We are living in a time of unprecedented change. The Future of Work is here. According to a 2015 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person between the ages of 18-50 will hold twelve jobs over their career. Findings from the 100 jobs of the Future project provides a glimpse into future career opportunities that we have not yet experienced or imagined. If you’re an expert in technology and love to teach, you may find yourself an AI educator—helping people make the most of artificial intelligence and learning how to work with digital and robotic assistants.

The most important negotiations aren’t salary, business deals, or real estate. In fact the most important ones aren’t with anyone. The ones that determine the trajectory of our lives, the quality of our decisions and the course of our actions, are the ones we have with ourselves. Perhaps the most fundamental skill we need to learn and continually improve are the promises we make and keep with ourselves. Our internal thought patterns are formed from a young age, through many primary influences, first and foremost our parents and the way in which they speak to us, and relate to us.

As women, we spend so much time trying to get properly recognized for our work, get paid our worth, and overcome workplace challenges.

But what if, instead of fighting to get recognized by your boss...YOU were the boss? (#mindblowing, right?)

When it comes to getting your next promotion, visibility is important. And despite what many women think, increasing your workload and working more does not necessarily offer more visibility with management.

Women have an especially difficult time maintaining visibility in the workplace. On one hand, many women feel inauthentic when talking about themselves. Boasting our wins and achievements can feel like bragging or grandstanding. On the other hand, women face gender biases that rise when they violate the expectations of how women should behave. Speaking up is considered a more masculine trait and women can often be penalized.

Elizabeth Suarez sits with Daniella Kahane, an award-winning filmmaker and the Executive Director/CEO of Women in Negotiation (WIN). Based out of New York, WIN is a female-focused organization aimed at empowering women to reach new heights both professionally and personally by building their negotiation skills. Read more as Daniella shares the principles that have guided her as a leader and kept her grounded during challenging times.

Knowledge is power. We know that. We’ve heard it before. Many times. And yet how often do we fail to wield the necessary knowledge before walking into a negotiation. Sometimes it is due to avoidance. As humans, we tend to avoid the things that make us feel uncomfortable and negotiation is definitely one of those things for more people. A majority of women, at nearly sixty-percent, have never negotiated their salary, for instance. But avoidance prevents us from taking the right steps to set us up for success. Walking in unprepared, not having done your homework, is like showing up for a race without having put in the time training. Most of us cannot run a marathon this way and we shouldn’t expect to shine in a negotiation without having done the necessary pre-work either.

A 2020 study by KPMG found that 75% of professional women identified having experienced impostor syndrome at various points during their careers. But, what is Impostor syndrome? It’s the idea that you’ve only succeeded due to luck, feeling like a fraud, or doubting your abilities. Symptoms of impostor syndrome include lack of self-confidence, depression, and frustration in the inability to meet self-imposed standards of success. As psychologist Susan Albers explains, “You have this fear that the people around you are going to figure out that you don’t know what you’re talking about and expose you as a fraud.”

Although one may not realize, organizations set aside a budget with the expectation that employees will ask for a higher salary. A survey from salary.com found that 84% of employers expect prospective employees to negotiate salary after the interview process.

Yet, research by Glassdoor found that 3 in 5 women have never negotiated salary. In fact, that same study found that men initiate negotiations about 4 times more often than women.

This negotiation disparity could be due to the lack of confidence women have in negotiating for themselves. An astounding 72% of women would rather switch jobs to get a pay raise than negotiate with their employer.

Salaries are always negotiable. Here are some steps and advice to help you in your next negotiation.

Being a mother is the hardest job in the world, with the least amount of training. In honor of this Mother’s Day we decided to turn to our incredible community to share their best parenting advice. Check out a few nuggets of wisdom from our community and wishing all you moms a Happy Mother's Day!

Many of my clients suffer from a lack of confidence. They are highly educated and talented women. But at some point in their lives, they allowed negative feedback or situations to undermine their self-esteem and that has continued to affect their performance and success every day.

Just last week, I asked one of my clients if she could recall a time in her life when she was more confident. She spoke at length about her wonderful childhood and her outstanding academic success. She always felt competent and able to tackle any situation at work. But then there a specific incident that triggered her. Years ago, one of her bosses commented to her, ‘You’re not as smart as you think you are’. And that did it. That statement unlocked her deep seeded fear that she wasn’t smart enough or good enough to succeed.

Time and time again research proves what we already know: women face more obstacles than men when it comes to negotiating, be they internal, self-imposed barriers, socially-conditioned norms, or external biases and stereotypes.

A study by Glassdoor found that 3 in 5 women say they’ve never negotiated salary. The same study found that men initiate negotiations about 4 times more often than women and that 72% of women would rather switch jobs to get a pay raise than negotiate with their current employer.

Our reluctance to invest impacts our financial futures. The severity of the investing gap compounded by the gender wage gap (women make 82 cents for every dollar earned by men in the best case scenario and that number goes down for most minority women), leads to women only realizing retirement balances that are half the size of men’s, according to data from the Vanguard Center for Investor Research.

According to personal finance site NerdWallet, only 38% of recent graduates negotiate their salary upon receiving a job offer. A lot of recent graduates or entry level associates mistakenly think that they have little to no negotiating power. As our negotiation expert Courtney Chicvak says, negotiating for yourself is crucial even at an entry level, not just in terms of getting more for yourself, but also in demonstrating your potential to employers and showing them you are an able negotiator and confident in your skillset. In fact, in the same study by NerdWallet, of the 700 employers in the study, almost 90% of them said an entry-level candidate would not be putting their job offer at risk by negotiating their salary.

We sat down with Courtney Chicvak, a professional mediator and WIN negotiation coach, and asked her our most burning questions on how to tackle our first salary negotiation:

You do all sorts of negotiating in your daily life, whether you know it or not. If you have a spouse or partner, you might negotiate what to have for dinner. If you have children, you might negotiate certain aspects of their schedule (or what they eat). And if you have employees, you probably negotiate (on hopefully friendly terms) when they can have time off).

But when it comes to contracts, it can be more difficult to figure out what you can or want to negotiate on, especially as the stakes get bigger and the financial impact becomes greater. If the length of time on a contract also is an issue, you may find yourself spending more time with the negotiation phase than you planned. So what do you need to understand when it comes to negotiation of a contract, and what options do you have (or not have)? This graphic explains it.

Bold change takes bold action. Nobody knows this better than Reshma Sajuani, CEO and Founder of Girls Who Code, the international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Less than two months ago Reshma introduced The Marshall Plan for Moms to bring about a paradigm shift around how this country relates to mothers and finally compensate mothers for their unseen, unpaid labor and all they do to keep our society well. Reshma is boldly #choosing to challenge, and she is inviting us all to challenge right along with her. WIN is grateful to have had the opportunity to interview Reshma about the Marshall Plan for Moms. Read on for our top questions asked and answered!

The ubiquity of gender inequality is fueled by unconscious and systemic biases that hinder women’s success in the workplace. Although today’s circumstances are vastly different than those ten years ago —largely thanks to the reckoning that came in the last few years thanks to the ME TOO movement— there still are countless obstacles women (especially women of color) have to overcome in order to succeed in the workplace.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of articles about how men can be better allies for women in the workplace. And they should be. To create a more inclusive and engaging workplace, having male colleagues back up women helps enable change. Including men in the discussions around gender equity makes diversity and inclusion efforts more successful. But allyship requires intersectional efforts. When discussing diversity and inclusion, all women’s voices should be amplified.

It is widely known that women, and especially women of color, face countless challenges in the workplace.

Every year reports like Lean In & McKinsey’s “Women in the Workplace,” PwC’s “Women in Work,” and WEF’s “Global Gender Gap Report” study the state of women in the corporate world. Many argue that the mere fact that these reports exist is a good indicator of the changing of the tides for gender inequality in the workplace (the first step towards change is awareness of the problem, right?).

Although Black History Month is almost over, educating yourself and celebrating the wins of Black women is an ongoing practice. It is so important to honor and recognize Black women that have been overlooked by our history books (check out “Black Women I Wished I Learned About in History Class”), but it is equally important to celebrate women that are making a difference —and making history— today.

Here are just a few of the many Black women making history in 2021, pushing back against systemic racism, uplifting, and empowering an entire generation.

Relationships are proven to affect one's mental and physical wellbeing. A study by Cecile Andrews and her team looked at the importance of forging connections to others and its impact on our health. They concluded, as many others have, that strong relationships lead to stronger health.

Health and wellness are important to us at WIN. Today, in a pandemic-torn world, it’s also important to remember that, “Strong, healthy relationships can also help to strengthen your immune system, help you recover from disease, and may even lengthen your life” (Better Health Institute of Australia). It’s more important than ever to work on the health of our relationships.