Emotions aren't the obstacles to a successful negotiation; they are the means.
Interpretation
Emotions play a crucial role in negotiations, serving as a tool for achieving success rather than hindrance.
In the context of negotiation, emotions are often viewed as a negative factor that can cloud judgment and derail discussions. However, Christopher Voss argues that emotions are essential for building connection, understanding, and ultimately facilitating a successful outcome. By acknowledging and harnessing emotions, negotiators can navigate the complexities of human interaction to achieve their objectives.
In practice
A business professional might use this quote during a training session on negotiation tactics.
When you expect to get into a negotiation, you expect to be faced by a guy that's going to attack you, a guy or gal that's going to attack or that they're going to try to get the best of you. Two-thirds of us, that makes us very defensive.
Price doesn't make deals, and salary doesn't control your career.
There are three kinds of yeses. There's commitment, confirmation, and counterfeit. People are most used to giving the counterfeit yes because they've been trapped by the confirmation yes so many times. So the way you master no is understanding what really happens when somebody says 'no.' When yes is commitment, no is protection.
The sweetest two words in any negotiation are actually, 'That's right.' Before you convince them to see what you're trying to accomplish, you have to say the things to them that will get them to say, 'That's right.'
The secret to gaining the upper hand in a negotiation is to give the other side the illusion of control. Don't try to force your opponent to admit that you are right. Ask questions, that begin with 'How?' or 'What?' so your opponent uses mental energy to figure out the answer.
Very few negotiations are begun and concluded in the same sitting. It's really rare. In fact, If you sit down and actually complete your negotiation in one sitting, you left stuff on the table.
I'm struck these days by how often people come up to me and ask to take a photograph instead of shaking hands, meeting one's eyes, and having an actual conversation.
Racism is a form of hate. We pass it on to our young people. When we do that, we are robbing children of their innocence.
There is a rhythm to the ending of a marriage just like the rhythm of a courtship-only backward. You try to start again but get into blaming over and over. Finally you are both worn out, exhausted, hopeless. Then lawyers are called in to pick clean the corpses. The death has occurred much earlier.
People are longing to rediscover true community. We have had enough of loneliness, independence and competition.
In our parts such characters sometimes turn up that, however many years ago you met them, you can never recall them without an inner trembling.
Animals have come to mean so much in our lives. We live in a fragmented and disconnected culture. Politics are ugly, religion is struggling, technology is stressful, and the economy is unfortunate. What's one thing that we have in our lives that we can depend on? A dog or a cat loving us unconditionally, every day, very faithfully.
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