How to Keep your Poker Face During Tense Procurement Moments

In procurement, there’s a million and one reasons you might need to hide your emotions. Perhaps, for example, you’re negotiating a favourable deal with a supplier, but, for whatever reason, you don’t think you have the upper hand. Or perhaps you’re negotiating for a promotion or a pay rise, yet you’re suffering from a crippling case of imposter syndrome. 

For procurement professionals, and indeed for aspiring leaders, emotions are powerful: they are what help us bring passion to our work and lead and inspire others. Yet at the same time, in order to remain cool, calm and collected in tense situations, we need to be able to effectively hide them. We need to be able to gain control over not just our words, but our intonation and body language as well. 

We need to be able to bring our poker faces. 

Here’s how to do so: 

Step 1: Figure out what gives you away 

The first step to perfecting your poker face is to figure out what causes it to crumble in the first place. In order to do this, think back to the last tense procurement situation you were in. Did you stop making eye contact? Did you feel the need to fill a silence and start talking too much as a result? Or perhaps you reached for your phone? 

If you’re finding it hard to figure out what gives you away, try asking a trusted colleague or friend. 

Once you’ve figured out what gives you away, try to consciously notice yourself behaving in this way the next time you do it. The first step to controlling what you’re doing is to consciously recognise it. 

Step 2: Work to maintain neutral body language 

When you’re in a tense procurement situation and you’re starting to feel stressed, nervous or under pressure, your behaviour will automatically change. And even if you’ve recognised what this behavioural change looks like, sometimes it can be harder to substitute it than you may think. 

Often, when people are in the process of perfecting their poker face, they become too conscious of their body language and intonation, and adopt a cold, stoic stance instead. This, however, can be taking things a little too far: if you become completely shut off from the person you are negotiating with, they can take this as a sign of disinterest. 

In order to calm your emotions so you can maintain more neutral body language, try taking a few slow, deep breaths and imagine all the stress draining from your face and body. You may even need to do some subtle physical exercises to ensure this occurs, for example, try loosening your jaw, letting your shoulders drop a little, and focusing on something in the distance to relax your eye muscles. 

If you’re feeling stressed, you’ll also need to proactively take control of your tone of voice, as you may be speaking faster or with higher intonation. To reverse this, try speaking from your diaphragm (your lower belly). 

Step 3: Practice responding (not reacting) 

A poker face is, after all, a face that can respond in the most appropriate way in any situation: not a face that doesn’t respond at all. For that reason, once you’ve identified what gives you away and practiced taking control of your body language and intonation, the next step is to practice doing all of this in the most natural way possible.

To do so, you’ll often need to calm your nervous system before you find yourself in a tense situation. You can do this by: 

• Grounding yourself: Techniques you can use may include counting backwards from 100, identifying certain items in a room, or stretching. 
• Visualising certain scenes: Try visualise a scene that calms you, whether this is your bedroom or an exotic ocean you’ve visited. 
• Cold exposure: Try washing your hands in cold water or splashing your face. 

Despite its importance, maintaining a ‘poker face’ in procurement can be harder than it seems. Remember, though, that having one doesn’t mean that you don’t have emotions, it simply means that you aren’t showing them. Practice is key to mastering this essential skill. 

What do you do to maintain your poker face in tense situations? Let us know in the comments below.