Shirli Kopelman speaks with great insight about her time studying the role of  emotions in negotiating in a recent article titled “Make Your Emotions Work for You in Negotiations“.

The importance of emotions and the role that they play in a successful negotiation cannot be stress enough. Shirli, points out in a rather matter of fact fashion, that the root cause of emotions MUST be acknowledged and assessed in a strategic manner rather than being oppressed and managed away.

“in my two decades of research and work with thousands of executives, I’ve found that emotions shouldn’t be managed or overcome. Rather, positive and negative emotions are valuable resources that you can use to your advantage. The key is to recognize during the negotiation what emotion you’re feeling, then quickly evaluate whether it will help or hinder you, and without taking a break, intensify or decrease the feeling, or in some cases change the emotion altogether.” – Shirli Kopelman

She has gone so far as to lay out a five-step road map to more productively engage your emotions during negotiations:

Step 1: Be mindful.

Step 2: Identify your emotional trigger and focus on something else.

Step 3: Reinterpret the trigger.

Step 4: Alter the emotion by changing its physiological expression

Step 5: Take action that others will see.

Read the full details over here!