Create a Successful Negotiation BEFORE You Get There

Last week, I posted a poll asking "What negotiation do YOU wish you could handle better?" The most votes went to "salary/promotion." I promised to share some tips on this. You'll find that below.

Here's the reason I asked. On International Women's Day, I was lucky to speak on negotiation before the #FollowFriday Conference for professional women. Diane Roka kindly did this sketch of my session.

You can't tell it from the picture, but this program had it going on. Like you, the group voted to work on a salary negotiation. The scenario they created on the spot was asking for a raise and more responsibilities from our boss, named Bob.

Tips: Ask Better Questions to Prepare Yourself

As part of this, we dove into questions people don't ordinarily think of in advance:

• What is Bob afraid of?
• What does he want?
• What are his career goals?
• What buttons do we push on him/does he push on us?
• What will we do to avoid those problems -- or handle them if they come up?

When it was over, every person left with two things: 1) one action she/he was going to take, plus 2) an accountability partner to report back to the following week on the results of that action. (Why leave what you discover in a room when you can use it to make a difference in your life -- and share it with an interesting person who wants to support you?)

How Are You Feeling about Your Next Negotiation?

If you're facing a challenging negotiation -- or other communication -- I'll extend the same offer that the people in this session received. Schedule a 15-minute Negotiation Nugget chat with me. You'll get at least one good idea you can use right away to make your next negotiation more successful.

Or, if you're fine but there's a group in your organization that could benefit from this, you can talk with me about that, too.

Here's the link to make this happen:

My thanks to Robyn Addis for inviting me to her inaugural conference. Everyone who attended is hoping there will be more!

Lynne Franklin is a neuroscience nerd,?TEDx?speaker, communication advisor and?author. She specializes in fast-tracking women leaders in male-dominated fields. Connect with her at?www.dhirubhai.net/in/lynnefranklin,?www.YouTube.com/LynneFranklin,?@LynneFranklin?and?www.LynneFranklin.com.?