During a negotiation, participants analyze their counterparts by looking at their language, country of origin, background, age, and culture. However, not everybody pays attention to the gender issue, although it has been demonstrated that the negotiation strategies used by women are different from those used by men.
Is there equality between men and women in business?
In the past, business negotiation was considered a field designed for men, and women had to deal with more problems caused by these preconceptions. However, the situation is seen differently today, because the process of negotiation is no longer seen as a competition, but rather as a collaborative process in which both women and men can excel.
One of the main reasons that lie behind the differences between male and female negotiators is related to what society teaches us. From childhood, we are taught that women should have more dependent jobs and a less selfish behavior, which implies that they should never promote their self-interest. However, this doesn’t mean that women don’t have the necessary abilities to win the competition between them and men.
Women are more compassionate in negotiations than men
Women have to make use of their natural qualities in order to become successful in negotiations, and recent studies have shown that they usually follow the rules more than men. They’re known for their ability to see the situation as whole, which allows them to come up with good solutions. Besides, they pay more attention to the communicative part of the negotiation and find it easier to share their experiences in order to figure out what the other side wants to achieve. Today’s society has taught women to focus more on finding solutions than on solving existing problems, and that’s exactly what a negotiator needs to do.
Women are natural-born negotiators
Women have a greater ability to ask questions and talk one on one, discussing only what is related strictly to the negotiation, and focusing on understanding the goals of their counterparts. Negotiators should be good listeners, and women are naturally born with this quality. They’re less aggressive than men and usually take their time to listen to what the other parties have to say, having what it takes to reach to an agreement.
The tactics used in negotiations are different from men to women. Recent studies have also shown that men don’t pay as much attention as women when it comes to the relationships developed during the negotiation process. Unlike men, women are not allowing their hard feelings go away so quickly, which is why men are more courageous, as they never try to make the other person feel comfortable during the negotiation. In fact, they don’t really care about the feelings the other participants may have.
Women are 100% dedicated
Women also negotiate differently because they enter negotiations thinking that they should give everything they have to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. As far as men are concerned, they handle rough negotiations better than women because they never agree to be the ones who back down and make concessions. Besides, women’s sense of pride cannot compare to that of men, which is why they have greater chances to reach an agreement.
Last but not least, women are often intimidated when their counterparts are male negotiators, however they know exactly how to use their dominance and toughness to achieve their goals. As a result, men are willing to do whatever they can to gain power, even if that means convincing their counterparts that they’re wrong. Women don’t have the necessary abilities to make the things they say sound correct and believable by turning the conversation into a very confusing one, while men are experts in this field.
In conclusion, although women negotiate differently than men, there still are some similarities between the two genders. Both men and women are good speakers, gifted with different natural abilities that make a negotiation process become easier. However, the strategies used are not the same because most women follow the rules imposed by modern society.