Emotional intelligence is an important characteristic of a good leader. High emotional intelligence helps a leader gauge and assess the needs of those around them. In the negotiation process, especially in a global context, it is important to be able to “read the room” and figure out which aspect of the negotiation process is working and which are not in order to obtain the desired result.
Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) indicates that the five important components of emotional intelligence are: Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Women often have been groomed by society to possess higher emotional intelligence than men, and this makes having a woman at the negotiation table very crucial.
Tariq (2018) describes that women are often more empathetic than me and are better able to understand the positions of other people and build relationships based upon that. Women tend to be expected to express their emotions more freely than men in society, therefore making women more self-aware and able to self-regulate better. Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) assert that being self aware is the ability to not only understand your own mood and emotions but also how they affect other people and help to realistically assess a negotiation situation. Self-regulation allows a person to control themselves and be seen as a trustworthy person which is crucial in negotiation. This helps women to be able to influence other people that their position is the best. Moran, Abramson, and Moran describe negotiation as “a dance where partners in the dance influence each other” (p. 71).
Tariq (2018) says that women are more sensitive to peer feedback. In negotiations it is important to listen and comprehend feedback from peers in order to find a solution that benefits both parties. Quay (2016) further emphasizes that women and men are fundamentally the same and can both be strong negotiators, the tough situations that professional women are exposed to often require women to hone in on their emotional intelligence.
References:
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Quy, L. (2016). Using emotional intelligence is a woman leader’s secret weapon. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2016/11/02/using-emotional-intelligence-is-a-woman-leaders-secret-weapon/#2aeaabb919f7
Tariq, A. (2018). 4 reasons emotional intelligence gives women an upper hand as negotiators. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/321370
I think we have all heard at some point in our lives or careers that “women make 77 cents for every dollar men make”. Nadine made some great points about woman and their higher levels of EI being resourceful for negotiation and Haley posed a great question about why women don’t negotiate more for themselves. I found in an article from Harvard that there are “deeply ingrained societal gender roles” and in many cultures “girls are encouraged and expected to be accommodating, concerned with the welfare of others, and relationship-oriented from an early age” which result in many woman being “uncomfortable negotiating forcefully on their own behalf, a tendency that’s supported by evidence suggesting they face a social backlash in the workplace for doing so” (Shonk, 2020). However, I found in a SHRM article that more women today, specifically ages 18-34, are more likely to negotiate their salary (Gurchiek, 2019). It also highlighted that women are less likely compared to men to negotiate salaries when when is not explicitly made known that salary negotiations are ok and “employers aren’t likely to invite job applicants or current employees to negotiate their pay” (Gurchiek, 2019).
So from a global context, on employers obviously want to competitive without having to pay more, so how do we engage more women to negotiate more on their behalf?
References:
Girchiek, K. (2019, May). Study: Women Negotiate Pay When Given the Chance. Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/more-professionals-are-negotiating-salaries-than-in-the-past.aspx
Shonk, K. (2020, January). Women and Negotiation: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Negotiation. Retrieved from: https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/business-negotiations/women-and-negotiation-narrowing-the-gender-gap/
Nadine’s evaluation of emotional intelligence as an important characteristic of a good leader was intriguing to me. While I do not dispute the importance of this trait, and I realize several experts have attested to the five essential components of emotional intelligence and consider women are often groomed by society to possess a higher emotional intelligence than men, I had to really think about this concept before I could accept this idea as stated.
With that said, I do agree that a high level of emotional intelligence is an asset to any leader, or employee for that matter. Self-awareness and self-regulation can also be valuable in the work environment to realistically assess situations and participate in negotiations in the business world. It would be very helpful for anyone to be able to understand their own moods, emotions and reactions to the environment and people around them. While women have strong intuitive tendencies, I will close this critique by saying I can see the value of including women business negotiations.
Nadine,
You’ve made great points in your article. Emotional intelligence (EI) is an important trait for leaders to possess, and I agree with your assessment that women should take part in negotiations, particularly in a global leadership context where cultural diversity can be a significant factor. People with high levels of EI can recognize, understand, and manage their own emotions. They can also perceive, navigate, and influence the emotions of others and use that information to help make decisions that produce desired outcomes (Tichy & Bennis, 2007). To be an effective leader, it’s not enough to be cognitively intelligent, but instead, it’s important to employ both cognitive and emotional intelligence in a way that complements the other. The two types of intelligence are like a sailboat, where cognitive intelligence steers the vessel in the right direction, and emotional intelligence provides the wind that drives it toward its destination (LaHayne, 2018).
After reading your post, I began to wonder if societal norms or genetics play a more significant role in the differences between EI levels of men and women. Researchers studying monozygotic (identical) and dizygotic (fraternal) twins were able to link high levels of trait EI to parental trait EI indicating EI is hereditary (Vernon, Petrides, Bratko, Schermer, 2008). Another study found that infant females demonstrated higher levels of EI than males in “various rudimentary forms of empathy, such as contagious crying, neonatal imitation, social referencing (i.e., looking to social partners for information in ambiguous situations), and general social interest and sensitivity” (Christov-Moore, Simpson, Coudé, Grigaityte, Iacoboni, & Ferrari, 2014, p. 32). Researchers think it unlikely trait EI in females is associated with environmental or cultural factors, instead they think the differences “reflect some evolutionarily important difference between males and females that is present, at least in some form, from birth” (p. 21).
An article published in the journal of International Interactions supports your assertion that women as business negotiators can be effective, especially in a global context. The authors studied international peacekeeping negotiator conducted by females and found a “robust relationship between peace agreements with women signatories and peace durability” (Krause, Krause, & Bränfors, 2018, p. 1005). They found women peace negotiators were able to influence “better accord content, higher agreement implementation rates, and longer-lasting peace (p. 1005).
I think these findings indicate that multinational enterprises should consider utilizing female negotiators in their international business dealings to create a competitive advantage.
Amelia
References
Christov-Moore, L., Simpson, E. A., Coudé, G., Grigaityte, K., Iacoboni, M., & Ferrari, P. F. (2014). Empathy: Gender effects in brain and behavior. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 4/ Pt 4, 604–627. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.09.001 Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5110041/
Krause, J., Krause, W., & Bränfors, P. (2018) Women’s participation in peace negotiations and the durability of peace. International Interactions, 44/6, 985-1016. DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2018.1492386
LaHayne, S. P., (2018, March 9). Emotional Intelligence vs. IQ: Let’s take a look at the differences between IQ and emotional intelligence, and explore what can be gained from fostering emotional intelligence. Retrieved from https://thriveglobal.com/stories/emotional-intelligence-vs-iq/
Tichy, N., and Bennis, W. (2007). Making judgment calls. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/10/making-judgment-calls
Vernon, P. A., Petrides, K. V., Bratko, D., Schermer, J. A. (2008). A Behavioral Genetic Study of Trait Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Denis_Bratko/publication/23302097_A_Behavioral_Genetic_Study_of_Trait_Emotional_Intelligence/links/00b7d517fa7861daf8000000/A-Behavioral-Genetic-Study-of-Trait-Emotional-Intelligence.pdf
I loved this ! You had me hooked from the title!
Here’s a thought… if women are supposed to be so good at this because of cultural conditioning why is it women cannot successfully negotiate on their own behalves? Wether that is in purchasing a car, negotiating a job offer we don’t seem to do too well for ourselves.