A virgin negotiator is someone at the beginning of his negotiating path, someone who is just starting his adventure with negotiating.

The Virgin Negotiator is a textbook example of a set of negotiation competencies and incompetences.

Competences (even unconscious ones):

• Openness
• ingenuity
• passion / energy
• Involvement in the process
• curiosity of another human being

Competence gaps:

• inability to feel when anchoring (too low or too high offer)
• ineptitude in using leverage (often lack of leverage awareness)
• lack of active listening skills
• lack of proficiency in asking questions or lack of awareness of how important a source of information can be opened through a skillful question
• Focus on the position instead of the real interest
• declarativeness (abuse of phrases such as „I will be honest with you”)
• Succumbing to emotions

On the occasion of gaining negotiation experience and building their competences, negotiators usually gain workshop, but lose freshness. Of course, it is good if the negotiator acts more and more consciously, has a holistic view of the process and controls emotions.

But there is also a lot of bad sides of this „maturation”:

• Getting rid of the joy of negotiating
• treat negotiations as tasks rather than challenges
• tendency to treat interlocutors objectively

It is interesting that some people remain at the stage of „negotiating virginity” all their lives. It does not depend on age or years of work. You can have fifty years and thirty years of professional work behind you and still be „green”. It is only a matter of practice / negotiation.

Source: https://poradniknegocjatora.pl/dziewiczy-negocjator-virgin-negotiator/

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.