Specialist Sample Report
Interpersonal Needs — Synthetic Sample
An illustrative interpersonal needs report showing the structure and depth every participant receives after completing this specialist assessment.
Interpersonal Needs Profile
Use this report as a practical guide to how you tend to negotiate in this specific area. Start with your overall pattern, then look at the scores and behaviours behind it. Pay particular attention to where your strengths may become less useful under pressure and to the development actions you can test in real negotiations.
There are no 'good' or 'bad' profiles. The value comes from understanding your natural tendencies, where they help you and where greater choice could improve your effectiveness.
This specialist assessment is part of the Elite Negotiator Index™. It is a developmental self-report tool designed to support reflection and professional development in negotiation.
Your results describe patterns in the responses you provided. They are not a clinical assessment, a measure of personal worth, or a ranking against other negotiators.
Your Profile at a Glance
Your primary interpersonal need is Connection — you invest in genuine personal relationships with the people you negotiate with. You initiate connection more than you seek it, which means you set the relational tone rather than waiting for the counterpart to establish it. Your Belonging and Influence needs are moderate and balanced, giving you flexibility in how you engage with groups and structure.
Dimension scores range from 24 to 32 out of 40. Need scores (Initiate + Seek) range from 54 to 61 out of 80. Connection is your primary need.
Connection — the need for genuine personal relationship — drives your negotiation behaviour more than Belonging or Influence. You invest in rapport because it matters to you, not just because it is strategic.
Across all three needs, you tend to initiate rather than wait. You set the relational tone, include others, and establish connection rather than waiting for the counterpart to do so. This makes you proactive in shaping the interpersonal climate.
You are less likely to initiate control of the process or the agenda. This lets the counterpart set the structure, which can work well with collaborative counterparts but leaves you vulnerable to those who use process control strategically.
You build connection naturally but let the counterpart set the process more often than you should. Practice initiating one element of process control in your next negotiation — proposing the agenda, suggesting the order of issues, or framing the conversation — without abandoning the collaborative tone that makes your connections productive.
Your Interpersonal Needs Signature™
Your three interpersonal needs — what you initiate and what you seek.
| Need | Score | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Belonging | 54 / 80 | High |
| Influence | 54 / 80 | High |
| Connection | 61 / 80 | High |
How Your Pattern Works
You proactively build personal rapport with the counterpart. You invest in understanding them as a person, not just as a negotiating party, and you set a collaborative relational tone from the start.
Counterparts feel that you see them as a person, not just a position. This makes them more willing to share information, invest in the relationship, and look for joint gains.
You value personal rapport from the counterpart, but you do not need it before you can engage on substance. You initiate connection and hope it is reciprocated, but you can negotiate effectively without it.
You are not dependent on the counterpart's warmth. You can negotiate well with counterparts who are purely transactional, even though you prefer those who invest in the relationship.
Your Connection Initiate and Connection Seek dimensions work together to make you a proactive relationship builder who is not dependent on reciprocation. You initiate rapport because it matters to you, and you seek it because you value it — but you can function without it.
The risk is that your strength in connection can become a substitute for process influence. You build rapport instead of setting the agenda, which works with collaborative counterparts but leaves you vulnerable to those who use process control strategically.
They made it personal in a good way. I felt they saw me as a person, not just a position. That made me want to invest in the relationship and look for solutions that worked for both of us.
Sometimes I wanted them to take more control of the process. They built rapport well but let me set the agenda more than I expected.
Watch-Outs and Risks
Your signature is proactive connection with moderate belonging and influence needs. The watch-out is that your strength in connection can substitute for process influence. You build rapport instead of setting the agenda, which works with collaborative counterparts but leaves you vulnerable to those who use process control strategically.
| Dimension | Possible Over-Application |
|---|---|
| Belonging (Initiated) | Over-including people who do not need or want inclusion, which can slow decisions or dilute accountability. |
| Belonging (Sought) | Relying on group acceptance before acting, which can make you slow or indecisive when solo action is needed. |
| Influence (Initiated) | Over-controlling the process or the agenda, which can crowd out the counterpart and damage trust. |
| Influence (Sought) | Deferring to authority or structure to avoid responsibility for the outcome. |
| Connection (Initiated) | Over-connecting on a personal level, which can blur professional boundaries or create obligations. |
| Connection (Sought) | Needing personal rapport before engaging on substance, which can stall transactional negotiations. |
Before applying an interpersonal tactic, ask:
If not, reconsider the tactic.
Your Development Plan
In your next negotiation, propose the agenda or the order of issues before the counterpart does. This is a single, concrete act of process influence that does not require you to change your collaborative style.
Notice when you are building rapport as a substitute for guiding the process. Both matter, but they are different skills. Practice doing both — connecting and guiding — in the same conversation.
Not every negotiation requires deep personal rapport. Practice calibrating your connection investment to the relationship — more for long-term partners, less for one-off transactions.
Before your next negotiation, write down one element of process control you will initiate — proposing the agenda, suggesting the order of issues, or framing the opening. Keep it simple and concrete.
Initiate that element of process early, before the counterpart sets the structure. Notice whether it changes the dynamic — and whether you can do it without abandoning your collaborative tone.
Ask yourself: did initiating process control change the negotiation? Did it feel natural or forced? If it felt forced, what would make it feel more natural next time?
The best negotiators do not choose between connection and process control. They do both — building genuine rapport while guiding the structure of the conversation. Connection without guidance leaves the process to the counterpart.
This profile reflects your self-reported interpersonal needs in negotiation. It describes the needs that tend to be most active in your negotiation behaviour, not a measure of your social skill or likability. Higher needs are not better or worse — they describe what you tend to seek and initiate. The objective is awareness of your needs and the range to calibrate them to the situation.
Synthetic sample report — all scores and narratives are illustrative and do not represent any real respondent.