed details. They could come in and have to explain to the doctor from when they left home at about 8 o’clock that morning to the exact way they felt the arms twitch and how many minutes it took to get there and the effect that may have had on the fractured arm.

4)????YELLOW (Strongly extroverted, radiant, friendly, positive, democratic, persuasive and social)

Persons with the yellow energy would probably come in bouncy, lively and all gingered up; before explaining his problem to the doctor. He might digress a lot and even forget his purpose of being there. He might even offer to take the doctor out on a date sometime later on. ?

Red is a bit fiery, bold, assertive, direct colour. Green is earthy, natural and reflective. Blue is cold, conservative and quiet. Yellow is buoyant, expressive, optimistic and slightly loud.

When we understand which of these energies we take to the negotiation table, then we can figure out what other four colours or energy people at the other negotiating end-use. And by understanding that, we get to connect with the other party more effectively.

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INTRODUCING THE 8 PERSONALITY TYPES

Young identified 8 different types of personalities through a number of different tests and psychometrics. Ancient psychologists believe that a person is either introverted or extroverted. Modern-day psychologists have however partially digressed from such statistic fixation. They believe that a person could be both introverted and extroverted – Andevert.

These 8 personality types are:

·????????Introverts V Extroversion

·????????Inspiration Driven V Discipline Driven

·????????Big Picture V Down To Earth

·????????People Focused V Outcome Focused

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INTROVERTS V. EXTROVERTS

Extroverts think out loud, engage more in verbal communication, and express themselves physically through facial expressions or by their gestures. They also prefer to express their opinions and the way they feel by talking other than inner reflection. While introverts make their energies from within/inside. They are more reflective, observant, measured and calculated. They are comfortable reflecting on a topic and speaking to people one on one than contributing in group discussions. They are not energized by the group to brainstorm and get ideas out in the open. They are also hard to read than extroverted ones.

As a negotiator, do you get energized by others? Do you need to speak to someone about your ideas? Or are you someone who prefers to look in and reflect?

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INSPIRATION DRIVEN V. DISCIPLINE DRIVEN

While discipline-driven people have more structure and process in their lives, inspiration-driven people intentionally prefer to do things at the last moment. It is safe to say that they are productive procrastinators. Inspiration driven people are very comfortable with changing their plans abruptly at the last minute. For instance, they are more comfortable writing their essays overnight at the last minute because they are being driven by what is coming to them at the spur of the moment, whereas, the disciplined ones prefer to write their essays over time in a structured manner. Disciplined people do not like their plans being thwarted. Even when it does, they still fashion out an orderly manner on how such a job or activity will be executed. They have a strict order on how they do things and they would like to stick to that order. In short, they are very principled. Negotiating with principled people are likely to be more structured and orderly. They love to be very precise, particular and detailed on their interests and goals. They automatically expect that the other negotiating party is the same.

Having a discipline driven negotiator on one hand and an inspiration-driven negotiator, on the other hand, is like putting two constantly inordinate or inconsistent energies beside each other. That is, one would have to behaviourally adjust to reach a positive conclusion. If substantial/ample diplomacy is not employed, there may not be a successful outcome from such negotiation.

At the negotiation table, how do you differentiate an inspiration driven negotiator and a discipline driven negotiator? ?

Simple! Check their notebooks. This is one of the most obvious ways to know. An inspiration driven negotiator is likely to have more scribbles here and there- a less organized notebook. A discipline driven negotiator usually likes structure, so they present a plan. An inspiration driven person may also turn up a bit late.

You also see clues to extroversion or introversion in their body language. A discipline driven negotiator will be seen through how they come prepared for a negotiation.

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NEGOTIATING WITH DIFFERENT PERSONALITY TYPES

People have the ability to change and adapt. When a negotiator understands his personality, he would also find it easy to understand the way the negotiating partner negotiates and the energy he uses.

Regardless of what your personality is, it is important to ask these two questions;

·????????What personality does whom I’m negotiating with use?

·????????How does he get what he wants at the negotiation table?

When these two are all figured out, then we’ll be able to work out how to ADAPT!

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Colour energies: Highly predictable behaviours of personalities during Negotiation

FIERY RED ENERGY

AMIABLE GREEN ENERGY

DETAIL BLUE ENERGY

INSPIRING YELLOW ENERGY

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·????????FIERY RED

They are outcome-focused, quite competitive and are discipline driven. People with red energy like to get on with things. They like to win by being competitive in a negotiation. A smart negotiator needs to allow room in their proposal to allow them get some sense of winning. But, he also has to recognize that they are likely to want to win something in the course of negotiation. Most importantly, they are keen on getting things done quickly and in their own way. They are not a fan of details. They are more concerned about results. When negotiating with people with red fiery energy, it is not advisable to give them much to read or much details to hover around. They would just like you to be brief, be clear and be gone!

·????????AMIABLE GREEN ENERGY

They are likely to want to take time with their negotiation to reflect on certain things. They are interested in what other people think, so they want time to speak and combine ideas with other colleagues and people around them. They always want to reach an agreement good for themselves as well as everyone around them.

·????????DETAIL BLUE ENERGY

They tend to love an overwhelming amount of detail. They usually request documents and data ahead so that they are able to check and confirm the specificity of fact ahead of time. They are very practical and discipline driven. They, therefore, want a plan and want to know that plan is likely to work/map out. They are quite introverted in their energy. They would also love to have time to reflect. So provide ample data and analysis to enable them to create and reach an agreement that doesn’t just feel right for you but that which appears as right for them.

·????????INSPIRING YELLOW ENERGY

They tend to be very big in their approach and ideas. They like to get on with things and they like to do stuff that is different. They want to know that your deal is different from anything that has ever been done. They are interested in doing things that push the boundaries. So involve them in brainstorming and inspiration=driven energy to come up with new ideas that can really stand out.