Abstract
Negotiation is an everyday fact of life and it is bound to occur whenever two parties have differing opinions and they need to seek a middle ground. Devoid of communication lines, there can be no negotiation. Communication competence can be gauged using five cognitions. These, in their order of strength, are: planning cognitions, consequence cognitions, reflection cognitions, and presence cognitions. Areas for improvement include not letting my sincerity and straightforwardness to impede my ability to bluff, being more open to making compromises, and shifting my focus from trying to aggressively make big wins as this alienates the other party, destroying relationships. Additional areas for improvement include: honing the skills needed to read other people's reactions to my communication and those skills that increase my ability to perceive what is happening in the process; working on my negotiating skills to enable me to negotiate in one-on-one discussions compared to group discussions; and to work on my patience as it is a very important in using leverage to win in negotiations.
Reflecting on my Communication Skills Negotiation is an everyday fact of life and it is bound to occur whenever two parties have differing opinions and they need to seek a middle ground. Devoid of communication lines, there can be no negotiation. Therefore, this rule is essential. Lines of communication are the life-blood of a negotiation. Master negotiators foster their communication lines, and where lines are weak, they seek to develop new ones. Developing rapport with the other party eases the stress of negotiating and improves the likelihood of a successful outcome. This is especially crucial in instances where the parties will have a long-term relationship after negotiations closure (Noble, 2001). This essay seeks to reflect on my own negotiation style from which I will develop a plan to improve my personal negotiation skills based
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