Negotiation Keynote Speaker

Only 7% of people know the secret to great negotiation – but mastering it is simpler than many people think! No matter where they start, anyone can improve their negotiation skills and see quantum-leap results in their professional lives. In this innovative, interactive talk, Alex gives audiences several powerful tools to achieve immediate, massive results in their negotiations. Straight from the pages of Alex’s Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Ask For More: 10 Questions to Negotiate Anything, participants learn how to ask powerful questions and then “land the plane” for the greatest effect. The results? Better deals, fewer losses, and a lot more collaboration across the board.

In this brand-new keynote, Alex will deliver strategies from her latest writing project on amplification, a strategy originally used by senior women in the Obama White House to make their voices heard at the table and ensure that they received credit for their ideas. Amplification means speaking someone’s name and giving her credit in specific ways that magnify both the person and the message. Alex will talk about what amplification is, how to do it most effectively and why amplification does more than elevating women’s voices – it also benefits organizations by building unbreakable teams and ensuring the best ideas float to the top. In this tactical, interactive, and empowering workshop, Professor Alex Carter will cover:

• • Where amplification comes from
  • The “Amplification Formula” – exactly how to do it
  • The difference between amplification and appropriation
  • Examples of how to amplify, and how to systematize across a department

Past clients have extended this in an on-going training initiative to firmly embed the principals of amplification into their company’s culture.

Negotiation isn’t just about numbers—it’s also about messages. An essential part of that message is how we talk about ourselves, both within our companies and with clients. Participants in this workshop will learn how to drive huge growth and prevent unnecessary loss by communicating powerfully, how to develop the negotiation resilience to get past a “no” and persevere until it’s a “yes,” and how to advocate for themselves by asking the right questions. In this interactive talk, Alex offers tactics and strategies to help participants nail their communication skills and masterfully negotiate on behalf of themselves in any context.

Money is important—but it’s only half the story. In fact, nailing certain critical everyday negotiations—for access, for boundaries, for information, or for time—is often what moves the needle for professionals running a business, leading a team, or pursuing a new role. In this tactical interactive talk designed for your organization’s senior leaders, Alex teaches the most powerful non-monetary asks in any negotiation. Participants will learn how to drive major results and prevent unnecessary loss by advocating for everything they need to succeed and thrive.

Negotiation is more than the way we talk to other people – it’s also how we talk about ourselves. Many of us find it difficult to discuss our expertise and accomplishments, whether inside our teams or with clients – but to reach our goals and achieve meaning in our careers, we have to claim our expertise! In this tactical and empowering workshop, Alex will give professionals the tools to understand their strengths, frame their accomplishments and become their own ultimate self-advocate. Participants will walk away from the workshop with the skills to allow others to share in their wins, put their talents to the best use, and realize their dreams and ambitions.

Command, clarity, and confidence in any situation—that’s the X-factor known as “executive presence” and every leader needs it. Executive presence exists both in the words we choose and how we speak them. In this constructive and illuminating workshop, Professors Alex Carter and Anne Marie Nest-Pinero unpack the inequity inherent in the concept of executive presence, while also giving participants research-backed strategies for choosing the right language and speaking it with confidence. Attendees will emerge ready to fully embody executive presence—in any room.

Many of your employees have mastered strategies for everyday negotiations – but what about when we face an especially challenging situation? Alex breaks down different kinds of challenging negotiations, including:

• Procedural challenges (multiple parties, opaque decision-making processes)
• Strategic challenges (aggressive/competitive tactics)
• Personality challenges (personal insults/belittling, threats, overt sexism)

For each of these situations, Alex will give strategies to help your employees break barriers and succeed in reaching their goals.

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” -Jack Welch

The most effective leaders are not only tuned in to those who they lead but are also self-aware. In this interactive workshop from the Columbia Law School Advanced Mediation Clinic, participants will focus on building capacity for effective leadership – including conflict resolution, which is a key management competency. They will expand their conceptions of leadership to include many different leadership styles, identify which of their own individual traits, knowledge, and skill sets they can use to help them become effective leaders, and will leave equipped with increased self-awareness of their leadership styles.

Finally, building upon this self-awareness, participants will learn how to construct optimally functioning teams. This includes an interactive discussion of conflict – what types of conflict set a team back, and what kinds can promote productivity and innovation.

Leading companies who train their professionals to help them advance also recognize the importance of training senior leadership—those making the promotion decisions. In this highly interactive, research-backed, and tactical training—built upon Professor Carter’s nearly two decades of experience coaching thousands of executives and senior partners—participants will learn:

• Cultural, gender, and regional differences in:
  • self-advocacy
  • claiming credit when working together as part of a team
  • public self-assessment
  • high v. low context cultures
  • use of up-graders and down-graders
• How to avoid gender descriptors
• Valuing institutional tasks and “office housework”
• Questions to ask to get the fullest picture

Program Goals: For the Equity and Advocacy in Promotion and Compensation Processes training, Professor Carter has two primary goals: (1) discuss the latest research on gender and culture in self-advocacy, as applied to promotion and compensation-related interviewing; and (2) acquire concrete, research-backed strategies for conducting trust-building conversations around compensation.

Money is psychological. Money is emotional. Money represents a host of unexpressed needs for individuals and families. Likewise, money can be emotionally fraught for entrepreneurs who put their names and creativity on the line every day. In this keynote, Alex will teach the art and science of money negotiations, and how business owners can achieve their aspirations. She will walk through how to set benchmarks for pricing that will advance your business and frame them in a way that communicates value to the other party.

Participants will learn:

1. What money commonly represents for people and how to not work against but work with those emotions to get the proposal you desire;
2. Words to say and not to say to promote success of your offers;
3. How to read the other person in your negotiation so that you can tailor the framing of your offers to each client;
4. How to navigate the challenges inherent in negotiating money with someone other than a couple or family.

Attrition is one of the leading costs plaguing organizations today. Professor Carter, a nationally recognized expert on workplace equity, has worked with leading organizations and C-Suite executives on improving retention, especially with women but also across the board.

In this interactive, high-level session, Professor Carter shares with senior management the latest research on effective leadership and self-awareness, as well as the leading factors that cause women and others to depart organizations. She presents case studies showing successful interventions that decrease attrition. The talk concludes with best practices and a problem-solving session, with the goal of creating an organization where people want to stay, thrive, and share in the company’s increased success.

Professor Carter’s credentials and her experience dealing with very senior leaders enables her to lead a workshop that truly engages, edifies, and promotes the candor needed to create results.