What is the greatest challenge negotiator faces when about to enter into negotiation?
Common answers are that negotiator has either to deal with difficult counter part or with unrealistic goals or with time pressure.
No negotiator will tell you his biggest challenge is to deal with Ego especially with his Ego.
However, experience shows that dealing with negotiator Ego is usually the biggest challenge negotiator has to face.
For instance, common trap for negotiator is to start negotiation with very high or very low anchor -depending if seller or buyer- and then to move to a lower position or a higher one.
Presuming, no one really enjoy to give up his position, the more important the move is -from low to high & vice versa- the more the Ego can be damaged.
Supposing initial anchors will be challenged, one tip is to carefully prepare a negotiation roadmap where you will define the most very likely scenarios to occur while negotiating and to ask yourself what would be your move when your counterpart will react to your initial anchor.
If, when going through this exercice, you assume the moves you gonna have to make, fine, you can stick with your plan. It means you are confortable enough to live with that move without hurting your Ego. If not, re consider your initial bet to start with an anchor that my be shaken without damaging your Ego.
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