In coaching, there’s a concept known as ‘The Manual’ - an unspoken set of rules we hold other people to without their knowledge. 

In a negotiation scenario, this line of thinking can be problematic, counter-productive and destructive to our ability to really advocate for ourselves.

Our employers aren’t automatically aware of the specific core values we bring to an organization. Expecting them to “just know” erodes our confidence, and holds us back from optimizing our employment outcomes. 

How do we practically stop basing our success on how other people respond? How do we shift towards a more beneficial and empowering mindset? 

In this episode, I talk about why assumptions set us up for failure, and how to optimize what you control. 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The danger of trying to control other people in negotiation
  Why is it hard to fully advocate ourselves in a negotiation when we’re...

Negotiation can either be an antagonistic, competitive tug-of-war, or a relationship-building process where two sides come together in an agreement based on value. 

Even though it sounds contradictory, the greatest barrier to a successful negotiation is the fear of conflict, and if we want to sharpen our agreement-making skills, getting comfortable with it is essential. 

How do we fully advocate for ourselves without alienating the other party? What are the most counter-productive things we have to avoid in negotiation? 

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Bill Sanders, the author of a great new negotiation book, Creative Conflict. He shares why our learned aversion to conflict holds us back in negotiation, and how to overcome it. 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The power of small agreements and small wins
  How do we move a stalled negotiation forward leveraging high-value, low effort trade-offs? 
  
  
• How to...

The pandemic brought on a lot of changes that directly affected physicians, but as we slowly start to recover from the crisis, data around the real impact is starting to emerge. 

Thanks to the latest MGMA DataDive, we have a ton of interesting and even promising trends to consider and work with. 

There was a collective concern around how badly compensation would backslide because of the global crisis, but the data isn’t as bad as we thought it would be.

What does this data tell us about how different areas of medicine were impacted by the pandemic, and how we can use the information in our negotiations? 

In this episode, I do a deep dive into the latest MGMA DataDive, and why it’s still possible for us to earn what we’re worth as we collectively recover.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why we can still get paid what we’re worth 
  Many physicians are being told they can’t get increases because of the financial...

Human beings are programmed to see the world in A or B options, and this fosters a dichotomous way of thinking that works against us. 

When we show up to a negotiation with this mentality in tow, we risk leaving massive wins on the table. In a negotiation, it’s not just option A or option B - there’s an entire alphabet available to us, and we can access it if we shift our thinking. 

How do we break from the self-imposed limitation of dichotomous thinking? What are some of the amazing wins we can get when we’re not so fixated on one predetermined option?

In this episode, I’m going to talk about the danger of thinking in absolutes, how to approach your negotiation with an open mind and why that will benefit you immensely. 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why a negotiation doesn’t have to be a battle between their win and ours
  If the floor is their offer and the ceiling is our ideal offer, how do we tap into the range...

As the survival instinct of the pandemic fades and more people start considering if their jobs are really serving them, the resignation of at least 30% of the workforce is anticipated.  

But before we make any move, we have to make sure the things that weren’t serving us in our last job don’t follow us to the next one. If we have an unhealthy relationship with our work, no job change will bring us closer to a career that serves us. 

How can we tell if the toxic trait we are experiencing at the job isn’t something internal? Why do we need to overcome workaholism if we want a career that serves us?  

In this episode, I talk about why establishing a healthier relationship with our work will help us make the right decisions in our career path. 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The key mindset shift that will help us evaluate the next opportunity clearly
  Why do we have to take ownership and get to a neutral...

In any negotiation, we’re better equipped and poised for success when we prepare for all the ways our requests could be shot down before the conversation even begins. 

Walking into a negotiation unprepared puts us at an immediate disadvantage - and in the worst position to advocate for ourselves. By deliberately and strategically crafting our responses ahead of time, we’re more likely to get the package we want. 

In the things that you’re asking for, what are the reasons the other side could say no, and how can you turn that into an opportunity for mutually beneficial solutions that work for everyone? 

In this episode, I discuss how to work through the most common negotiating hurdles, and how to quickly pivot when we don’t get the answer we want. 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why it’s smart to prepare for obstacles ahead of time
  It’s human instinct to get defensive when someone says no....

Women have been conditioned to believe that wanting a salary that reflects our value is an act of greed. This is not a mindset built for optimizing your success.  

While there are societal constructs that hold us back, carrying around beliefs that don’t serve us is a huge barrier too. 

We have enough barriers to contend with already so taking our self doubt off the list makes the path to what we want a lot smoother. 

How do we combat the belief that wanting a better package is selfish? In the final part of our three-part series, I talk about how to bust through a huge internal obstacle to earning your full potential, and stop feeling guilty about negotiating for a better package. 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• How to stop letting societal constructs define us 
  We can’t fix societal constructs overnight, but refusing to believe them ourselves does empower us. How do we start investing in beliefs that...

As female physicians, we are battling systemic barriers that collectively keep us from earning millions more, but there are also factors we have a lot of control over. 

Confusion is one of them. 

We all know that sitting in confusion is not helpful, but we do it anyway, and set ourselves back significantly in the negotiating process. An energy and mindset of confusion is not where we need to be. We can’t achieve anything useful from a headspace of indecision, hesitation and uncertainty. 

What steps can we take to remove the obstacle of confusion from our path? 

In this episode, we dive into the second part of our three-part series on breaking down the barriers holding you back from earning what you should be, focusing specifically on confusion.
 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why confusion sets us back 
  The problem with confusion is that it’s an indulgent emotion, it feels productive but it’s not. It may...

If we don’t know what we’re up against in the negotiation process, we can’t strategize a path to a package that reflects our worth.  

We need to be able to go to bat for ourselves, and that’s difficult to do when the biggest obstacle is what we believe about ourselves. 

How do you go from worrying that you don’t offer enough to feeling like you do? How do seemingly benign beliefs cascade into us robbing ourselves of our potential? 

In this episode, we kick off a three-part series where we talk about the biggest obstacles between you and your dream package. Today, we talk about the negative effects of undervaluing ourselves. 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• How to set the tone of every negotiation 
  The way we think about ourselves sets the standard for how other people treat us. We need to be clear on what we are and aren’t willing to work for, place boundaries around those things and...

Saying yes to everything is a seemingly harmless act and the default response we’ve been conditioned to give, but does it actually serve us? When I look at this issue through the lens of physicians in the workforce, I can see the negative effects. 

Most of us struggle to say no to things that don’t align with us and this is evident in the alarming levels of physician burnout we’re seeing. 

As we become more deliberate about going after what serves us, we have to really get acquainted with the word “no”. It has to become our default answer. 

What questions do we need to ask ourselves before we say yes to anything? How do we honestly and deliberately evaluate our opportunity cost? 

In this episode, I talk about how to overcome the struggle with saying no, and how to carry that into our negotiations. 
 

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode  

• Why saying yes by default is a flawed approach 
  Most...