build your 'negotiating muscles'

Women hate negotiating! This has been proven now in a number of studies. Babcock and Laschever’s research in their book "Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide" shows that

2.5 times more women than men said they feel "a great deal of apprehension" about negotiating
Men initiate negotiations about four times as often as women 
When asked to pick metaphors for the process of negotiating, men picked "winning a ballgame" (they’re American, it would be the same as winning a soccer or rugby game) and a "wrestling match," (what is the Kiwi or Aussie equivalent of wrestling? Cricket? Surfing? Bowls?) while women picked "going to the dentist." - that's universal, no-one sees that as a good way to spend an hour, ever.

Winning a game or an hour or more of pain .. you can see why men and women approach negotiation differently when that's the expectation and usually, the past experience too.

Why it matters?

Firstly – everyone deserves to get paid a fair wage for a good day’s work. It’s up to you to ensure you receive this. Your value and your contribution is important. You are a contributor to the workplace, your home, the community and the economy and having a salary that reflects your employment output is a key part of enabling you to deliver your best contribution and grow day after day.

It’s not just you. We all need to get better at this, teach this skill, pay it forward, coach others, share stories, learn the lessons from when it goes well and when it doesn’t. We should talk about it more and collectively, build capability.

Emily Amanatullah, the Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Texas completed a research study too, hers asks men and women to negotiate for themselves, and on behalf of another person. Her findings showed that when the women negotiated for themselves, they asked for an average of $7,000 less than the men, yet when they negotiated on behalf of a friend, they asked for just as much money as the men.

Next time you're in there asking for what you are worth, imagine you're bestie's in there with you and you're asking for her. Bank that $7K - you deserve it!

Keep an eye out here as next month we will publish a 'how to' guide for negotiating your salary.