Positions of the interlocutors at the negotiating table
The relative position of the partner, interlocutor or candidate plays an important role in creating the psychological atmosphere of negotiations. We can cite several characteristic positions of the interlocutors at the negotiating table that influence the nature of the conversation. If you have a standard 4-corner table, then you and your interlocutor can take 4 positions in relation to each other (in the picture your position is A, your interlocutor’s position is B).
| Corner position This position allows you to clearly see the visitor’s eyes and gestures, to create in him a feeling of his own importance, freedom and naturalness of behavior, openness and sincerity. By doing this you showed him your respect and friendliness. |
| Position of cooperation Complete equality and trust of interlocutors. The owner allows the guest onto his territory, thereby emphasizing the common interest in solving the problem. Most often, friends and people engaged in a common cause sit like this. This helps create an informal atmosphere of conversation with maximum sincerity of both participants. |
| Competitive-defensive position The table is a natural barrier between the interlocutor, which leads to the fact that everyone takes a tough position, defending their interests. Created and will win. The visitor feels tense and constrained, and the owner feels like a boss talking to a subordinate. |
| Independent position This position is taken by people who do not want to communicate with each other or experience mutual hostility. This indicates a lack of interest in the conversation or even hostility. This situation should be avoided during negotiations or interviews. Depending on your goals and what kind of conversational atmosphere you want to set, choose one of the first three positions. Experts consider the corner position to be the best for a business conversation. If your occupation requires you to communicate with people, then your goal should be to understand the person, to make him feel free and natural in your presence and happy to do business with you. |
! A little trick: prepare chairs or armchairs for your interlocutor in all possible positions and see which one he chooses. This way you will find out his attitude towards you and the topic of conversation, his attitude towards success and what place he assigns to himself. If you invite several visitors at the same time and offer to sit where they want, then you can easily determine the personal status of each by the place that he allocates for himself.
| Here, person A has the most influence, sitting at the head of the table with his back to the wall. The second place in terms of influence was taken by B, he also sees everyone present, but sits with his back to the door. S sat closest to the “main” one, thereby assigning himself the third most important place. The fourth most important place is given to D, and the most modest place is given to E. Person B will most likely behave somewhat confrontational towards you, and person C will express approval and agreement to you, and person E will demonstrate a readiness to obey any of your decisions. |
| For business conversations involving several people, a round table with identical comfortable chairs around it is best suited to create an atmosphere of cooperation. |
Material from the collection “Psychological aspects of personnel selection and testing” was used. The compiler of the collection is N. A. Litvintseva.
Business partner and business behavior styles
Business style.
Business partner – shark or dolphin?
Supportive and non-supportive styles of behavior.
Man and woman: features of business style and relationships at work.
There is the concept of “business style,” which means a value-based, cognitive, emotional and behavioral way of solving problems, including a way of expressing thoughts, a characteristic manner of behavior with business partners, methods of organizing or performing any work that are typical for a given person. Business style is determined by the dominant motivation when making a decision, such as: human good, benefit, specific result, personal success, innovation or tradition. Depending on this motivation, we have a partner who cares only about himself or about his organization or about the common cause. The basic distinguishing features of a person’s business style are the relationship between planning and situationism when resolving issues, as well as a person’s orientation towards independence, dependence, cooperation or leadership. An important distinguishing feature of business style is the orientation of the individual towards the formal performance of duties or towards human relationships. The psychological components of business style can be called the degree of punctuality, accuracy, pedantry, the individual’s attitude to the official hierarchy and business etiquette, the predominance of traditions or innovations in personal work. So, the elements of a person’s business style are: motivation for activity, method of decision-making, the nature of the relationship with a partner, the manner of organizing work.
When choosing a business partner, we also choose a business strategy for working together with him. These could be: egoistic strategy - focusing on one’s interests and personal success; altruistic strategy – orientation towards universal human values and universal interests; cooperative strategy – focus on partnerships and the search for mutually beneficial solutions. In works on business psychology, a Shark partner and a Dolphin partner are distinguished. The Shark Partner comes from a selfish business strategy: “There is always one winner. I don't need to change myself. My decision is correct." The Dolphin Partner assumes a cooperative business strategy: “Let everyone win. Be prepared to admit a mistake. What if…"
When developing your own business style, as well as in the process of understanding your partner, you should distinguish between supportive and non-supportive styles of behavior. A supportive style of behavior is communication in which a person feels important and valuable to a partner. A non-supportive style of behavior is communication in which the importance and value of a partner is consciously or out of ignorance reduced. A supportive business style assumes that you constantly demonstrate to your partner a positive reaction to his presence, interest in his problems, and attention to what he says. A non-supportive business style is expressed in a lack of interest in a partner, a desire to reduce communication time, an unwillingness or inability to delve into issues that concern the interlocutor. A non-supportive behavioral style can be used specifically to lower a partner's self-esteem; but may simply be a consequence of inexperience or lack of positive communication skills. In this case, you need to learn to actively show respect and attention to the other person.
When analyzing possible business styles, it is worth paying attention to gender and age, as factors that largely determine the nature and forms of business communication.
Men and women have different business styles, that is: different motivations for business behavior, different ways of solving problems, different methods of organizing work. Men tend to be authoritarian, women tend to be democratic. If the organization adopts a democratic style of communication, then women as leaders are valued as highly as men, and if it is authoritarian, then women leaders are rated lower. Men are strong, active, assertive, women are the same – aggressive and intrusive. The male style of communication indicates a desire for social dominance and independence, the female one - towards mutual dependence, partnership or cooperation. The difference between male and female business style is expressed in the following:
1. Men are characterized by the so-called technocratic style, while women are characterized by an emotional-egoistic style. Men perceive innovations more easily, while women are more inclined to traditions. Men are quicker to grasp the problem as a whole, women are more attentive to details;
2. Despite the fact that politics and business are still dominated by men, sociologists and psychologists distinguish male and female management as a difference in orientation towards power and exchange of services for men, and towards the interests of people and their desire to work - for women;
3. For men, rationality and simplicity are the main criteria for the correctness of a decision, for women - positive human consequences;
4. Men constantly strive to nullify the emotional intensity of the activity; women cannot work without a personal relationship to the subject of the activity and their partners;
5. For a man, the result is more important than the process, for a woman – vice versa. When solving any problem, men prefer to reduce intermediate links; women are characterized by elaboration of details and inhibition of making a final decision;
6. Women rely on themselves, and men on the team, although in reality women are more inclined to consult and communicate, and men are more prone to authoritarian methods of decision-making;
7. Women are more often timid in front of their superiors, submit to someone else's authority and tend to believe that the interests of others are more important than their own. A woman's self-esteem, as a rule, is underestimated, while a man's is overestimated compared to the actual results of their activities.
8. Women are unable to separate their personal and professional lives emotionally. Both happy and unhappy women work worse, while a happy or unhappy man at work is able to disconnect from his personal problems, and in his private life forget about work. 90% of men consider work to be the most important thing in life.
