Negotiation Skills for
Fellows and Junior Faculty:
The Nuts and Bolts of Making
Sure You Get What You Need
to Succeed
Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH
Objectives
 To develop basic skills in negotiation
 To discuss key elements to consider when
seeking a new academic position
 To identify take-home strategies for academic
career building
Why negotiate?
 To achieve a better outcome than would
occur without negotiation
 To optimize the likelihood that you will be
successful and happy in your position
 Negotiators perform better than nonnegotiators
Sometimes you just need to ASK
 Don’t assume that the other person
knows what you need
 Don’t assume that needed things will be
forthcoming
 Don’t assume you’ll be turned down
Principled Negotiation
 Goal: Achieve wise outcomes efficiently
while maintaining relationships
 Developed by the Harvard Negotiation
Project
 Summarized in Fisher and Ury
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement
Without Giving In, 2nd ed.
Strategies
1. Separate the people from the
problem
2. Understand each others interests-then negotiate interests, NOT
positions
3. Invent options for mutual gain
4. Use objective criteria
Separate people and problems
 Uncover your own assumptions
about motivation and past behavior
 Understand each person’s view of
the facts
 Acknowledge emotions
Explore interests
 Get clear on goals
What do each of you want?
 What is in common, what is in
conflict?

 What are each person’s
constraints?
Invent options for mutual gain
 Brainstorm without judgment--be
creative
 Engage experience--what have they
done in the past?
 Look for items that are low cost to you
and high benefit to them and vice versa
Use objective criteria
 Important when interests are opposed
 Sometimes can agree in advance to be
bound by these criteria
 Sources:



AAMC salary guidelines
AAAP (Association of Administrators in
Academic Pediatrics) benchmarks
Departmental benchmarks
Preparing to Negotiate
1. Determine your interests
2. Determine their interests
3. Brainstorm possible solutions--talk to
colleagues and mentors
4. Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse!
5. Know your BATNA
What’s a BATNA??
B est
A lternative
To
N egotiated
A greement
Knowing your BATNA
 Make a list of options if you can’t reach
agreement (must be real!)
 What would happen if you didn’t
negotiate?
 Helps you to avoid agreeing to
something you don’t want
 The better your BATNA, the greater your
power
What if it’s not working?
 Strategies




Don’t attack a position--look for underlying
interests
Ask for criticism and advice
If personally attacked--let them vent, then
reframe so attack is on the problem
Ask questions and give them time to
answer – silence is a powerful tool
Be gracious and shameless!
Lisa Tedesco, PhD
Prospective Jobs:
All the Things You Need to
Know and Can’t be Afraid to Ask
Starting assumptions
 Desire for an academic career is
serious
 Effort and time obtaining
additional fellowship training
 Some but not many research
credentials
 Choice of career track may or
may not be clear
Understand their metrics of success
 Criteria for promotion (written or unwritten)
 What are they?
 Criteria for clinician educators and clinician-
investigators overlap but are weighted differently






Original research papers: number and importance
Grant funding
Teaching Evaluations
Clinical Care
Service to the university or medical school
National reputation
Relative weights of promotion
criteria vary: Clinician Educators
Criteria
Promotion Chairs
Teaching Skills
6.4
Clinical Skills
5.8
Mentoring
5.6
National Reputation
5.5
Written Scholarship (book chapters)
5.3
Design/Evaluate Ed Programs
5.3
Coordination of Training Programs
5.2
Personal Qualities (professionalism)
4.9
Clinical Research
4.9
Coordination of Clinical Practice
4.7
Research in Medical Education
4.5
Relative weights of promotion
criteria vary: Clinician Investigators
 Grant funding
 Research productivity = Publications

Quality and importance
 National reputation
 Teaching skills
 Clinical skills
 Administrative contributions
Sizing up a prospective job:
knowledge is power
 Know what is important to them
 Does it match what is important to you?
Don’t assume – ask!
Clinician Educators
 Education is a main mission
 Resources that you should think about
 Faculty development programs
 Financial support & time to attend
professional meetings
 Protected time to pursue creative projects
 Should



be at least one-half day per week
Formal guidelines for compiling teaching
portfolio
Teaching effectiveness committees
Graduate school courses
Sizing up a prospective job:
knowledge is power
 During the interview process, ask questions:

Who is working in my area of interest?


Could they function as my mentor?


Try to interview with them
Too junior?
Tangible measures of their success
Publications related to curriculum work
 Presentations at national meetings
 Book chapters
If research is a requirement:
 Peer-reviewed research publications



For promotion – 5 on average for clinician educators
External grant support
Don’t assume – ask!
Clinician Investigators
 Research is a main mission
 Resources you need to think about
 Collaborating methodologists (e.g. statisticians)?
 Administrators who know how to submit grants
and manage awards?
 Research assistants to collect pilot data
 Financial support & time to attend national
meetings
 How much protected time?
 Needs to be 50% or greater for 2-3 years
Sizing up a prospective job:
knowledge is power
 During the interview process, ask questions:

Who is working in my area of interest?


Could they function as my mentor


Try to interview with them
Too junior?
Tangible measures of their success


Abstracts at national meetings
Peer-reviewed research publications


For promotion – 10 on average for clinician investigators
External grant funding

Career development awards - proxy for good mentorship
Making sure you get what you need
 Have a salary figure in mind
 AAMC publishes national averages for MD salaries in
various fields at various levels - http://www.aamc.org/ - $115
 Negotiate time commitments carefully – especially for the
first 2 to 3 years
 Research vs. Teaching vs. Clinical
 Remember 1 month of wards = about 10%
 Start-up funds
 Lump sum – Ex: $30K/year for first 2-3 years
 In-kind – RA, statistical support, administrative support
 Access to data analysts, statisticians, RAs
 Does the division pay for this or do you?
Making sure you get what you need
 Administrative/secretarial support
 No less than 10% FTE – 25% is good
 Office space, furniture, computers, etc.
 Will you need to use start-up funds for your
computer, furniture, etc?
 Moving expenses
 Include costs of traveling to find a house
 Negotiate your start date
Deciding whether to fish
or cut bait
 Strength of your collaborations
 What will you lose if you go?
 If you stay?
 How long have you been there?


Partnerships/collaborations take time to
develop
Can you continue these collaborations if
you leave?
Deciding whether to fish
or cut bait
 How well does your academic mission
align with the group’s academic mission?
 Get out and look at the alternatives!
Practice Time!