Sessions

We negotiate all the time at work even when we do not recognize we are doing so. Although we associate negotiation with formal agreements and contracts, often the most important negotiations occur in the everyday work we do at our companies. We negotiate for the resources we need to do our jobs well. We negotiate to get credit and value for our work, work that is may be beyond the formal requirements of our jobs and is often invisible. We negotiate for opportunities and the roles we want and for schedules that work with our lives. These negotiations can be challenging. 

 

When we negotiate at work, not only are we advocating for ourselves, with its own obstacles, but we are often raising issues or problems that others might be reluctant to engage. How we fare depends on how well we can position ourselves in the negotiation and use what leverage we have to get reluctant negotiators to the table. It requires that we take the lead to “anchor” the negotiation around creative solutions that acknowledge the constraints we all operate under.  And finally, we need to be prepared to deal with resistance to our ideas and have ways to get a potential agreement back on track.