Melina Karaolina
by Melina Karaolina
Melina Karaolia is a Partner at M. Eliades & Partners LLC. Her work encompasses a diverse range of corporate and litigation matters. She advises clients on a range of commercial, civil law issues, and business law disputes. She is a member of Grays Inn London, the Cyprus Bar Association and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Contact Melina.
Perhaps the most important tool in negotiation is to be self-aware. It is after all our subconscious mind which rules much of what we do. In his famous book, Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, Leonard Mlodinow, a theoretical physicist and mathematician, talks about the “social unconscious”, and how people essentially believe in facts that support their beliefs. We tend to favour things which support our preconceived beliefs. He makes reference to an interesting questionnaire where 25 percent of people believe themselves to be in the top one percent in their capacity to get along well with other people, 60 percent believe themselves in the top 10 percent, and 100 percent of people believe themselves to be at least average. He also talks about how much of the communication is through nonverbal clues and how the sound of one’s voice or a light touch during conversation can influence how the message is perceived.
Good negotiators are aware of how their body language can shape their interactions. In becoming self- aware you develop techniques by which you can observe yourself both physically and emotionally and adapt your reactions accordingly. Further, you can evaluate your beliefs and standpoints with critical thought, practise active listening, and adjust your positions based on the progress of the negotiations and your interests in the matter.
Alison Wood Brooks of Harvard Business School, in a 2015 article on negotiations and emotions, analysed how many different emotions could arise during negotiations, including (obviously) anxiety and anger, and she observed how “bringing anger to a negotiation is like throwing a bomb into the process”. There is great value in controlling the emotions we feel and especially those we reveal. We tend to spend a lot of time preparing our tactical and strategic moves before a negotiation without investing sufficiently in preparing our emotional approach.
Developing self-awareness and practising emotional preparation can sharpen your ability to negotiate and influence interactions during negotiations.
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M. Eliades & Partners LLC operates with a very clear and simple objective: to understand the needs of clients operating in the European and global environment, and to provide them with creative, timely, and cost effective legal and advisory services. The firm serves a broad base of clients, principally from the EU, but also from the US, Russia, Asia, and beyond, while maintaining worldwide professional relationships through its membership with GGI | Global Alliance.