Physicians are among the most educated and experienced people in our society. This makes you a valuable commodity for employers, but that can be a double-edged sword. Physicians can lack an understanding of their worth, so it’s important for you to understand how to negotiate. Negotiating with employers is more complicated than it might seem at first glance.! These eight physician negotiation tips will help you with future employers:
Understand your power.
- Understand your power.
- Know the other party’s needs.
- Understand your options, and be prepared to make a decision on which option to take.
A part of being a good negotiator is knowing when it’s time to walk away from a deal that’s not working out for you—or if the deal is acceptable but not ideal, then know how much further along in negotiations you can push before walking away from them entirely (and know how far back you can go after that).
Know what you want and outline it.
Before you begin negotiating, it is important to know what you want. You need to be knowledgeable about the other party’s position and understand it. This will help you develop a fair deal that both parties can agree on.
The first step in knowing what you want is ensuring that your expectations are realistic and achievable. This also means being aware of how much time and energy it will take for each milestone of your career path and how much money this will cost over time (i.e., salary plus bonuses).
Understand the other party’s position.
The first step in effective negotiation is understanding the other party’s position. It sounds simple, but many people fail to take this step. To do so requires that you ask what they want and listen to their response without assuming that you know what they are thinking or feeling. This may sound obvious, but it can be easy to get caught up in your own emotions during the negotiation and forget about the other person’s viewpoint entirely!
If someone asks me for advice on negotiating with employers, I often tell them that they should first ask me what I want from the process: “What would make this deal successful?” If they can’t answer that question, then there’s no point continuing with negotiations because we’ll never reach an agreement
Recognize the power dynamics.
In any negotiation, it is important to understand the power dynamics at play. Who has the most leverage? What does each party want? What are their needs and concerns? How can you best meet those needs and concerns in a way that works for both parties?
In a physician-hospital relationship, hospital administrators can have considerably more leverage than physicians do. With this in mind, negotiating with hospitals requires careful consideration about what you want to achieve through your negotiations—and why you want those things! If your goal is simply a better compensation package, then it could appear you are just looking for higher offers. If your goal is broader then there may be more room for discussion.
Know when to walk away.
As you’re negotiating, knowing when to walk away is important. If the other party won’t budge and you have a better offer, it’s time to leave the table—and not just because of your own interests. Sometimes another person has more at stake in a negotiation than you do. Maybe they need the money more than you do, or maybe they need this deal for personal reasons. In these situations it’s wise not only for yourself but also for them if you walk away from the table because it could be a win-win solution for everyone involved.
Don’t be afraid to leverage your options.
Negotiation is the art of knowing when to stand your ground and when to give in. It’s a careful balance between being assertive and being reasonable. You want to be firm about what you need, but also willing to show flexibility if the other party shows signs of compromise as well.
If you don’t know what other options are out there, it’s hard for you or your employer to make an informed decision about whether or not a job offer is good enough (or even fair). You should have some idea of how much money other physicians with similar education, experience levels, and specialties earn in your area—and if there’s any discrepancy between what they make and what they think they’re worth, that could be an indication that they’re negotiating too hard on behalf of their own interests rather than yours!
Be empathetic to the other party and be mindful of your own needs.
You may be disappointed to learn that there isn’t a magical solution to negotiating, but there are some actionable steps you can take. The first is being aware of the other party’s needs and priorities. For example, they may not care as much about vacation time as they do a salary or signing bonus. The second thing is being mindful of your own needs and priorities while negotiating with other parties. You need to know what matters most to you so that when the other party makes an offer, it doesn’t seem like they’re trying to take advantage of you or that their offer isn’t enough for them, given all the work they’ve put in so far.
If both parties can acknowledge each other’s needs and prioritize accordingly, then hopefully, both sides will feel confident about making a decision together instead of feeling like one side got more out of it than another did (or vice versa).
You can get what you need if you know how to negotiate for it.
You may be good at negotiating, or you may not have any experience with it. Either way, there are some things you can do to help yourself out in a negotiation situation. The first thing to remember is that you can’t get everything on your wish list—the other party won’t let you!
But don’t give up! There’s a lot of room for compromise when it comes to negotiation. In order to negotiate effectively, though, it’s important to understand what each side wants and has at stake. That way, if the other party asks for something unreasonable or completely unreasonable, then they’ll know they’re going over the line and maybe rethink their position on the matter at hand.
Negotiations also require walking away from bad deals—and sometimes even good ones—so knowing when enough is enough is key here too!
Conclusion
I know it can be intimidating to negotiate, but you have so much power and leverage at your fingertips. If you’re willing to put in the work and research, then you can find a way to get what you want out of any situation. If not, you can always use us! We are the physician negotiation experts. We have done this hundreds of times and only get paid when you do!
