As many seasoned professionals know, career success is rarely linear and often involves multiple forks in the road. Determining the best options for you takes practice and a strategic eye, as well as strong negotiation skills.
Dr. Paula Gutlove, instructor of Negotiating Your Career Success at Harvard Extension School, offers her insights and strategies on unlocking career growth through self-advocacy.
Negotiating Your Career Success is a four-day on-campus course that teaches students how to leverage their career assets to create effective negotiation opportunities. It also develops skills like empowerment, self-advocacy, and recognizing and creating career negotiation opportunities.
Meet Our Expert
Why does career success require negotiation beyond the traditional salary conversations?
Career success means something different for everyone, and how you define it for yourself will ultimately drive your career journey.
Objective criteria
- Involves tangible, measurable outcomes
- Examples: financial stability, career growth, recognition
Subjective criteria
- Focuses on internal feelings and perceptions
- Examples: job satisfaction and fulfillment, work-life balance, sense of purpose, and meaningful imapcts
It’s important to broaden our understanding of the negotiation process; it’s not just about competitive, win-lose bargaining. Instead, negotiation can be a process of collaborative problem-solving in which parties discuss their respective interests and create value together by creating win-win, mutually beneficial solutions.
In career negotiations, this reframing implies that the interests of the job seeker — finding the right job — dovetail with the interests of the employer — finding the right person.
Refine your requirements
- Determine your personal criteria for career success
- Prioritize your interests and needs (what is essential vs. what would be nice, but not a deal breaker)
- Apply your criteria to your next steps
What are some tips for clarifying what you truly want in your career?
A successful career journey starts with reflective self-assessment. Your life experiences will influence your perceptions and interests, so self-assessment should be an iterative and evolving process. Becoming clear about what you know, value, want, and expect from a career is key to conducting an effective job search.
If you are considering a career transition, self-assessment will help you to understand why you are no longer satisfied with your current situation and identify what needs to change, and which opportunities excite you.
Factors to consider:
- Work-life balance
- Work style
- Core values
- Personal and professional goals
- Financial stability
- Professional growth
- Pursuing interests or passions
Questions to ask yourself:
- What do you want from your career and why do you want it?
- What are your career objectives?
- What does your ideal job look like?
- What do you need to feel fulfilled during your career journey?
- What are your unique skills, strengths, and gifts, and how do you want to use these in your workplace?
What are the risks of not advocating for yourself as a professional?
Studies show that many people, whether embarking on their career journey or already engaged in it, aren’t clear on what they truly want and why they want it. Without clarity, it’s challenging to prioritize your interests and needs, and self-advocacy is nearly impossible. Over time, this can lead to dissatisfaction with roles, compensation, and growth opportunities — and ultimately to frustration, stress, and burnout.
How can professionals build their negotiating power outside of simply moving up the ladder?
Power in interest-based negotiation is more about what each party can do for each other, rather than to each other. Together, three key sources of power can help you balance organizational power — the power of position and authority within an organizational structure.
Sources of negotiation power
Informational power
Comes from your ability to assemble, organize, and present data to support your position, arguments, and desired outcomes
Personal power
Relates to how powerful you feel, how confident you are, and the value that you bring to the table — i.e., what you can do for the other party
Contextual power
Arises from knowing your options, both at the negotiation table and away from it, to meet your needs
How do communication skills relate to negotiation?
Interest-based negotiation requires strong communication skills to build trusting relationships. To be an effective negotiator, you must listen actively and express yourself clearly. In doing so, you learn how to balance assertion and empathy.
These two key qualities work together and allow you to both advocate for your interests and demonstrate a nonjudgmental understanding of others and their concerns.
As you listen carefully to the other party, you gain insights into their perspectives and interests. You are then better able to articulate your own needs in ways that resonate and develop options that satisfy both sides — creating mutual gains and win-win solutions.
How can professionals show up authentically in their negotiations?
Becoming an empowered, articulate, interest-based negotiator involves learning what’s important to you and advocating for it. Research shows that, for most professionals, work with meaning and purpose is more important than any other aspect of their jobs — including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, and working conditions. Those who experience their work as meaningful are more engaged, committed, and satisfied.
To find your own authentic, unique negotiation voice, you need first to determine what is important to you and what is your unique value, meaning, and purpose. Then, you will be able to talk about what you care about, with clarity, conviction, courage, and heart.
