by Tina Cherpes, Featured Contributor
The most documented money fear for women is commonly referred to as Bag Lady Syndrome; anxiety about the sudden disappearance of financial security.
In fact, The Washington Times reports that “While a startling 90% of women surveyed say they feel financially insecure, nearly half are troubled by a tremendous fear of becoming suddenly destitute”.
Yet when it comes to taking a long-term approach toward financial security, many of us do not actively and deliberately negotiate our professional compensation. A study done by researchers at the University of Illinois and Southern Methodist University found that women who consistently negotiated their salaries, increased their lifetime compensation by as much as $1 million.
So how do we get better at negotiating? First, we need to understand that negotiation is a learned skill and is an ongoing and integral part of the four-phase universal sales cycle. The result of any successful negotiation benefits both parties and creates win-win outcomes. Bear in mind that while our focus here is financial, negotiations are not limited to monetary discussions; obtaining additional resources, added schedule and location flexibility, vacation time, training, and continuing education are just a few of the potential areas that in addition to salary, can be included in workplace negotiations.
Long before we entered the workforce, many of us had confidently negotiated our interests with our parents, siblings, partners, spouses, and/or children. We learned how to successfully negotiate through years of situational testing to find what worked and what didn’t. Learning how to apply these types of learned behaviors to the professional arena isn’t radically different; it too simply requires a learned skill-set that is enhanced through ongoing and deliberate practice.
If we trust the Universities’ research findings, we can influence our lifetime compensation by a million dollars when we learn to successfully negotiate. And, an extra million may in fact go a long way in curbing our Bag Lady Syndrome anxieties.
