One of my over-achiever students, "Belinda" worked in a commercial real estate company and even those it was her first year in this role, she had exceeded her annual sales goals already in early October. Her HR representative was really impressed with her and told her that it will be completely reasonable to discuss a raise with her supervisor. Belinda also found out from another colleague that she was about to get an important large client account added to her portfolio.

On my recent trip to Phoenix I caught up with a former Wharton MBA classmate. He had forwarded my post about women’s mental barriers to negotiating to his co-worker and helped her think through her current situation (settling for less, afraid to “betray” her company by considering other offers, afraid to be perceived as ungrateful, etc). To avoid being too stereotypical in my assumptions, I asked him if he had also faced some of these barriers. He said that he never did and t

“Women MBA graduates make on average 6% less than their male counterparts in their first post-MBA job. Why? Because they don’t negotiate.” I learned this statistic in my Wharton MBA negotiations class and promised myself then and there that I will always at least try to negotiate. Why Don’t Women Negotiate? I've helped numerous women with their negotiations strategy in the past few years. Here are the most common reasons I've heard: The Seven Deadly Sins of Not Negotia