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New Online Certificate from CIPA Prepares Leaders to Manage Nonprofit Finances

Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) launched its first online certificate, Financial Success for Nonprofits, to prepare professionals to guide nonprofits to financial sustainability amid rapid changes in technology, policy and wealth distribution. The certificate is offered through eCornell.

“This program provides a crucial orientation to today’s nonprofit world. We move beyond numbers to examine perceptions of impact, and what happens when things aren’t going well and leaders have to love an organization enough to make the hard decisions,” said Joseph Grasso, faculty author of the certificate and associate dean for finance, administration and corporate relations at the ILR School.

Financial Success for Nonprofits consists of four courses that can be completed over two months, in three to five hours per week and prepares students to:

  • use and interpret nonprofit financial statements and ratios;
  • create a realistic budget using good judgment and strategic analysis of programmatic impact;
  • assess opportunities for influence and develop a structured fundraising program; and
  • establish healthy board governance through consensus decision-making, awareness and fiduciary accountability.

The certificate is ideal for CEOs, executive directors, new board members, administrators and program staff from all types of nonprofits, and for lawyers who serve the nonprofit sector. Students who complete the certificate earn a Financial Success for Nonprofits Certificate from the College of Human Ecology, of which CIPA is a part.

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CIPA launches online certificate with nonprofit focus

Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) launched its first online certificate, Financial Success for Nonprofits, to prepare professionals to guide nonprofits to financial sustainability amid rapid changes in technology, policy and wealth distribution. The certificate is offered through eCornell.

“This program provides a crucial orientation to today’s nonprofit world. We move beyond numbers to examine perceptions of impact, and what happens when things aren’t going well and leaders have to love an organization enough to make the hard decisions,” said Joseph Grasso, faculty author of the certificate and associate dean for finance, administration and corporate relations at the ILR School.

Financial Success for Nonprofits consists of four courses that can be completed over two months, in three to five hours per week and prepares students to:

  • use and interpret nonprofit financial statements and ratios;
  • create a realistic budget using good judgment and strategic analysis of programmatic impact;
  • assess opportunities for influence and develop a structured fundraising program; and
  • establish healthy board governance through consensus decision-making, awareness and fiduciary accountability.

The certificate is ideal for CEOs, executive directors, new board members, administrators and program staff from all types of nonprofits, and for lawyers who serve the nonprofit sector. Students who complete the certificate earn a Financial Success for Nonprofits Certificate from the College of Human Ecology, of which CIPA is a part.

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Knowledge of Legal Concepts Empowers Business Professionals

eCornell’s new executive certificate, Essential Legal Concepts for Business Leaders, brings legal knowledge to decision making, empowering professionals to pinpoint and plan for legal issues and work with legal counsel for the best business outcomes.

“Businesspeople don’t need to be lawyers, but they must know the legal effects of conduct, how to minimize risks, and how the law can create value in business,” said Eduardo M. Peñalver ’94, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. “This certificate program provides a rare opportunity to learn on-the-job from leading academics and practicing lawyers with deep understanding and experience.”

The certificate program contains four courses designed to be completed over two weeks each.

  • Embracing the Basics of Business Law: how to research laws and court cases related to business, recognize pros and cons of different business structures and identify the legal duties that accompany certain roles.
  • Structuring Business Agreement for Success: the structure and components of contracts and how to analyze them.
  • Exploring Specialty Areas of Law: legal issues related to employment, real property, taxes, startup financing and litigation.
  • Working with Legal Professionals: how to identify when legal counsel is needed, select a lawyer and work effectively with lawyers as business partners.

The curriculum, developed by 10 Cornell law professors and five practicing attorneys, provides legal insight students can use immediately in their jobs, enhanced by videos, downloadable tools, projects and discussions.

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NYC workshops bring the best of Cornell to business leaders

Through a new series of workshops, Cornell University is bringing its best to busy executives in New York City. The half-day morning workshops are a collaboration across the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, the ILR School, Cornell Tech and Cornell’s online and executive education programs and eCornell. They are designed to maximize value for senior talent and organizational development executives by providing multifaceted perspectives and peer networking in midtown Manhattan.

The format was an ideal fit for 36 executives from some of the world’s largest companies, who gathered this summer for the second workshop, Uncovering the Leader Within: A Workshop on Women in Leadership. In four hours, Cornell presenters shared research- and practice-based insights as attendees shared personal experiences, brainstormed in two breakout sessions and connected during lunch.

“Cornell’s event brought experience from all corners of the school, especially their work with varied audiences – undergrads, MBAs, executives – and practitioners from different industries. This created a great forum to hear about interesting approaches to consider in my own work,” said Lisanne Biolos, director of executive talent development for KPMG.

Other executives echoed Biolos’ sentiments, adding that the sessions created an important space for personal and professional reflection.

“One of the reasons I was most interested in participating in this program was that it offered a chance to talk about critical and strategic thinking with women who are human resources professionals,” said Risa Mish, professor of the practice of management at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Shantelle Williams, director of global talent development at MasterCard, said: “Life is busy and I tend to use every moment serving my customers – people leaders at MasterCard located all over the world. But like the shoemaker’s child running barefoot down the street, as an HR leader, I made time to attend this workshop as an investment in myself.”

Creating more spaces for this kind of professional development is Erik Michielsen’s goal as regional director of executive education at Cornell SC Johnson. The workshops grew out of a desire to harness Cornell’s thought-leadership to offer professionals better opportunities to engage with faculty and each other. It requires Michielsen to get buy-in from a cross-section of Cornell faculty, schools and organizations to give adult learners a better understanding of the broad knowledge the university offers for career development.

“Our corporate learners live in a world of collaboration and cross-functionality, so we’re following suit by breaking down silos to bring out the best in Cornell and bring people together to benefit this community in a focused way,” said Michielsen.

As part of its “One Cornell” strategy, the university launched its integrated Cornell SC Johnson College of Business to unify the university’s three accredited business programs. The unification provides faculty more varied opportunities for research collaboration and outreach.

Executive outreach is especially important for faculty in Cornell SC Johnson and the ILR School, whose academic interests emphasize applied business management and organizational development. Opportunities to engage with this audience, and learn from them, happen now in multiday custom executive education programs and increasingly online through eCornell certificate programs. Executive workshops like Women in Leadership offer a new, scalable option for face-to-face interaction.

Workshops are planned for New York City and San Francisco this fall, but Michielsen envisions the concept spreading beyond the Cornell SC Johnson to make an even larger impact.

“We hope others can learn from our model and replicate it to collaborate across schools and platforms,” Michielsen said. “We can make an exponential impact by working together. We can do so much more.”

 

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Cornell’s New Certificate Program Teaches Essential Legal Concepts Every Business Manager Should Know

— Courses build legal acumen, confidence to navigate business law —

Business managers, both in corporate settings and startups, make dozens of decisions with legal implications every day. Yet a recent CEB survey found that 60 percent of the middle managers who make the majority of those decisions don’t fully understand their legal consequences. That’s not just risky, it’s a major missed opportunity. Now, eCornell’s new executive certificate, Essential Legal Concepts for Business Leaders, brings fundamental legal knowledge to decision making, empowering professionals to pinpoint and plan for legal issues and work with legal counsel for the best business outcomes.

“Businesspeople don’t need to be lawyers, but they must know the legal effects of conduct, how to minimize risks, and how the law can create value in business. This certificate program provides a rare opportunity to learn on-the-job from leading academics and practicing lawyers with deep understanding and experience,” said Eduardo M. Peñalver ’94, Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law at Cornell Law School.

The new certificate program contains four courses, each designed to be completed over two weeks in three to five hours per week. In the first course, Embracing the Basics of Business Law, students learn how to research laws and court cases related to their business, recognize the pros and cons of different business structures, and identify the legal duties they may have in their roles. From this foundation, students move to Structuring Business Agreement for Success, a valuable module introducing the structure and components of contracts and how to analyze them to negotiate successful business deals. In Exploring Specialty Areas of Law, students get a high-level review of unique legal issues related to employment, real property, taxes, startup financing, and litigation. From compliance to capital funding to legal ways to reduce business taxes, this module provides a perfect introduction to specialty areas of law. The final course is Working with Legal Professionals, in which students learn how to identify when legal counsel is needed, select a lawyer, and work effectively with lawyers as business partners.

The new Essential Legal Concepts for Business Leaders Certificate presents important knowledge for all professionals, but is especially relevant for mid-level managers in large companies and senior managers in startup organizations. The curriculum, developed by ten Cornell law professors and five practicing attorneys, provides rich legal insight students can use immediately in their jobs—enhanced by videos, downloadable tools, projects, and discussions. Students who complete this program receive a Cornell University Certificate and also may earn professional Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

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About eCornell
As Cornell University’s online learning unit, eCornell delivers online professional certificate courses to individuals and organizations around the world. Courses are personally developed by Cornell faculty with expertise in a wide range of topics, including hospitality, management, marketing, human resources and leadership.  Students learn in an interactive, small cohort format to gain skills they can immediately apply in their organizations, ultimately earning a professional certificate from Cornell University. eCornell has offered online learning courses and certificate programs for 15 years to over 130,000 students at more than 2,000 companies.

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Centerplate Invests in Guest Experience: Entire Management Team Completes the Cornell University Service Excellence Program

Centerplate today announced the training of its entire leadership team through Cornell University’s Service Excellence On-Demand Training program. Centerplate’s management team successfully completed the eight Service Excellence lessons, and then a multi-day capstone session in Nashville, TN featuring hospitality industry veteran Jayne Griswold of Griswold Hospitality and Elizabeth Martyn from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Centerplate will be using this research-based approach to service as it sets new goals and objectives to enhance the quality of the guest experience.

In collaboration with eCornell, the Cornell School of Hotel Administration delivers innovative research and educational opportunities in a format appropriate for industry leaders and executives. By leveraging the Cornell partnership, Centerplate is committing to investing in its employees, its front-line service standards, and honing the core of its service experience. During the training process, Centerplate managers learned a critical thinking framework for service, including necessary tools that can be applied to both service delivery and service process design for any interactive situation with both internal and external customers.

Griswold Hospitality specializes in customer experience by establishing service and facility standards that prioritize the guest’s journey and provide a well-defined framework for employees to operate within. This provides a tool for service measurement and establishes the basis for a robust employee recognition program. Centerplate’s alignment with Griswold Hospitality positions the company to improve its guest experience through metrics and data analysis, tracking the impact of its investment, and taking strategic action through service training.

“Hospitality is not just what we do. It’s how we make people feel. This partnership with Cornell reinforces that for all of us, and gives us a tangible education that enriches our skills as hospitality providers,” said Centerplate CEO Chris Verros. “The Cornell program, from one of the most respected hospitality schools in the country, really helps us stay true to our mission of providing a superior level of human service in each and every one of our venues.”

The Service Excellence program distills leading industry research and data-backed approaches to service delivery into a format that is appropriate, relatable, and applicable to operators. The training was authored by Elizabeth Martyn, SHA ‘07 School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, and features eight online lessons, each 30 – 45 minutes in length, with content covering topics including as contextual sensitivity, verbal and non-verbal communication, listening, empathy and more.

Over 250 participants, all Centerplate employees at the managerial level and above, were tested and graded on their mastery of the content. Each Centerplate team member was recognized for successful completion of the Service Excellence training from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. On-going implementation of standards and data tracking continues at Centerplate’s 300+ venues.

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About eCornell
As Cornell University’s online learning unit, eCornell delivers online professional certificate courses to individuals and organizations around the world. Courses are personally developed by Cornell faculty with expertise in a wide range of topics, including hospitality, management, marketing, human resources and leadership.  Students learn in an interactive, small cohort format to gain skills they can immediately apply in their organizations, ultimately earning a professional certificate from Cornell University. eCornell has offered online learning courses and certificate programs for 15 years to over 130,000 students at more than 2,000 companies.

About the School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

The School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business is shaping the global knowledge base for hospitality management through leadership in education, research, and industry advancement. Accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the school provides management instruction in the full range of hospitality disciplines, educating the next generation of leaders in the world’s largest industry. Founded in 1922 as the nation’s first collegiate course of study in hospitality management, the Cornell School of Hotel Administration is recognized as the world leader in its field.

About Griswold Hospitality Partners

Griswold Hospitality is a customer experience firm that believes that differentiation is found through memorable service delivery. A foundation of service standards follows the customer journey and the employees’ path to delivering a product or service, ultimately bringing your brand promise to life. Add measurement, training and recognition programs to foster a culture of engaged employees who have clear deliverables and result in an improved customer experience. Leveraging over twenty years in the luxury hospitality industry, with leadership roles at both Forbes Travel Guide and United Airlines, Jayne Griswold brings an acute attention to detail, passion for excellence and an intuitive sense for what is critical to the customer experience.

About Centerplate

Centerplate is a global leader in live event hospitality, “Making It Better To Be There®” for more than 116 million guests each year at more than 300 prominent entertainment, sports and convention venues across North America, Europe and the United Kingdom. Centerplate has provided event hospitality services to more than 30 official U.S. Presidential Inaugural Balls, 14 Super Bowls and 22 World Series. Visit the company online at Centerplate.com, connect via Twitter @centerplate, Instagram @Centerplate_ or Facebook.com/centerplate.

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eCornell’s New Data Analytics Certificate Equips Professionals to Translate Big Data into Actionable Business Insights

— Program is essential step in data science career, ranked best job in America for 2017 —

Data scientists and data analysts are hot commodities; they were ranked the #1 job in America for 2017 by Glassdoor and named the sexiest job of the 21st century by Harvard Business Review. Demand for these roles—and their intersecting skills in business, statistics, and programming—is driven by organizations swimming in data but hamstrung by a shortage of employees with the critical mindset needed to translate it into meaningful decisions. Yet educational institutions lag in preparing students for these jobs. To close the gap, Cornell University is now offering professionals the opportunity to earn an executive certificate in Data Analytics so they can build core fluency in data analysis and a foundation for further technical study.

“Data analysis requires professionals to be informed consumers of data. Technical knowledge is necessary, but it’s actually even more valuable to know which questions to ask, how to ask them, test them, and translate them into business intelligence. Done well, data analysis provides a valid narrative business leaders can follow to make more successful strategic decisions,” said Chris Anderson, Ph.D., the certificate’s faculty author from Cornell University.

The Data Analytics certificate consists of three intensive courses that provide professionals with an essential understanding of how and why data is used to create value in business: Understanding and Visualizing Data, Implementing Scientific Decision-Making, and Using Predictive Data Analysis. Each three-week course builds the analytical mindset, starting with what data is, and moving into how to visualize data and build predictive models and reporting. Students strengthen their ability to connect data to decisions—learning how to make inferences about data samples and analyze relationships across data to predict future outcomes, with the option to use datasets from their own companies.

Courses offer step-by-step “How Tos” for all statistical processes and teach universal Excel-based analysis tools. From data visualization to predictive analytics, Professor Anderson combines accessible terminology with his wide-ranging experience in management science and statistics to teach skills that translate across software platforms.

The Data Analytics certificate is a critical credential for today’s professionals across many industries, complementing several eCornell certificate programs in marketing, leadership, revenue management, and human resources. For students new to statistics, courses expose them to the fundamentals and remove barriers to getting started. Professionals with deeper statistical knowledge will learn to ground data in the language of business decisions, and current data analysts will enhance their ability to communicate with key audiences and make meaning out of data. Senior executives will also become more critical consumers of data, and better able to guide and manage analysts productively.

Students who complete the program receive an Executive Certificate from Cornell University and will earn 0.6 Professional Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for each course completed.

 

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About eCornell
As Cornell University’s online learning unit, eCornell delivers online professional certificate courses to individuals and organizations around the world. Courses are personally developed by Cornell faculty with expertise in a wide range of topics, including hospitality, management, marketing, human resources and leadership.  Students learn in an interactive, small cohort format to gain skills they can immediately apply in their organizations, ultimately earning a professional certificate from Cornell University. eCornell has offered online learning courses and certificate programs for 15 years to over 130,000 students at more than 2,000 companies.

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Cornell University’s New Psychology of Leadership Certificate Program Translates Top Behavioral Research Into Proven Framework for Leadership Success

— First program of its kind gives professionals actionable steps to influence behavior, motivation and results —

March  28, 2017 (Ithaca, NY) – Great leaders vary in style, but they all possess one critical skill: the ability to understand what drives and motivates people, and to use this knowledge to influence behavior across an organization. Yet most personality-based leadership training today leaves professionals struggling to define exactly how to do this. Now, Cornell University is offering a new, all-online certificate in the Psychology of Leadership, a program that distills complex leadership behaviors and 50-plus years of empirical research into a concrete set of tools professionals can use to cultivate their ability to influence and lead in all settings.

“Professionals have limited time for development and it’s not practical for them to try everything to find what works. This new program is the result of a lifetime of work, rendering a broad range of behavioral theories and research down to a set of 15 to 20 core ideas that reap results quickly, across multiple contexts,” said Allan Filipowicz, Ph.D., program author and award-winning clinical professor of management and organizations at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business.

The first program of its kind, the Psychology of Leadership certificate consists of six highly interactive online courses that can be completed over three months with three to five hours of study per week in an engaging, small-class setting. Each course systematically unpacks key behaviors like goal setting, managing personal and team performance, emotional intelligence, and influencing others. Filipowicz uses practical frameworks and tools—worksheets, physical activities, and simulations—to provide students with a visceral understanding of the concepts. And once they have the personal experience of doing, students can more easily move concepts into the workplace as well as teach those skills to their teams.

Students also benefit from Professor Filipowicz’s diverse academic and professional background; he teaches MBA students and global executives, has worked in both finance and consulting, and holds advanced degrees in engineering, international affairs, social psychology, business, and organizational behavior.

One of 12 Leadership and Strategic Management certificates offered by eCornell, Psychology of Leadership is relevant for all professionals, regardless of level, industry, or sector, and ideal for current leaders seeking to improve personal and team performance. It’s also an essential program for organizations to use in developing new leaders and managers, and for anyone who needs to get things done through others. Students who complete this program receive a professional certificate from Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business.

 

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About Cornell University’s Johnson School
The Johnson School at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business is a leader in innovative business education. Consistently ranked as one of the top business schools in the world, Johnson offers seven MBA programs, spanning the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Mexico, and China, and in collaboration with Cornell Tech and Weill Medicine in New York, Queens University in Canada, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Johnson is home to the renowned academic journal Administrative Science Quarterly; its more than 100 faculty members conduct award-winning research, educate more than 1250 MBA and PhD students each year, and work with companies throughout the world to provide executive education courses that are customized to meet their business needs.

About eCornell
As Cornell University’s online learning subsidiary, eCornell delivers online professional certificate courses to individuals and organizations around the world. Courses are personally developed by Cornell faculty with expertise in a wide range of topics, including hospitality, management, marketing, human resources and leadership.  Students learn in an interactive, small cohort format to gain skills they can immediately apply in their organizations, ultimately earning a professional certificate from Cornell University. eCornell has offered online learning courses and certificate programs for 15 years to over 130,000 students at more than 2,000 companies.

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Three Reasons Men Should Care About “Women’s Issues”

There are three reasons that men should care about the double bind, which happens when women are evaluated against a “masculine” style of leadership. Effective leaders have to take charge and take care, but women leaders trying to be bold and assertive can be labeled (by both both women and men) as unlikeable and bossy. On the other hand, when women leaders show their caring side, they may be perceived as “too soft.” The double bind is often seen as a “women’s issue,” but men should care as well about the impact of the unconscious bias that results from gender stereotyping.

#1. Be a “He for She”

First, men’s lives are deeply connected to the women that surround them: mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, friends, partners, co-workers and leaders.  For professional and personal reasons, the females in men’s lives will likely experience the realities of the double bind. To be an effective “he for she”, men can educate themselves to recognize the causes and effects of the phenomenon. Accordingly, they can help the women in their lives analyze and strategize more effectively when the double bind impacts them.

#2. Change the Culture to Maximize Team Performance

Any person in a leadership position is focused on ways to create high-functioning teams and good outcomes for their institution. Men in leadership need to empower and embolden all the members of their teams and they are in a unique position to keep double bind consequences from hobbling the females from achieving their best performance. As the leader, by paying attention to and addressing the subtle (and not so subtle) ways women are diminished in the workplace, a male leader can start to help everyone understand the consequences of the double bind. He can also use quantitative data to help highlight and evaluate accomplishments so that “hunches” and vague characterizations do not hinder females. Imagine a conversation like this with two people, Bill and Anya, being reviewed for promotion.

Leader: Let’s review these candidates.

Commenter: I find Anya a bit abrasive, so I think Bill would be the right person to promote. He seems to get along with everyone.

Leader: Let’s talk about this. Does Anya’s behavior impact her performance? Her sales team has been performing really well – even better than Bill’s.

Commenter: That may be so, but she is abrupt and too direct. I just have more of a sense that Bill is the right fit and he is smart and aggressive.

Leader: Well, it seems to me that Anya has also been aggressive and smart. And it doesn’t make sense to me to overlook her accomplishments just because you may have a personality conflict with a woman who has been aggressive, but not with a man. I really think we should stick to the data we have on performance.

#3. Free Yourself

Finally, a male leader should care about the deeper sources of gender-bias dynamics because these forces also impact his life. The truth is, unconscious bias can impact anyone who does not fit the stereotype for the gender the person identifies with. Let’s face it, the “hyper masculine” stereotype (aggressive, relentlessly competitive, void of emotional expression) probably does not fit the majority of men in the real workplace even though television (think: Axelrod in Billions) and movies (think: Gekko in in Wallstreet) would have us think otherwise. If we feminize the expression of emotion and masculinize violence and power, everyone is trapped.

Entering a more enlightened and informed understanding of the double bind can help men in the workplace extend the framework to see where gender stereotypes actually might be holding they themselves back. It is critical that the double bind discussion not be seen as a male vs. female debate. Instead, we should be re-crafting the dialogue to understand how each of us can escape the traps created by gender bias.

(For an excellent discussion and many practical steps, I highly recommend a study called Anatomy of Change, by Catalyst researchers Sarah Dinolfo, Jeanine Prime, and Heather Foust-Cummings.) #IWD2017 #BeBoldforChange

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Want to Win Your Next Negotiation? Ask a Simple Question

“Like going to the dentist.” That is the metaphor some women used to describe negotiating in a survey conducted by Linda Babcock, co-author of Women Don’t Ask. By contrast, men used metaphors like “winning a ballgame” to describe negotiation. If you fail to negotiate, studies show that over time you can leave as much as half a million dollars on the table.

There are a lot of great resources for learning how to negotiate – books, blogs, courses, workshops – so why aren’t women, as a group, negotiating effectively? Why are women are less comfortable than men in negotiating settings? Finally, is there a style that might fit women better?

Why women don’t ask

Gender stereotypes – one of those cognitive shortcuts we all use to navigate the world — create a dilemma for women who are in a negotiation situation. Women and men applying gender stereotypes expect females to be kind, collaborative and to serve as “connectors.” In other words: “Be nice and play nice.” But negotiation requires a woman to advocate and show strength, putting her in violation of her gender’s stereotype and risking being seen as “pushy” or “too aggressive.”

This leads to the dilemma: what style of negotiation can both feel right and avoid pushback from this double bind?

Just ask a question

Jacie Stivers is an ace negotiator — she started Commercial Investment Real Estate in 1983 with less than $500 of her own funding, eventually expanding it to one of the premier commercial real estate brokerage firms in the Space Coast of Florida, handling over $100M in closings. Jacie has developed a simple technique: ask a question.

Here’s how it works. In a negotiation situation, instead of making a demand, ask a series of questions. You will shift the pace of the conversation by putting the other side in the position of providing information. And, their answers will reveal important information about the precedents and boundaries guiding their offer.  The qualitative and quantitative things you learn will help you feel more confidence in presenting an offer of your own.

The “asking technique” has other advantages too. It is less pushy or self-serving because the approach is simply one of a polite, inquisitive, interested party who wants to fully understand the situation. How can you pull it off? Suppose you have are being offered a raise. Start by composing yourself to offer a demeanor of frank and well-intentioned curiosity. Then:

Step 1: Begin with a question that will provide the most important information you need from the other side for a counter offer.

  • Example:  “Where does this offer fall in the range of previous or current promotions given to similar individuals in this position?”

Step 2: In response to their answer, come up with another question to go a layer deeper.

  • Example: “I see, in the top 25%. What are the qualities or performance standards for those who received offers in the top 1%?

Step 3: Keep asking until you feel you can make a counter offer that fits.  Keep the tone in information-gathering mode.

  • Example: “I see, candidates in top 1% have 10 years of experience. Do you count just years of experience or does diversity of experience or level of responsibility factor into the calculation?”
  • Example: “To get to that top 1%, what have other candidates done to show their worthiness?”

Step 4: Summarize and counter offer, using the information you have gleaned.

  • Example: Thank you for answering my questions. It was really helpful to understand how the decision was made.  Here is how I understand the situation. This offer is near the high end of offers made. Those who got the highest end have about ten years of experience. I have been here 8 years, but in that process have much deeper experience than others because I have been dealing with assignments across the various functions of the firm. So I’d ask for that to be taken into consideration. You also mentioned that to be at the top requires that the candidate show exceptional promise – here is how I fit that… (from your preparation documenting your accomplishments). Using this logic takes me to a higher number than in your initial offer – such as $$$.

The counter offer is not based on aggressive behavior or self-promotion. Instead, it is built on logic and a series of answers from the other side. It takes practice, but whether you’re female or male, mastering the art of negotiation by asking questions is well worth the pay off.

References

Babcock, Linda, and Sara Laschever. Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Bowles, Hannah Riley, Linda Babcock, and Lei Lai. “Social Incentives for Gender Differences in the Propensity to Initiate Negotiations: Sometimes It Does Hurt to Ask.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 103, no. 1 (May 2007): 84–103.