Four Keys to Great Negotiations for Engineers

"So much of life is a negotiation - so even if you're not in business, you have opportunities to practice all around you." ~ Kevin O'Leary

Negotiations are a fact of life. We cannot avoid them. Whether we are negotiating compensation for a new job, the price of something we are trying to buy, a large corporate agreement, or even what to eat for dinner, we are constantly negotiating.

For many engineering companies, this is the time of year where compensation reviews take place and budgets are allocated for raises. This is a great time for practicing negotiation skills! But it's not the only time you should be trying to negotiate in your life.

This isn't something most engineers ever learn or get trained how to do, but it's worth learning! Start here with four ways you can improve your negotiation skills today!

Always Look for Negotiation Opportunities

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." ~ Wayne Gretzky

One of the biggest problems with negotiations is that many people do not even try! Usually this is because they think that issues are not open for negotiation. The truth is, unless there is some sort of ethics issue involved, it is always OK to ask if things are negotiable. This can have huge effects on your life and career.?

Just take salary for example: Imagine if you negotiate an additional $5k/year in starting salary for your first job and an additional 1% increase in salary per year. The cost of not negotiating can be in the millions of dollars over the course of your career, even though it seems so small upfront. That's huge!

Just ask and see what happens. The worst thing they can say is "no," which gets you the same result as if you never asked!

Find the Win-Win

"The win-win mentality is fundamental not just to business but to all of life's relationships. It's the ticket to entry into any human being's heart." ~ Stephen R. Covey

Many of us have the wrong idea about the idea of winning a negotiation. We wrongly think that negotiations always result in winners and losers. Sometimes this is true, but it does not have to be.?

We can get caught in the trap or perception that we are working with a “fixed pie” — that there are only so many resources to go around, and we must fight over them in negotiations. Often, there are mixed motives involved, where interests do not directly line up across parties.

Win-win negotiations are possible in many cases. It’s not easy, but it can be done. Work to embrace the win-win mentality in all your interactions and negotiations, and you'll be glad you did.

Seek to Understand

"Place a higher priority on discovering what a win looks like for the other person." ~ Harvey Robbins

To find those win-win opportunities, you will have to spend time deeply understanding the interests and desires of your negotiation partner. This is especially true if there are multiple items that are being negotiated.?

Each of you may have different priorities or values associated with each item for negotiation. This is a good thing. This means that you each have the opportunity to give up something of less value in order to receive something of more value.?

Spend a lot of time asking questions that help you understand every interest of your negotiation partner. Being genuinely curious about what they care about will not only help you know what items you should focus on, but also help build trust.?

Similarly, it is very important to share your interests or what you want in the negotiation. Being coy or failing to reveal your interests makes it such that the other side must guess your interests, and people do not often guess correctly. This means that you are less likely to get what you want.?

Successful negotiation is like a puzzle that needs to be put together. It takes time to make the discoveries, but it can also be kind of fun!

Learn from Each Experience

"We do not learn from experience… We learn from reflecting on experience." ~ John Dewey

It is hard to appropriately debrief and get feedback in real-life negotiations. Rarely will people share exactly how satisfied they were with the negotiation outcome. However, like anything else in life, if you are not continually seeking to learn and improve, you will not get any better.?

Perform some personal analysis and reflection from each negotiation experience. Ask a friend who knows something about the issues at hand for their thoughts and ideas.?

If negotiations are foreign or scary to you, learn more about them! Take a short course on negotiations, watch some YouTube videos, or find a coach (like me!) who can help you through a negotiation situation.?

Negotiations are a part of life — if you can focus more on what the other parties are trying to accomplish and help them do that without sacrificing what is most important to you, you can develop those win-win opportunities.

Take Ambitious Action

Identify one thing you can negotiate about with someone. This could be the due date of a project milestone, the price of something on Craigslist, or where you want to go to dinner with a friend or spouse.

How can you "seek to understand" what they want? What do they really value? Can you find a win-win situation?

Even if it feels uncomfortable, step out and ask for a negotiation. Just try it. See what happens and learn from the experience!

Accelerate Your Career

If you're ready to accelerate your career and leadership further and want some help doing it, here are a few ways I can help when you're ready:

1. Watch a FREE Engineering Career Masterclass - the 4 Keys to Intentional Engineering Career Transitions
2. Enroll in the Engineering Career Accelerator - the exact system that dozens of engineers have used to go from confused to thriving in their careers.
3. Schedule a free call with me to talk about getting personalized 1:1 and group support on your goals.