Before you, as a project manager, engage in contract negotiation, it is important that you identify your personal negotiation style.

To start, imagine this scenario: You’re seated at a conference room table, and someone walks in, and says, “I will give $1,000 to each of the first two people who can persuade the person sitting opposite them to get up, walk around the table, and stand behind his or her chair.” What would you do?

Based on your answer, you could fall onto one of five negotiation styles. Below is a list of these negotiation styles, and some of the characteristics of each, as described in Bargaining for Advantage by G. Richard Shell.

The Compromiser: If your response is: “Get behind me and I’ll give you $500,” then you are probably a “compromiser.” About 50 percent of people tend to use this style especially in the U.S. It’s fast, reasonable, and allows you to appear reasonable. People who choose this option are generally comfortable with negotiations. They don’t run from the prospect, but they don’t embrace the role either. They realize that negotiations are necessary for business, but they just want to get the negotiation over with, and get on with the work at hand. They don’t exhibit a lot of ego involvement in the negotiation process. That is, they don’t have to win for personal reasons; nor do they take negotiations as a personal challenge.

The Accommodator: If your response is: “I’ll get up and stand behind your chair,” then you are probably an “accommodator.” About 25 percent of negotiators fall into the group of accommodators. This is a fairly common strategy among designers. Using this style, they take on the other person’s problem. People who choose this option hope to believe that the other party is like them, and will be fair and reasonable. Where this style becomes a problem for designers is during the construction phase. The client has a problem, the A/E firm steps in and solves the problem agreeing to do extra work or work outside the scope, thinking that the owner will of course accept the revised fee. People who continue this strategy are generally service-oriented, but tend to subordinate their own goals for others. They’re generally optimists, who believe it will all work out, and rarely feel other people are out to gain an advantage. If you find yourself having this tendency, be careful.

The Avoider: Would you propose to do nothing? If you think this is a trick, and did not answer the question, you are probably an “Avoider.” About 10 percent to 15 percent of the population fall into this category. These people just don’t like the negotiation process. They don’t like the interpersonal conflict, and have a distaste for games with winners and losers. Afraid of looking bad, they avoid situations where they’re forced to make a decision, anything that causes them stress. As negotiators, people in this category tend to always want more information. Even when 90 percent of the scope is agreed upon, they’re willing even eager to rethink the entire project from the beginning. So, they avoid negotiations if they can help it at all.

The Competitor: If your response is: “You get behind my chair and I’ll cut you in,” then you are probably a competitor. About 20 to 25 percent of the population falls into the area of being a competitor. The competitor group loves negotiation as an end in itself. They see it as a game with a winner and the loser and they want to win. And in their zeal to win, they like to control the negotiations, often opening with ambitious demands, using threats and ultimatums, and even walking out of the negotiations. Most of us have seen this style in action. It often results in a person so caught up in the process that the end result is forgotten. Competitors see every interaction as a potential negotiation that they intend to win. They’re very ego-involved in the process, and take each and every point personally. They act on the win-at-all-cost position where the goal is completely secondary to the negotiation itself.

The Problem Solver: If your response is: “Let’s both get up and stand behind each other’s chair,” you are probably a “Problem Solver.” This is a very unique and creative negotiation style. The common way to describe this style is the win-win, i.e. problem solvers have insight into solutions where both parties win. They are searching for the real interests of the other party, and figuring it out how to bridge the interests of both parties. This negotiation style requires that both parties to be open about their interests, i.e. not their secrets or bargaining positions. If one party is not open, it means the other party needs to dig in and get at the other party’s main drivers. This negotiation style takes longer to reach a solution—because problem solvers need to identify the interests and explore many options—but tends to come up with mutually beneficial solutions. They see negotiations as a logical puzzle to be solved, and are not ego-involved in the process. Negotiations are more of an intellectual challenge to them, than an ego-booster.

Contract Negotiation is just one of the numerious topics covered in PSMJ's recently released series of
e-learning project management training courses for new and seasoned A/E/C project managers.

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