I was never taught how to negotiate. I always considered myself a poor negotiator when I got out of school and had to start looking for jobs. I had no self-confidence. I lost some great jobs because of that.
This bled over into conversations with the C-suite in the hospital. Some of these conversations were about things as simple as days off, and others regarded the leadership of an entire department. I felt inadequate for the task. As if there was a course in school that I’d somehow missed. I just didn’t have the information I needed. Do you ever feel that way?
Friends told me I needed a system, but everything they showed me felt like a sleezy, used car salesman gimmick. My research didn’t find anything better.
Then, I happened across a personality method called B.A.N.K. I use it for communication and relationship. From the classification B.A.N.K. uses, I learned that most people in the C-suite have different values than I do. I learned that I should speak to them in their value language anytime I converse with them. This was an epiphany for me. Now, I no longer have negotiations with the C-suite, or anyone else. I have conversations. I have conversations with them in the language of their values. This is an incredibly effective way of communicating. Where are you having negotiations when you could simply be having conversations? Where are you making things harder than they need to be?
