3 Types of Power in Negotiation - Part Two of Three

Improving your negotiation skills with these strategies can help to dramatically enhance your results at the bargaining table

Today's article is part two of a three-part series I am sharing from Harvard University and their Negotiation Skills Program. As someone who teaches regularly on the topic, having taken training from Harvard myself, the negotiation skills that I have learned have been invaluable, supporting my role as a Real Estate advisor to clients from global enterprises, to growing businesses. You can find a full range of posts here on Harvard University’s blog, dedicated to Negotiations. I felt compelled to share the content in a series of shorter posts with you on LinkedIn.

Social psychologists have described different types of power that exist in society, and negotiators can leverage these types of power in negotiation as well.

Three Main Types of Power in Negotiation

Two types of power spring from objective features of the bargaining process.

First, power is often defined as a lack of dependence on others. This kind of power in negotiation corresponds to one’s BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. When an individual has a strong BATNA going into a negotiation, she is less dependent on the opposing party to reach her needs than she would be if she had a weak alternative or no alternative at all.

Second, some positions, roles, and titles grant power simply due to the authority or control they exert over a wide range of important outcomes. This type of power, referred to as role power, is often found in organizational hierarchies.

There is a third form of power that you can bring to your negotiations: psychological power. In fact, it’s possible for you to have a psychological sense of power even when you lack objective power.

Professor Cameron Anderson of Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, has shown that although people differ in the degree to which they feel psychologically powerful in the world, they can create a temporary sense of power. When your confidence is low, you can give it a boost by thinking about a time in your life when you had power.

Interestingly, being powerful and feeling powerful have essentially the same consequence for negotiations. Regardless of its source, power has consistent and predictable effects – both positive and negative – on negotiations.

Feel free to send me an email directly, or post in the comments section below with your thoughts. Keep an eye out for the third part of this weekly series as I share more concepts on Negotiation techniques and skills.

-Regards,
Stan Krawitz