In 2006, researchers from Northwestern University, New York University and Stanford ran a deceptively simple experiment. They handed participants a marker and asked them to draw the capital letter E on their own forehead.
There are two ways to do it. You can orient the E so you can read it yourself, which produces a mirror image to anyone facing you. Or you can orient it so the person in front of you can read it clearly.
Professor Adam Galinsky and his colleagues found that participants primed to feel powerful were almost three times more likely to draw the self-oriented version (i.e the E written so they could read it themselves).¹
That finding tells you something important about what power can do to the way you see a situation. Once you understand that, high-stakes negotiations start to look less like a test of authority and more like a test of perspective.
This is the first article in a three-part series I am writing on negotiation and power. Across the series, we will explore what it takes to see clearly, prepare wisely and move deliberately when the stakes are high.
What Power Does to Your Thinking
We tend to assume that power is an asset at the negotiating table, whether it comes from seniority, positional authority, access to resources or a strong track record. In some respects, that assumption is correct. But the research tells a more complicated story.
Power can pull your attention inward. It can orient you toward your own goals, position and vantage point. That inward orientation is part of what makes powerful people feel confident, decisive and ready to act.
But here is where the complication emerges: the same mechanism that sharpens your focus on your objectives can reduce your capacity to model what the other party is thinking, feeling and willing to accept.
Consequently, power not only changes how others respond to you. It can also change how you process the situation in front of you.
When people feel powerful, they often become more action-oriented, more confident and more focused on their own goals.² Those qualities can be useful in a negotiation. They help you move, decide and advocate for what matters.
But there is a trade-off.
The same confidence that helps you act can also make it easier to miss what is going on for the person across the table. Their constraints, concerns and priorities, along with the deal or outcome they might accept if you understood their world more clearly.
That is what Professor Galinsky and his colleagues found. High-power participants were less accurate in reading others’ emotional expressions, less likely to account for what the other party knew or did not know, and more likely to anchor too heavily on their own perspective when processing information.
They were no less intelligent or less experienced. They were less tuned in to the person across the table.
In negotiation, this matters.
The best agreements often emerge when you understand what sits beneath the other party’s stated position: the pressures they are managing, the interests they are protecting and the outcome they need to justify.
When power narrows your lens, you are more likely to miss those signals. You may still reach an agreement, but it may be more limited than the conversation could have produced.
That is the blind spot power can create. It does not always stop you from landing the deal or reaching a conclusion, but it can stop you from seeing the better option and outcome that was available.
The Cost of a Narrowed Lens
Professor Deborah Gruenfeld, author of Acting with Power, offers a useful reminder: power is not simply something you have.³ It is a role you play in someone else’s story.
That matters at the negotiating table. If you walk in anchored only in your own story, objectives, pressure and preferred outcome, you can narrow the conversation before it has properly begun.
I have seen this play out many times. A leader enters a significant negotiation well-prepared and clear on their objectives. They negotiate with skill, hold their position and walk away with a deal, while still leaving value on the table.
That outcome isn’t because they were outmanoeuvred, but because they never fully explored what the other party needed. While that isn’t a failed negotiation, it is a constrained one.
Many leaders experience constrained negotiations not because they lack skill, but because power has quietly narrowed their field of view.
The good news is that once you notice this pattern, you can work against it. You can adjust your lens, ask better questions and become more capable of finding the agreements others miss.
Adjust Your View: The LENS Framework
LENS is a four-discipline approach that you can use to counteract the perspective-narrowing effect of power.
You can use these disciplines both before and during a negotiation.
L: Lower your positional lens
Before you enter the room, consciously set your title and authority aside.
Rather than seeing yourself as the person in a room with a position, see yourself as a person working to solve a problem with another person.
Making that shift in orientation changes how you listen, what you ask and what you notice. This is harder than it sounds, because power can prime you to do exactly the opposite. Naming this deliberately before the conversation begins is the first step toward counteracting it.
E: Explore their reality
Next, put yourself in their shoes and consider their reality.
This is not about focusing only on what they explicitly ask for. It is about going a level deeper and considering what they may actually need, but are not yet willing or able to express.
It helps to consider:
- What pressures are they under?
- What would a good outcome look like from where they are standing?
- What are they protecting?
These questions help you see what is really shaping the conversation, and where a better agreement may be possible.
As I have written previously, perspective-taking is one of the most powerful tools available to any negotiator. The specific challenge for leaders is that power can suppress the instinct to use it. That is why deliberately exploring the other party’s reality needs to become a non-negotiable part of your approach.
N: Navigate with questions, not assertions
The powerful instinct is to state your position clearly and defend it. And there is a genuine advantage from setting the first anchor, provided the anchor is well informed.
The risk is moving too quickly before you understand enough about the other party’s reality.
That is why, particularly early in a negotiation, the more effective discipline is often to ask far more than you tell.
Questions do two things at once. They gather the information you need, and they signal that you are not operating from a closed position.
It helps to ask:
- What do they need most from this outcome?
- What constraints are they working within?
- What would make this work for them?
These questions may sound simple. In practice, they can be some of the most strategically useful moves you make.
S: Seek the deal behind the deal
Once you have explored the other party’s reality and asked better questions, new options often start to emerge.
You may discover that the issue they appear to be holding firm on is not the issue that matters most. You may find that timing, risk, recognition, certainty, flexibility or implementation support matters more than price or headline terms.
This is where better agreements and stronger outcomes are found.
Professor Galinsky and his colleagues found that perspective-taking can help negotiators discover hidden agreements and create more value at the table.⁴ The reason is simple: when you understand what matters to the other party, you are better placed to structure an agreement that works for both sides.
The deal behind the deal is rarely visible from a fixed position. It becomes visible when you have taken the time to explore, listen and ask.
The Leader Who Sees Further
Power at the negotiating table is useful, but it is not neutral. It changes how others respond to you and what you notice.
So, handle it with care.
The leaders who negotiate most effectively are not necessarily the ones who apply the most pressure. They are the ones who understand how power can narrow their perspective, and who deliberately widen their field of view before the conversation begins.
So before your next negotiation, pause and adjust your lens. Look beyond your own position. Explore what matters to the other party. Ask before you assert. Seek the deal behind the deal.
Because the agreements worth finding are often just outside the frame you walked into the conversation with.
Of course, seeing clearly is only part of the equation. If positional power is not your real source of strength at the negotiating table, what is?
That is the question the next piece in this series explores. And the answer changes how you prepare.
If you want to go deeper on how perspective-taking and curiosity work together in practice, that piece is a useful companion to the LENS framework.
Getting you ready for tomorrow, today®
Award-winning author and global workplace expert, Dr Michelle Gibbings, helps leaders, teams and organisations unlock strategic influence to accelerate progress.
References:
- Galinsky, A. D., Magee, J. C., Inesi, M. E., & Gruenfeld, D. H. (2006). Power and perspectives not taken. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1068–1074. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01824.x
- Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Anderson, C. (2003). Power, approach, and inhibition. Psychological Review, 110(2), 265–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.110.2.265
- Gruenfeld, D. H. (2020). Acting with power: Why we are more powerful than we believe. Currency.
- Galinsky, A. D., Maddux, W. W., Gilin, D., & White, J. B. (2008). Why it pays to get inside the head of your opponent: The differential effects of perspective taking and empathy in negotiations. Psychological Science, 19(4), 378–384. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02096.x