Negotiation Compromise Deal
Negotiating is a careful exploration of your position and the other person's position, with the goal of finding a mutually acceptable compromise that gives you both as much of what you want as possible. ‘In any negotiation, each side ultimately must choose between two options: accepting a deal or taking its best no-deal option- that is, the course of action it would take if the deal was not possible. Your negotiation problem is to understand and shape your counterpart's perceived decision- deal versus no deal- so that the other side chooses in its own interest what you want. …negotiation is the art of letting them have your way.' (Sebenius, 2001)
The other person may seem like having very different goals from the ones you expect, but in reality people's positions are rarely as fundamentally opposed as they may initially appear. Since we are trying to find a solution acceptable to both parties, we need to understand the other person's needs, and wants with respect to the issue. If we don't know what the person needs or wants, we will be unable to negotiate properly. Often, when we take the time to find out about the other person, we discover that there is no significant disagreement. In an ideal situation, you will find that the other person wants what you are prepared to trade, and that you are prepared to give what the other person wants. If this is not the case and one person must give way, then it is fair for this person to try to negotiate some form of compensation for doing so. Ultimately, both sides should feel comfortable with the final solution if the agreement is to be considered win-win. If you "win" there must be a loser, and that can create more difficulty down the road
‘The foundation for success in negotiation is not in the game playing or the dramatics. The dominant force for success in negotiation is in the planning that takes place prior to the dialogue.' (Lewicky, 2004) Negotiators differ in the goals they select. Goals can be specific (to achieve a particular outcome), or they can be more general (to pursue a broader set of interests). They can also be tangible, such as a particular rate or price or financial outcome, or they can be intangible, such as winning or defending a principle.
Negotiating is about finding solutions and need not be confrontational. When negotiating turns into each party trying to prove the other one wrong, no progress gets made, therefore the attitude that you take in negotiation is very important (hostile, cooperative) because it will set the tone for the interaction. If you are confrontational, there is a good chance that you will have a fight on your hands.
Americans consider salary the most important factor in considering a job opportunity. 89% of the respondents in a Job Satisfaction Survey conducted by SurveySite for CareerPath.com rated salary as being as most important when deciding whether to accept a job offer. In addition, more than 50% of the survey respondents believe they are underpaid.
Negotiating your salary is a two-way process where you and your prospective employer are each trying to get something you need. In a negotiation, you're both designing the terms of a transaction so that each of you will receive the maximum benefit from the final agreement.
Negotiating is a complex process but one worth mastering. Failure to consider all important aspects brings undue aggravation and frustration. My personal experience illustrates just this situation. Originally from Romania, I came to this country as part of an internship program. I ended up working for one of the best country clubs in Naples, FL. My plan was to improve my communication skills, gain as much experience as possible by working in different departments, save some money and finally get my MBA.
When one of the assistant managers left for a better opportunity, the general manager offered me the job and the possibility of being permanently employed by the club. He promised me he would sponsor my H1B visa and that was very important to me so I took the opportunity and went ahead and negotiated the salary and the benefits. We covered a lot of different aspects like regular benefits, further education, evaluations and so forth. We estimated the expenses related to my sponsorship at around $5000 so I accepted a salary that was more or less the normal pay for my position minus the $5000, which seemed fair at that time. We never signed a written contract since it was not customarily for the club to do so.
A couple of months after, the general manager himself went for a better opportunity and he wrote me a letter as proof of our verbal agreement. The gentleman that replaced him continued to offer me the support I needed with my sponsorship and I finally got my employment visa.
Everything went fine and dandy so the next year I was evaluated and offered a raise. This was the tricky part. Instead of getting a lump sum to absorb the loss in salary from the previous year, I received a percentage increase, which, applied to my base salary, barely raised my pay to the original value. Now that was frustrating… I went to my general manager and explained to him the situation, but he believed I was trying to twist his arm, so I didn't insist at that time.
The following months I had all these mixed emotions, from feeling unappreciated to feeling like I was being used (since my visa only allowed me to work for the club, nobody was concerned about me leaving).
I finally set an appointment with my boss and my proposal was to start a new salary negotiation from the idea of me being a new employee. I followed the 5 steps presented below and I managed to increase my base salary and have the possibility of a new raise with the new evaluations. They say that if you accept a job that pays you $5000 less than you deserve, when you are in your twenties, you will end up losing half a million throughout your career. I am happy to have all that extra money to spend…
The availability of online compensation information comes as a great resource for the employees when it comes to negotiating a job offer by making it possible to start on common ground. Employers who are confident in their pay practices benefit from it also and should welcome these new data sources, as they provide external validation that their compensation is competitive with the market. When negotiating your salary I recommend following the next 5 steps:
1. Find a benchmark job. The two parties compare the job description to that of a benchmark job. You have to make sure you know what job the company has compared yours to, and understand any discrepancies between their idea of your level and your own. Your responsibilities should be at least a 70 percent match to those of the benchmark position.
2. Agree on the performance level and proficiency. You and your employer should agree on where your performance fits in relation to the benchmark job description. Proficiency and performance are related, but not the same. You become proficient in a job as you acquire the relevant skills and your level of performance is how well you do that job. If you are very good at the technical requirements of your job, but have not developed solid soft skills, your performance review is likely to reflect these deficiencies. Also, if you have a winning attitude and are a solid team player but aren't yet good at the specific skills required for the job, your lack of proficiency could hold you back.
3. Find the market value of the job. It should be relatively easy to agree on the market value for that job, if you have agreed on a benchmark job in step 1. The data your company has is generally very specific to the company's compensation philosophy.
4. Find a range where your salary should fall. The company's pay philosophy and pay structure come into play here. After you and your employer have agreed what job you're doing, how well you're doing it, and what the market pays for that job, you're ready to discuss what you're worth to the company. Depending on the importance of your job to the company, your employer might actually pay you more than the median as part of a pay philosophy geared toward retaining people in your position. For example, a law firm might pay its administrative assistants above the market rate, because they are critical to organizing the firm's work and maintaining relationships with clients. Or, a software company might pay its programmers above market because their skills are so scarce.
5. Find out what performance is necessary for future salary increases. The last step of one salary negotiation should be the first step of the next. With this in mind, talk about your future - the next three to six months. Now is a perfect time to find out what specific performance objectives you need to achieve to get a larger raise or promotion in the near future. By discussing about future performance and expectations, you are both committing to a positive working relationship going forward.
Negotiate for a win-win. For a negotiation to be 'win-win', both parties should feel positive about the negotiation once it's over. This helps people keep good working relationships afterwards. Displays of emotion are clearly inappropriate because they undermine the rational basis of the negotiation and because they bring a manipulative aspect to them. Despite this, emotion can be an important subject of discussion because people's emotional needs must fairly be met. If emotion is not discussed where it needs to be, then the agreement reached can be unsatisfactory and temporary.
Reference:
Robert Bacal www.work911.com
Johanna Schlegel www.salary.com
Prof. Sungu Amargan Organizational Behavior (course)
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