The Power of Silence

In my capacity as Academy Chairman I recently attended our bi-annual chairs conference where one of the guests was Scilla Elworthy. Scilla set up the Oxford Research Group in the early 1980’s to bring together the key influencers and critics within the Nuclear weapons industry, paving the way for global unilateral disarmament and non-proliferation treaties.

During her presentation she highlighted the power of silence in negotiations, and it brought back to me the fact that the power of both silence, and listening are incredibly important in any negotiation, whether that be for significant international treaties, as we shall find out with Brexit, or just basic day to day selling techniques.

The best sales people use listening and silence equally well. No doubt you will have been approached by someone at an event and find out exactly what they are offering, regardless of whether you have a need or not; two ears, one mouth. Good sales people use them in that ratio, or another way to put it, good sales people are on “receive”, not “transmit”, listening to exactly what their customers have to say, rather what you think they want to hear.

Silence is equally as important and is one of the most powerful tools in negotiating. A well-placed pause feels psychologically uncomfortable and the negotiation counterpart will begin to fill the gap. However, silence can equally convey a considerable amount of conscious and sub-conscious emotional information and is used quite often in executive coaching. It really is incredible how much can be conveyed through non-verbal communication.

If you want to witness how emotions and feeling can be conveyed through silence this is a great video: https://youtu.be/mEcqoqvlxPY

So in conclusion listen well, “receiving” not “transmitting”, and use the power of silence to your advantage.

Justin Grace