Hello and welcome everyone. We are going to give it just a moment for everyone to get into the zoom room and then we are going to get started. Right. Okay, I am going to go ahead and get started with a welcome here. Thank you all so much for joining us for the women in practice management virtual conference. This is the first time we are doing an event like this and we are thrilled to have you joining us today. I have just a few housekeeping items before we get started with our keynote speaker. First, we have everyone in listen only mode, but if you have questions, feel free to drop them in the Q&A box in the meeting. You can also interact with each other in the chat. Just make sure that you are selecting everybody when you are writing the message. In between sessions, you can use the chat in the lobby to interact with fellow attendees. And finally, this conference would not be possible without our wonderful sponsors. From Anovis, who is our main event sponsor, to the sponsor of each of our sessions, we are so grateful for their support. The keynote sponsor for this session is ProScan. And if you have not already, you will also be receiving an attendee gift from this sponsor. So, those are all the items that I've got as we are getting ready to get started. So, I am so excited to introduce you today to Amy Lutke, who is going to be talking about the art of a negotiation with everyone. So, Amy, take it away. Thank you so much, Jessica. It's a pleasure to be with each of you today and to be the keynote of this incredible conference. I'm going to talk with each of you today about the art of negotiation because I believe that in my time on this earth, I started out my career and thought, boy, I could never negotiate anything in my career, much less in my personal life. I would just take things as they were handed. And fortunately, that didn't last too long. And I want to share some success stories with you because by being part of Empowered Women, we have the opportunity to really lead and be able to embrace negotiation and be able to live the life of our dreams. So, as we get started today, I'd like for you to think about being inspired. Here comes a quote from someone from way, way back when, and that is, the secret to getting ahead is getting started. So, let's put that procrastination aside, anything that we've been holding back on relative to things that we want in our work life or personal life. And let's think about ways that we can really embrace the opportunities negotiation has for us. Now, why should you listen to me? Well, for a couple of reasons. Number one, I started three successful companies in my career, and I've been very grateful and blessed to have been able to have that happen. Something magical happened in 2017. I was able to sell my company, Integrity HR, to Fifth Third Bank. And for a variety of reasons, things didn't work out as they planned. So, I was able to purchase the company back in 2019. And then this year, I was able to resell my business to Marsh McLennan. So, you'll see my new contact information here in a few slides. But buying, selling, and reacquiring a business is really a lot of negotiation and maybe a lot of grit too. And I really am excited to be able to share some of my experiences with you. And I'd love to hear in the chat about what are some of the things that are on your mind that you would like to negotiate. So, as we get started today, have you ever wondered what it would be like to negotiate what you want in your job, in your time off, for your life, for your family? What's holding you back from negotiating some of the things that are going to help you live the life of your dreams? What would your life be like with some of those things that you have always wanted? Well, there's only one problem with that. And that is sometimes we just hold ourselves back. We are our own worst enemy when it comes to negative thinking, maybe loss in confidence, maybe accepting what we've been given. And so, for many years in our career, we've just said, I'm going to accept this without being empowered to make change. And now is an opportunity for each one of us to think about what is it that we want in our life? What is the dream that we have? What are the things that we'd like to negotiate to improve our lives and to improve our overall happiness? Well, ladies, I'd like to encourage you and let you know that now is the time. There's no more need to hold back. It's all about changing our mindset. And one of the things I've learned over the years is to create a motto for what is it that you want to have in your life? And my motto is negotiate everything, because if you don't ask for it, the answer is always no. And I mean, this applies to all kinds of things like past due charges on a credit card statement, even speeding tickets, discounts at your favorite jewelry store, salon purchases, upgrades, you name it. I've got a list here. And I can tell you, I have a friend of mine that we have a little game going on with speeding tickets. And she's one up on me right now because I lost the battle with the last police officer. And I don't try to make a habit of speeding, but occasionally just my luck is not the best. And you know what? It's interesting the kinds of things that you can talk about when it comes with negotiation. So there's not a whole lot of things that are off limits. And I'd encourage you to think about what are very small things before we start looking at our work type of benefits. What are some small things that you can negotiate to start gaining confidence that, hey, this isn't as hard as it might seem? I'm going to walk through that with you, but think about those things. And this is a good list to take as a starting place. One of the things that we've probably all heard about is the gender wage gap. And this is it's been a problem for ever since women entered the workforce that typically the wages can oftentimes be less. In this particular study, 82 cents for every dollar paid to men is what women's wages were noted as. I don't think that's always the case, but I do think that, you know, for a variety of reasons, women's salaries have been impacted through the years and there's still catch up that needs to take place. So when we think about those things that have taken place in our situations, some of us may be still a little below where we need to be. Some of us may be fine, but it's an opportunity for us to really reflect on not only where do we want to negotiate to improve our life overall, but where do we want to negotiate wages for our current position, a future position, or maybe when new responsibilities are placed on our shoulders. This puts us in a position of opportunity, an opportunity that we need to embrace. Let's talk a little bit about what negotiation is. I think we have to identify that it's really a process. And sometimes when you think about negotiation, it's it could be a power struggle, right? I think about times in my life where I was terrified to approach my boss about an opportunity, whether I needed more time off or flexibility at work. And I thought, wow, he has a lot more power than I do. I'm surely not going to be able to get the things that I need. And what I found out about that in time was I was wrong. I just was not prepared. And so today, what I want you to think about with negotiation is this has to be planned. It has to be intentional and good negotiators are people that have excellent communication skills and they have excellent relationship abilities. When I think about some of the best negotiators that I've ever worked with, they're people who just don't have any trouble managing up to their boss, managing with their peers and managing their team members. And a lot of times the most successful negotiators I've seen like to add a little bit of humor into this negotiation process. And you know what that does? It really takes the edge off. It doesn't mean that it's win lose. It doesn't mean somebody is going to have to be angry, but negotiation can be somewhat fun. And if you let it be a little whimsical, too. So when we think about defining our negotiations, we also have to think about it from a workplace standpoint and a personal standpoint. You know, we can look at our contracts. If anyone has a contract about pay and benefits or promotional opportunities, job title changes, job offers and time off. This is a big one. Divorce. Oh, boy, that's a tough one in our personal life if anyone's had to go through that. But when we're thinking about things that we can negotiate, there's a lot that we can. And I have found that the best people that I've seen negotiate over the years are very thoughtful and intentional about what they want to have happen in their life. So it takes some time. It takes planning. And the best negotiators that I've seen are the ones that take the time to really understand what it is they want, understand the personal dynamics of the person they're going to be negotiating with and really are careful and thoughtful. And mind that word thoughtful about what they're asking for. We're going to get into more of that in just a moment. It does take some skill to get creative in a negotiating position. One of the things I encourage people that I work with when it comes to negotiating for the things that they want is to be flexible and be creative. Sometimes, and I can think about this relative to jobs, when I coach people on job opportunities, I try to encourage them to think about what is option A, what is option B, and what is option C. Option A is what is your ideal opportunity that you want to achieve? Maybe you want to be an accountant. That's really the job that you want. But what happens if you don't get that job that you want? What is your option B? And then what's option C? Giving yourself some flexibility with your options gives you that creativity, and it makes it so that you're not so isolated into pigeonholing yourself into only one opportunity which maybe you're missing out on something else that could provide even more enjoyment and satisfaction for you. So be creative and be flexible. The second point of skill for success is preparation. You know, when we're going into selling a business or negotiating a new role or accepting a new position somewhere, we want to be very prepared. Right now, in my organization, I've just hired five new people to join my national HR consulting team. What was interesting about this experience is we didn't really publish the salaries. Instead, we asked our incumbents, as well as those people who had come in from outside of the company, what's your expectation? What kind of compensation are you expecting and would make you feel satisfied and excited about this opportunity? And what was really interesting is it made it very easy as the employer to be able to make a job offer. We weren't going to go back and forth with a lot of haggling. The person who accepted the offer was happy because they got what they wanted, what they asked for, and we had a win-win situation. So when I think about preparation, I didn't want to walk into that situation where I had to go back and forth with a candidate. I just wanted to know, what is it that you want? What's going to make you happy and fulfilled in this role? And if I can make that happen, I will. And so it was a really nice approach to be able to take that as the employer and empower that candidate to tell me what they wanted. They had to prepare. I threw out the idea. And so many times we can do that in many areas of negotiation. You know, providing value when you're negotiating is so significant. I'll never forget the first time I approached my boss's boss because my boss was out on the leave of absence for a merit increase. My boss's boss had forgotten about me. I wasn't in his queue. Imagine that. I can't imagine anybody else has ever had that experience. But I was terrified going into his office and letting him know that I had been passed over, and I was sure it was inadvertent, and it was. And when I shared with him that I felt that I needed to be valued, and this is what I really needed since I was filling in for my boss while he was off for six months on leave, surely a raise was appropriate and not just the normal raise, but something substantial. And he gave it a lot of consideration. I did my preparation and I came in and I actually felt very good about the generosity he imposed on me. So having value for that request and making sure it seemed reasonable to my boss's boss, who had forgotten about me, made all the difference in helping me achieve that wage increase that helped me get the next promotion. The last point here is understanding negotiating styles. Not everybody's style is going to be the same. And you're going to have a very unique style when you start negotiating, whether it's for your position or accepting additional responsibilities, or maybe even negotiating certain home duties that you want to negotiate with your family. Knowing what your style is like and how that style can interact with the person who you need to win over to your side is absolutely critical. What I have found over the years is a lot of introverts are very good at this. Introverts are excellent at sizing people up. And I'm always really interested and a little envious of my introvert friends, because they size people up and when they start the negotiation, they're very sensitive to body language, what the recipient of the request is going to need, and they go into those negotiations very well equipped. So when you know what the style is of the person you're going to be giving the ask, you're in a position of strength. So know those styles and be mindful of that, because it's going to be to your advantage to create win-win situations. So just to recap this a little bit, know your own style and know that of other people. What's going to be winnable for you with the person you want to talk with? Also know what your limitations are. I know sometimes I might ask for too much, but I also know that as a woman business owner, I was competing with a lot of men on my deal teams. There were only a handful of women and they were behind the scenes. So I had to be pretty tough with these guys. And sometimes I had to way overshoot what I was asking for just to get what I would accept. Right. So know what your limitations are. And I know sometimes you might tend to go in too low. You might tend to go too high. Know what your comfort level is and make sure that that style doesn't work against you with the people you're negotiating with. It's also interesting to me that some people who negotiate can get very emotional and lose self-control, like get angry because we don't get our way and we storm out of the office. No, that's not going to be in our favor. We want to make sure that we have the self-control when we go into the negotiating process, that we lay our options out, we act as a professional and we don't get upset if perhaps the first attempt is going to result in needing to have a second chance. We've got to keep our composure. Right. And as women, boy, that's one of the first things we want to do, at least for me. I like to run outside and scream occasionally, but it's not going to help us in negotiations if we do that. So when we think about styles, cooperative negotiators are going to look for win-wins. Where can it be a win for me when I'm making my ask for someone else? And how can we make it a win for them? Right. So when we think about when both parties know that we're able to get the best possible result for both sides, that creates a really positive interaction. So when we think about negative people in the negotiation process, it could result in something called like a win-lose. That's not what we want, right? We want to create win-win opportunities. So we want to think about creating value, whether it's something that our counterpart's going to get satisfaction out of or not, but we've got to understand what our style is. So I want each of you to kind of examine what you think your negotiating style is and pop that in the chat. I'd like to kind of see what everybody's style is. What do you think that is for you? And what would you like to refine with that? If you could just take a moment and pop that into the chat, I'd love to see that. Thank you, servant leader. That's awesome. Thank you, Ashley. Keep those popping in there. I'd like to see those throughout the presentation. You know, effectiveness is something that is important too. You know, a competitive negotiator might bully and they might be ineffective because bullying is no good anymore, right? That's not going to help us get win-win opportunities. Somebody who is competitive but not very effective might be inclined to intimidate or bluff their way through a negotiation because they're not well-prepared. So we have to really understand how effective our negotiating style is and look for warning signals, right? So a lot of servant leaders out there I see, cooperative leaders, that's great. So think about how you can create win-win negotiations so it's a win for you and a win for that other party. That takes preparation and effort, doesn't it? I want you to think about the last time you negotiated something. You know, this might be something routine that you don't recognize. Maybe who paid for lunch as an example the last time you went out. Or it might be something more formal. What was most effective in your approach and were you satisfied with the outcome? Was your partner or the person you were working with satisfied? And what would you do differently next time? Every time you go into a negotiation and you come out of it, I want you to think about these things. Was it effective? Were you satisfied? How about the other party? Did they feel good about the goal? And what would you do differently next time? Learning is a key part of negotiating skills. Learning about our effectiveness, learning from our experience. We're not always gonna win in every negotiation, right? We've gotta be careful and think about what is it that we wanna have as an outcome. Sometimes we have to be more prepared and come back to the table. Sometimes it might even be something else, but we always need to be thinking about what could we do differently the next time? Even if it's a situation where it was a very successful negotiation, what could we do differently next time? And believe you me, after a couple of selling of companies, there's always things in the back of my mind that I think, wow, I could have probably handled that a little bit differently and achieved a better outcome. So these are things where learning and experience is gonna help us build our games. A couple of other skills here for success is, again, allowing for creative flexibility, preparation, knowing the role and the value that we bring, understanding negotiating skills. And now we're gonna be getting into these other areas of key skills for success, managing our process, relationships, learning and experience. Managing the process. You know, negotiation is something that has to be very intentional. My brother gave me a book on negotiation that he read as part of being in Rotary Club. And I thought it was very interesting that he gave me the book and he said, Amy, negotiating is very simple. Whoever throws out the number first is the loser. And I challenged him a little bit on that. I thought it was very funny. And I said, well, you know, why do you say that? He said, well, think about when you go to buy a car, what does the car dealer want you to do? They want you to give them a number and then they'll go talk to their manager or their manager's manager. And they'll sit there for two hours and you'll find out, no, they can't do that, but here's what they can do. So it's interesting when you go into negotiations around financial matters, there's probably some truth to that. Asking questions, managing the process, knowing what you're getting into and what you might be able to get from that deal is something that we can really help benefit ourselves as women leaders. So thinking about the phase you're in, how you want to develop skills to walk through the steps in the process, it's really going to help enhance your negotiating ability. And we talked earlier about planning and preparation and I'm going to come back to that with some examples, but really thinking about it as a process and not an emotional event is something that's going to be in our favor, a process, not an emotional event, right? It's not something we have to get happy or angry about. Hopefully we're gonna feel good about it, but making it a process takes us a little less emotional, right? We also talked a little bit about handling relationships earlier and I wanted to spend a few moments on this because sometimes when we're negotiating, things can happen and they're unintentional consequences. Like maybe our relationship gets damaged because we want to negotiate a promotion or a different job title because a couple of people have left the company and maybe we've taken on more responsibility and maybe we've been told no, or maybe when we went into the negotiation session or the meeting that we had, the relationship wasn't as strong and there's been some opportunity where we could improve that relationship or maybe it became damaged as a result of some other factors. Building relationships and trust are very important when it comes to negotiating, right? I think about times when I've had to go to a manager or I've had to go work with a peer on a project and if I didn't trust that person, maybe we wouldn't have the best of outcomes on the project or whatever the initiative was that we were working on. So we can never underestimate the value of the type of relationship that we have with the individual. Sometimes we have control in developing a trusting relationship, right? It's a working relationship, we're gonna have a lot of experience, hopefully in time with that individual. But sometimes if it's outside of the work environment, like the car dealership example, you may or may not trust the person you're buying the car from and that can maybe change the way you approach the process of your negotiations. We have to really be intentional about what it is our goal is and then thinking about that process and the relationship that falls within the process. Sometimes if we develop strategic alliances, that can also help us. When I think about a strategic alliance, that might be sometimes where someone would speak on your behalf. Let's say maybe you've approached your boss for a change in your job title, a promotion, or maybe a merit increase and things just didn't move forward. There might be another advocate that can help you with your preparation. Someone who knows your work, who can speak on your behalf or provide guidance and coaching and other ways of support. Having strategic alliances with negotiations can be very beneficial. So it's not necessarily everything on your shoulders and this really works well relative to projects that maybe you wanna take on or maybe projects you don't wanna take on. You can negotiate through your strategic alliance to help get that project to the right owner so that you can work on other things that add value. Learning. Continuing to develop and learn, developing our communication styles and skills and techniques for relationship building, persuasion and negotiation, it doesn't happen overnight. When I think about the opportunities that we have to negotiate on many levels within our personal life and our business life, it takes time. And sometimes you can think about a situation and you think, wow, I really crushed that one. I really nailed that opportunity. And then there's other times you might say, wow, maybe I didn't handle that so well. But you know what? If we don't try and we don't put ourselves out there and we don't learn from those experiences, then we really are holding ourselves back from achieving some of these goals that we wanna put out there for ourselves. We also have to be mindful that sometimes when we're in negotiations, we might have economic problems. Some businesses may have challenges, maybe high payrolls, maybe profitability isn't where it needs to be. You know, clearly our economic situation has been not booming necessarily over the past year. So it can be very challenging. But even when we're an executive director or maybe we're a practice leader and we're working with physicians, sometimes we have to have advocates to learn and bring people in who can help those folks who might not see us day to day understand the value of what we're asking for so that we can better serve our board members, our physicians, our leaders, and other managers. So it's really important. There's a lot of other factors that might impact the decision maker and what they can do. So taking those into effect and into account as part of the process can be beneficial for you. One more comment about experience. When I think about negotiation, it's really a social process. Remember I mentioned my friends, the introverts, who very carefully analyze a lot of situations. They can be very, very thoughtful with their social process. Those of you who are servant leaders, who are out there to really help support others in your practice and help mentor others, this is very beneficial for you. You can be very successful understanding the social dynamic that go into a successful arrangement. But we have to be mindful that if we're inexperienced in the negotiation process, we can learn a lot from successful negotiators. I'll never forget some of the men that I worked with at an insurance agency several years ago. I saw them, they laughed, they talked, they played golf. I thought it was really funny. And so I decided to take up golf myself. It was interesting that not so much negotiation took place on the golf course, but I was able to watch how those gentlemen interacted and how they were able to get things accomplished. And I thought to myself, really observing people who understand the nuance and the relationship and the environment in which they do that can make us more successful. And I thought to myself, as a woman, I need to really make an effort to engage socially in situations so that I can achieve some of the same goals and objectives that these gentlemen have gained through the years. So whether you're a woman or you're working with women or you're working with men, there are some negotiators who are very good at getting the things that they need and they want and they're experts, they develop this over time. Pay attention to them and you can learn tremendously from those folks and their experiences that you can also emulate in your negotiating skills. You know, negotiation isn't the same as bargaining. Bargaining is where you're going to kind of say, all right, let's get in here and we're going to try to figure out what we want to have happen. It's a process. And bargaining is just one stage to coming to closure. I'd like to think about negotiating similar to a sales process. You know, a sales process should have very specific stages. We're going to go from the stage right here from the initial meeting until we gain the new business. So if we're not really comfortable with negotiation, we really should think about the process in starting with preparation, being prepared for what is it that we want to accomplish. We might have to have some information exchange with our manager or our partner or family, or maybe it's the jewelry store that you want to buy the jewelry from at a discount. Then you get into the bargaining phase. And then hopefully you're able to come to closure with a win-win situation for both parties. What's interesting to me is there are several examples of this in the business world where, and here's one example of exchanging information that I have on this slide. I thought this was interesting because there's a little nuance here that sometimes we may or may not pick up. And in this example, you're the supervisor at a 20-person team of work. In your sense, this efficiency could be improved if you were dividing tasks differently among 10 mothers. You mentioned it to your boss, and he or she shares that, hey, they tried something like that before, but it never got off the ground because some members became territorial and felt their jobs were being threatened. Interesting. So your boss just shared something very important with you. Something you could probably take away from that is some knowledge that you just gained so you can better prepare for your negotiation with what you want to accomplish, right? And what was that information? Some people felt that it was gonna be threatening to them and they became territorial, right? So it gives you an opportunity to demonstrate how you can make sure that doesn't happen to achieve the goal that you have in business. Couple of things to think about with preparation. You know, we've gotta think about the goals that we have for every negotiation that we're going to be asking for. It might be something small. It might be something big and it could be saving money in your practice. It could be improving efficiencies. It could be helping yourself or helping others on your team have a better workplace and a better environment. But at the end of the day, we wanna think about what is the goal? What's the end result look like? What do we want to have happen so that when we start our preparation and we end our negotiation, we know what the topic is. And we've done our research, whether it is pay and benefits, time off promotion, or simply improving some processes at work. When we think about that end game, we're gonna be able to have a much more effective outcome. So a couple of things when it comes to research and preparing for negotiations, here's a couple of important facts. First of all, make sure you've got correct information for whatever it is you're asking for. I know there's been a number of times when I've participated in meetings with employees who wanted a pay raise and they didn't have good information. They felt that they needed a pay raise. They didn't do the research. They had heard in similar industries that they were underpaid. Walking into a meeting without good data when you're negotiating something for dollars and cents is very dangerous. That's what it is. So make sure that you've got your facts of what you're asking for. You also might need to know what the priorities are of the other party when you go into the negotiation. I know in the past when I've worked with employees who wanted to get a raise, I'm just using this as one example of negotiation, is understanding what the boss's perspective is on the raise. What are the policies? Do you know what the past practices are? What are the hot buttons that he or she may have when you ask for this information? And making sure that we understand the justification. Maybe you've taken on more responsibilities. Maybe you're well-deserving. Maybe you're being recruited by a couple of other practices and all of a sudden your salary and benefits become very relevant, right? But there's very important information to have in doing the research and having that data ready to present when you're ready to make the ask, no matter whom it is. The other thing is, you have to understand what your principles are as a negotiator, as a person, so that you can be compelling and believable. I've seen some negotiators who are cheesy salesmen and that just doesn't go very far. Overselling, over trying, pushing is not gonna get you the results you want. Having your facts ready to present and knowing who you are as a person and what's gonna be successful for you is going to really gain you a lot of benefits in your negotiating process. So I mentioned a little bit about asking for a raise and there've been some articles recently out there talking about how to ask for a raise in the workplace. First of all, know your job worth. There's a lot of places you can go to provide reference materials and data, whether it's through job ads that are online right now or it could be through more formalized salary analysis. But do the research, know what your job is worth, understand, make sure the job responsibilities are the same, make sure you have a business case. You know, nothing could be more challenging that if the practice doesn't have the financial resources to afford a raise at this point in time, maybe finding out when would that be the case, right? Or if the practice is doing well and you're doing great and you're adding tremendous value, then understand the business case and whatever the current business situation is. And that's where I was talking about earlier, the economy and other factors that come into play with the business that might affect the ability to provide you the things that you're seeking. Sometimes we have to be patient and this can be very hard. We might want what we want now. It's taken us six months to get the courage up to make the ask. So we make the ask, right? And we have to wait. So that's tough. And making sure you know how to play your cards is just like a poker game. We've got to know when to hold and when to fold. But being patient with the process and making sure that we revisit the process when we need to on a timely basis with whoever the person is that we need to meet with is also critical. Sometimes the boss needs time to get their thoughts around what the ask is. I know that when my employees come to me, they want a title change. They expect a promotion. I may not have all the answers and I need to get the data together. Sometimes I might not be able to accommodate the employees that report to me on whatever it is that they look to have happen. But I want to be able to make sure I give a thoughtful response to work-related challenges because I value my people. And right now, people are the lifeblood of every organization. And I work with hundreds of organizations every single year. And the boss knows people are absolutely critical. So maybe the ask can be negotiated. Maybe merit increases. I know in the past, I've done a couple of merit increases during the year, not a big one at one time, but a couple of them to try to help encourage my team to be able to meet the goals and objectives that they have. So letting the boss get creative can also add benefits for you if this is something that you're considering. And always, always, always determine next steps. And that might be your timing. It might also be when you're gonna approach this person, understanding their style and your style and finding win-wins. And you might even need to bring in one of those strategic partners to help you get this across the finish line. So if you're a practice leader and you're the one who the employees are coming to and you're reporting to the doctors, know what your worth is. Do your research. Maybe use a third party. A lot of times when I'm working with executive directors or CEOs or practice leaders, I've worked with the position group before to say, hey, when's the last time we gave your practice leader a performance evaluation? When's the last time you've actually benchmarked the compensation for that particular position? Sometimes when you're in leadership, your position can get overlooked. I don't know whether that ever happens, but I do know that that has happened before. So thinking about how you're going to respond and how you can get the things that you need to make that business case, be patient, let whoever the boss or bosses are respond in determining those next steps. It's just important when you're the person who's running the practice to manage expectations as it is for the people who report to you, right? So we've got to think about everybody when it comes into this equation. So there's places that you can do some of your research and this is places like salary.com, Blastore, LinkedIn. You know, knowing what the job is and making sure you're comparing apples to apples. And my only situation, this is only when it comes to salary negotiations. But you know, I think that's one of the most critical things I like to look at job ads. What are the jobs that are posted? That's really pretty telltale with respect to salary and benefits. Make sure you're documenting your achievements, responsibilities and successful results that you've contributed to the employer. You know, creating a roster, that's a really good thing to do every year anyway before your performance review, whether you're a practice leader, a manager, a line employee, or you're working at the front desk. Making a roster of all the things you do to add value in the business is really eye-opening for your manager. And it's really a great opportunity for your manager to provide some recognition to you in areas where maybe they didn't see things, but you did. So this is something that I think is important to do at least once a year, because it's something that helps us feel good about the contributions we're making. And then be clear about what are the kinds of things that you want to be doing that gives you energy and make you leap out of bed every day. You want to get to work, leap out of bed, to go to work and feel great about your contributions. So think about your value and when you're making a presentation and a pitch for some opportunities, give that a lot of consideration. When we go into negotiations, sometimes we have to decide what are we going to say no to, right? What's our walkaway position? So when you establish the priorities of, whether it's a salary increase, a promotion, an expanded job role, you have to think about, okay, what is the least that I'm really going to accept with this ask that I'm making? Or what is the highest price if I'm the boss that I'm willing to pay for a position? And if you're negotiating on somebody else's behalf, make sure you know what their walkaway is. And that sometimes is a manager who's helping another team member with an offer rate, or maybe you're an advocate for an employee, or you're the one who's helping answer questions of an employee during a negotiation. So knowing what a walkaway is, is something that can avoid misunderstandings in the future. I see this a lot with recruiting, whether someone's getting promoted internally or we're hiring new team members into the organization. This is where I see a lot of the advocacy happening and getting clear on these expectations and what is the drop bottom line. If we do that, then we're going to be a lot more effective knowing, okay, this is it. We either need to move away or we're going to revisit this at another time. So again, key takeaways. These are some things that we have talked about. Know what you want, right? I think it's really hard, and I know there've been times I've met with employees on my team and employees with my clients, where somebody really wants to ask for something, but they're not clear about what it is. So write it down and write down how you want to present your case. You know, know when you're ready if you need to walk away from the conversation. Maybe we're not ready to have it, maybe we're not as prepared, but know what we want and know how to present it and then be incredibly prepared. So the next slide I want to share with you helps you with what to do with all of this information. We've got to practice, practice, practice. Before we go into a negotiation that has high stakes, we need to know what it is we're asking for, and we want to be able to put our best foot forward. And know your audience. You know, if you know you're working to negotiate with someone who's going to be a tough negotiator or says no all the time, you're going to have to be even more prepared for that. You've got someone who feels pretty workable and reasonable, then it might be a different story, but be very clear and know the difference between no and not now. And then you have to reassess your preparation of what you're willing to do. So let's recap on a couple of these topics. Practice negotiation scenarios with a coach, a friend, or a colleague. You know, when you get in to ask for something work-related relative to making your job a better job or making the workplace a better place, you don't want to have your nerves get the best of you. You're still going to have some butterflies in your stomach. That's kind of normal. And to have that kind of energy is probably a good thing, but practicing is the best course of action. Set realistic expectations as well. I've had times in salary negotiations where someone will come to me and say, hey, either double my pay or I'm out. Well, that doesn't give me an opportunity to negotiate very well. It's kind of a win-lose scenario. So when we practice these scenarios with other people, get real good feedback. What are they saying? Does it sound like you're win-lose? Does it sound like you're too soft? Does it sound like you're not clear on what you're asking for? So the practice is important because when you get in front of the person that you really need to get the win from, you want to have your best foot out there. And then know the approach if you're going for a salary negotiation. We want to make sure that we're having a good dialogue. You might need more than one person in the room for this, but know the room and know your value. You know, sometimes we don't realize the value of how we position ourselves in a meeting. You know, I know that when I walk into my office and I see my team members, if I come in and I don't have a smile on my face and I greet everybody in the morning, they're going to say, what the heck's going on? Or what's wrong? You're center stage when you're asking for a negotiation. People are listening. When someone knows that you're coming in for an ask, whether it's a family member, that you need them to do something differently, or maybe it's at work or a colleague, they're going to be paying attention. Your demeanor means everything. So be really mindful. And as you're going into that practice session, think about what your game face needs to look like. Are you going to go in cheerful? Are you going to go in very optimistic? You know, maybe sometimes in negotiations, you need to be tough. You know, maybe you're going up against the school board because your kid did something they shouldn't have done and you got to be the tough person to approach them. Situations can change and know what your demeanor needs to be. Start with the questions that you think are going to be most beneficial for the win of the person you're asking to grant your win. Okay? So whoever you're going to be approaching, make sure you understand their perspective first, because that's going to help better position their willingness to accept what you have to say. And then make sure that what you are bringing to the table aligns with that individual's goals. And that's going to really help team you up for greater success. Here's just a simple example that when someone is in a negotiation around salary, that this individual might say something like this if they believe the salary should be significant more. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my research shows that the people with my experience typically earn whatever the dollar is. And then make sure you have the data to back that up. Planting the seed of the higher range with the hiring manager might lead to better conversations when you're negotiating for salary. But make sure you have good data to support that request, as I mentioned. Here's a couple of examples of negotiating success stories. One is here as an event coordinator that was able to almost double her pay because she demonstrated how much more sales she was able to bring into her organization. And based upon the sales, she felt very entitled to be able to receive a compensation package that showed her worth and gained her commitment to stay with the organization. She did her work, she put the numbers in, how much revenue she brought into that event management company, and she was able to be successful with salary adjustment. Susie, on the other hand, had a lot of hospital bills. She struggled with getting those paid and she went into a negotiating process with the hospital accounting staff. And she was able to renegotiate her bill with some payment terms, $25,000. And then Angela, a financial analyst, wanted a promotion because she was taking on more work. People had left the company and guess who got assigned the rest of the work? After she renegotiated with her leaders, she was able to increase her pay $20,000. Now, these are a couple of examples. What the reality of the negotiation might be is completely independent on the situation. But why I wanted to share this with you is if you don't put the ask out there the answer is always no. So whatever's on your mind, whatever is bothering you, whatever's kind of tugging at you relative to what you need and want to have the life of your dreams is within your control. It's just up to you to push that forward. Thinking about the processes we're wrapping up today is we wanna make sure that we're looking at it from a positive standpoint, paying attention to your body language, your facial expression, what you say because you're setting the tone for this meeting. And if we don't attach ourself to an outcome but a positive experience, we're gonna have a lot better results. Remember, emotions can come into things very quickly. If we're not careful, those emotions creep in and then we're not gonna have the best meeting or the most productive meeting that we possibly could. Something that I think is effective is having an open mind when it comes to negotiations. Not every negotiation is going to end in the result we thought it might end. We go into a negotiation with an individual and we expect to buy a new car. And we go in and we have so much money in our pocket and we think that, well, I'm gonna buy this car and it's going to be for much money. Well, maybe the answer is no, you wanna buy a car for $25,000, the car costs $30,000. There's better options, you could say, okay, I need to fix a few things on the car. I might consider $30,000 for that car. Well, maybe the dealer comes back and says, okay, you can win situation on the purchase. Maybe you wanna extend the life of that vehicle. That is a win-win situation. Sorry, it looks like we might've lost Amy here for a second. Let's give her a moment to jump back on. But in the meantime, as she was wrapping up, feel free to drop questions in the chat. Oh, it looks like Amy's back. Hi, I'm sorry, I don't know where to go back. Oh, it seems like the connection may still not be great. Do you mind turning off your video and seeing if that helps? Amy, I can see you moving now. Can you hear me all right? I can, I'm so sorry. I don't, let me see what's, is my video on? I can see a video, but it looks like it's frozen again. You might turn your video off while you wrap up on those last couple of slides. So why don't we handle this this way? If you've got questions, drop them into the Q&A here, and then maybe Amy can chat with the answers for that. And then we can also share these slides as a part of the recording in the AOE Learning Center just at the end of this, we're gonna have all the recordings live there and everyone will have free access to that. You can also see Amy's contact information there at the end of this screen. So feel free to reach out to her directly with questions as well. I'm sorry for the technical difficulties. I'm sure that Amy is too, but we can all relate here. I think in this world, we are all subject to that. This was an amazing session. I know I learned a lot. I hope everyone did. And I'm gonna see if Amy is able to speak here for a closing. And if not, we will be jumping on the next session at 1.15. So if you need to take a bio break or answer some emails, you will have some opportunity there and everyone will be able to take a break and jump back on for our next session, which is the leadership panel. So Amy, if you wanna try to go ahead and speak again, go ahead. Yes, can you hear me now? Yes, great. Fantastic. Well, I'm so sorry for the instability, totally unexpected. And thank you all for being part of this. If you would like a complimentary consultation on any negotiating skill, I've got some time this next month and I'd be happy to meet with you. Feel free to reach out to me. I wish you all a wonderful day today and thank you for being on my session today. And I hope to see you all again soon. Thank you so much, Jessica, for having me. Thank you so much, Amy. This was great information. Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you, Jessica. Have a great rest of your day. You too. ♪♪

Amy Luthke

Women in Practice Management

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Negotiation skills

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Effective negotiation tips

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Salary increases

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