When anger breaks out in the boardroom: think twice before you do any table pounding--and then follow these 'rage' rules.

• Author: Salomon, Richard
• Position: BOARD DYNAMICS

BILLIONAIRE Kirk Kerkorian's ally Jerry York has quit the General Motors board, but not before trading angry words more commonly exchanged between street toughs than directors of one of the world's largest corporations. "Who does this guy from Las Vegas think he is, telling us what to do," GM director Armando Codina is reported to have said. York, knowing the remark was a nasty reference to Kerkorian, who has made a fortune in gaming, punched back, "Excuse me?"

Never lose your cool. That's what we tell ourselves. To get the deal done, we believe we must keep the negotiations polite or at least "professional," and that there is a positive correlation between civility in negotiations and a successful outcome. But sometimes anger--or even rage--breaks out in negotiations: a raised voice, table-pounding, finger-pointing, rudeness, ridicule, personal attacks, accusations, insults, threats, or just a hostile silence.

What's going on? Are these regrettable disruptions to be smoothed over as quickly as possible, or are they helpful and clarifying episodes?

Uses of anger

To answer these questions, you must understand what is going on when anger breaks out. Here are some of the ways people use anger in negotiations:

* Time for a Change: Frustrated with an adversary's lack of appreciation of his or her position and faced with the growing possibility of a bad outcome, a negotiator feels the need to shake things up. I was once instructed by an executive of a financial institution, unhappy with the way negotiations were going, to "cause a storm." I did, with the salutary result of drawing the attention of our adversary's most senior people and causing them to take a fresh look at the situation--clearing up a persistent misunderstanding and changing the direction of the negotiations.

* Chest-Beating: Often a display of anger is an attempt to demonstrate one's status or to intimidate, dominate, or establish control over an adversary. This may be a necessary, clarifying event if there has been confusion about who is the boss. Anger may be used defensively by a negotiator who feels the need to establish that he will not be bullied. Or a negotiator, sensing that the adversary is taking advantage of his side's infatuation with the deal, may look for an opportunity to display some anger to show the adversary that they might, after all, walk away.

* "Punching above His Weight": A negotiator in a weak position may try to achieve better results than the objective...