The other day, CBL ran across an interesting mediation article in International Comparative Jurisprudence by Edward J. Kelly of the University of Tennessee and Natalija Kaminiskiené of Lithuania’s Mykolis Romeric University. The authors write about the important role played by emotions in the search for dispute resolution. This brought back many recollections from mediations, from settlement conferences, and from times when CBL represented individuals in litigation matters.
While there are a number of definitions of “emotional intelligence,” and no small amount of controversy in the scientific community about the validity of a number of them, Kelly and Kaminiskiené cite one definition and one model that are both critical in every negotiation. The definition is from Bowling & Hoffman (2000) Bringing Peace into the Room: The Personal Qualities of the Mediator and Their Impact on the Mediation. Bowling and Hoffman define emotional intelligence as “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.” And the four elements of the model from Bradberry & Greaves, 2009 Emotional Intelligence are these: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.
So let’s think about why this is important from the standpoint of both an attorney /advocate during the negotiation process and from that of a mediator. We'll do that right after the jump.
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