Too chilly the bosses? A study, which franceinfo reveals to you this Friday, October 21, 2022, conducted among nearly 500 leaders by Opinionway for The Trusted Agency, an organization which notably offers training in negotiations led by a former Raid officer, shows that they are many dread the key moment of wage negotiations. Because if the negotiations are slipping, it may be because the business leaders, who are in charge of conducting wage negotiations, simply do not like it.
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A third of leaders say they fear the moments of negotiation. A feeling that grows stronger as they get older: it mainly affects people over fifty. Worse, these leaders find themselves bad for facing this moment. 24% of respondents to this study do not find themselves sufficiently eloquent in a negotiation situation. And more than one manager in ten has already preferred to flee or delegate the discussion to a subordinate!
In question: these bosses find that the employees go too far. A third of them, 34%, consider the demands of their employees often excessive. This generates significant stress for them: 15% of business leaders dread the idea of dealing with aggressive employees. Women are also twice as stressed about this idea as men. Moreover, 9% of managers acknowledge having experienced major conflicts caused by negotiations that went badly.
However, many of them are about to lead discussions. This is the opinion of Laurent Combalbert, this former Raid negotiator who now puts himself at the service of companies. He explains to us that all of his clients, from the large group to the SME, are in the logic of negotiations and that they will not go there reluctantly, that they are ready to let go of purchasing power and value sharing. More difficult for them, and more stressful, are negotiations with suppliers. Renegotiations of contracts that will take into account the rise in energy prices.
Among the many tips that Laurent Combalbert gives to approach these negotiations more calmly, there is that of putting aside your emotions. “A good negotiator has no ego”, he summarizes. You have to write the ideal point for yourself and the breaking point, beyond which you will not go. And do it well in advance, with a cool head.
The interviews were carried out from September 15 to October 6, 2022 with a sample of 440 managers representative of companies with 20 or more employees.