Meditation: A Secret Superpower For Negotiation

himani agrawal 17-Jul-2016 Image Source

When I started meditating, I knew it would make me calmer. It would slow my racing mind and help me project a less frantic energy. I wanted to feel, and be, more relaxed.

I wanted this for my personal life.

But meditation had a profound impact I didn’t expect on my professional life. It dramatically improved my skills at negotiation.

I used to be a terrible negotiator. I often didn’t get what I wanted and angered whomever I was negotiating with — the worst of both worlds!

Once I began meditating, this changed dramatically. I went from almost never getting what I wanted and leaving people upset to being so successful it almost scares me. Now I accomplish what I need and leave my counterpart feeling good about the deal and our relationship.

All this changed from meditating 20 minutes a day.

1. Meditation can make a difference.

Meditation makes you more empathetic, too, which transforms how you relate to people while negotiating. I now go into a negotiation so focused on the process, I often find myself saying (and believing) that I only want to do win/win deals. I encourage the person Iâ€™m negotiating with to walk away if the deal doesnâ€™t feel right. When people believe youâ€™re looking out for their best interest, that level of trust helps to close deals, especially if itâ€™s a long-term partnership.These skills â€” building trust, focusing on right actions and words, not fixating on outcomes and reducing the clutter in your mind, have a powerful impact on your ability to negotiate. I also believe they make you lighter overall, more carefree and joyous. Perhaps that, too, makes you more pleasant to negotiate with and to work with, too. Iâ€™m not perfect on this front, but Iâ€™m on my path. And Iâ€™m curious to hear if you meditate, have you noticed an impact on your negotiation skills?