Communication Style in Negotiations: Tough or Nice?

Communication Style in Negotiations: Tough or Nice?

When bargaining or entering into a business negotiation, you have the choice between various styles. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument in fact distinguishes among 5 negotiating styles.
But let's keep it simple for now: One key practical choice is being "warm and friendly" or being "tough and firm". Little is known so far about which of these 2 communication styles works best. Not to mention the use of good guy plus bad guy combinations.
Which one of the two communication styles in negotiation do you think is better from an economic point of view: Nice or Tough; should you exude warmth or toughness?

A recent series of experiments on distributive negotiations, where claiming value is the goal of each of the parties at the table, conducted by Jeong er al., shows that:

1. Communication style does influence negotiation results.
2. Many people believe that enacting warmth is helpful in a negotiation. They do so by increasing their politeness, which causes them to be perceived by their counterparts as having lower dominance.
3. A warm and friendly communication style results in lower economic outcomes compared with a tough and firm communication style. The researchers believe this caused by the fact that offers delivered in tough and firm language elicited more favorable counteroffers.

Remarkably the counterparts (opponents) of the warm + friendly versus the tough + firm negotiators did not report different levels of satisfaction or enjoyment of their interactions.

⇨ Let's collect observations and practical experiences regarding being a "nice guy" or "bad guy" in negotiation processes below.

Source: Martha Jeong, Julia Minson, Michael Yeomans and Francesca Ginoa, "Communicating with Warmth in Distributive Negotiations Is Surprisingly Counterproductive", Management Science, Articles in Advance, pp. 1–25.

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		9 Gregory Johnson Coach, United States
	Tone of Negotiations Years ago, when contract negotiations were part of my professional menu, I learned to be the CALM LI... Sign up

		8 Javier Elenes Business Consultant, Mexico
	Discuss Only WIN-WIN Proposals with Unions At least in negotiations with unions, I recommend to discuss only WIN-WIN proposals. I once started... Sign up

		1 Gandhi Heryanto Management Consultant, Indonesia
	Communication, Relationship and Trust in Negotiations Two related issues at the negotiating table to communication style (tough / soft) are: relationship ... Sign up

		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Should You Be Nice or Tough in Negotiations? Thank you, interesting… All three of you seem to agree that taking a listening, win-win, good relati... Sign up

		1 Manoj Rambajan (MBA) Mauritius
	Communication Style in Negotiation The success of any negotiation exercise depends on a number of factors. Among them is the communicat... Sign up

		2 Gregory Johnson Coach, United States
	Negotiating Nice or Tough @Jaap de Jonge: My experience and the logical perspective leans on the emotions of such an exchange... Sign up

		1 Philippe Etienne Coach, France
	Negotiators have to Discover the Interests of the Others and be Creative @Jaap de Jonge: According to my understanding of the best book on negotations I ever read, "Getting ... Sign up

		2 Carsten Thies Manager, Germany
	Role of Bargaining Power in Negotiations My experience has taught me that most important for the result of a negotiation is the bargaining po... Sign up

		1 Mohammad Naeem Arbab Manager, Afghanistan
	Should You Negotiate Tough or Be Nice Based on my experience, both a tough and a nice communication style may work well, according to the ... Sign up

		0 Omar Bawajeeh Saudi Arabia
	Conserve Your Energy! If "warm and friendly" will do, I won't waste more energy using the tough style! The most important... Sign up

		1 Koen Vandermarliere Business Consultant, Belgium
	Should You Negotiate Tough or Be Nice? I'm a consultant so I negotiate on behalf of several organisations. Basically every person has his/h... Sign up

		1 jorge anibal hoyos hoyos Manager, Colombia
	The Best Communication Style Depends There are points not that would make it unlikely for the other party to give in. For example the pos... Sign up

		2 Chloe Xu Director, Australia
	Does a Warm/Tough Communication Style Matter in Distributive Negotiations? I'd like to share an alternate summary I made of the article mentioned in this thread: In both our ... Sign up