The Negotiation You Keep Avoiding

What's the negotiation you keep avoiding?

The reasons: it feels aggressive, it might damage the relationship, you're not sure you have the leverage, you're not sure exactly what to ask for, you got what you got and it seems fine.

Fine is the cost of the avoidance.

The negotiation most people avoid is the one that would most directly change their situation.

The negotiation is not a confrontation.

It's a conversation about terms.

About the rules of engagement.

About respect.

Every professional situation involves terms. The terms are established somewhere. If you don't participate in establishing them, they're established by the other party.

The other party has an interest in the terms.

So do you.

Represent your interest.

The request for more compensation, however you define it, is not aggression.

It's the accurate and verbalized representation of what you believe your contribution to the relationship is worth.

The negotiation feels worse in anticipation than in execution.

Almost always.

Name it first. Then move. In that order.