One thing many of the top performing professionals, athletes, and business people have in common is a support system. Most know that in order to optimize their performance they need to recruit a professional, aka a coach, to help them overcome obstacles, serve as a sounding board, and guide them towards improvement.

Although a negotiation coach is similar to a business coach in both importance and guidance, the reasons why you would seek out one over the other are different. Outlined here are 6 top reasons you might need a negotiation coach and how their guidance can benefit your overall career and personal life.

Many people, especially women, find negotiations to be stressful conversations. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the challenges you could encounter when faced with an upcoming business deal or negotiating your salary. Yet, the art of negotiation is a skill anyone can master, at any age.

It can take a long time for discussions to reach a deal, which is why it’s important for you to do your research on what pitfalls to avoid so you can get the most optimal outcome and not leave money on the table. If you avoid the following ten mistakes, you're sure to gain advantages in your next negotiation.

“The Overdue Awakening” is what Time Magazine has titled their cover spread in their latest issue and rightly so: racial justice is making major headlines these days. Although discrimination and bias are not new things, it seems there is a hopeful promise that we as a country are finally waking up. In order to address systemic and deeply embedded racial discrimination however, we need to gain awareness towards its byproducts of implicit and explicit bias. This effect trickles down from the price paid for a new car to how we are perceived during a salary negotiation. It is a known fact that the gender pay gap for women of color is even worse than the average gender pay gap at 63 cents on the dollar according to the US Census Bureau.

As many cities across the world begin to open up from lockdown orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount to continue the CDC guideline of staying at least six feet apart in public places. Understanding and respecting the need for six feet of space is a new concept for everyone and in a time of quarantining and social distancing, the concepts of social etiquette and politeness like shaking hands and holding the door have been redefined. The most generous thing you can do now is to stay home or if you must go out, give everyone the necessary space to stay safe.

Many of us view negotiation as a taboo, dirty word that implies those once in a blue moon, scary conversations that often revolve around money and get to the root of our fear of rejection.  In truth, negotiation is a skill that, whether we realize it or not, we use every day, all throughout the day.  We’ve put together 7 ways to improve your negotiations and shift your mindset towards embracing a very important life skill.

You’re sitting at the negotiation table, utterly frustrated as a colleague, or perhaps your boss, stubbornly clings to her position.  Downtown, a mother feels like pulling her hair out of her head trying to get her son to clean his room. Across town, a couple can’t agree on Thai or Italian.  We negotiate almost every day since, after all, conflict’s a part of life. And most of the time, we’re not even aware we’re doing it.