LEARN TO WIN

We are in boot camp. No doubt about it, this is a marathon. And women need to learn the athletic skills that men bring to the game. You have to learn to win.

After a bruising game of basketball, men slap each other on the back and go out for a brewski to review the game blow by blow. Woman still personalize combat. After a bruising game like that we would retire to a bath, still wondering of the other players were still mad at us.

Winning is not a traditional female instinct (and it is not becoming). We fear that if we win, it is at someone else’s expense. Our male bosses are afraid that our emotional reactions will lead them into bad deals. Their worst fear is that they will be emotionally manipulated into a deal that they themselves would not have otherwise made.

Women become more credible players when they are hard-nosed, skilled negotiators. It is reassuring to men when women understand how to stay firm and not be “agented.”

Women have to be able to walk away from a deal (or at least appear to). This is how you learn to win.