Many women say they would rather go to the dentist than to negotiate for themselves. Why? Women are taught early to create equity in relationships. When you negotiate with someone and you feel that you're taking something away from them, that feels like a violation of the social contract you were raised with. There's little wonder, then, that negotiation feels deeply uncomfortable for many women.

And yet negotiating is a critical skill that everyone, especially women, has to practice and master in order to be an effective leader. In this course from Cornell Professor Deborah Streeter, you will practice key behaviors that help negotiations, including asking for what you want—something most women are not taught to do. The course emphasizes the gender dimension of negotiation strategies and the critical skills that women leaders, in particular, typically need to focus on. This course will be most helpful for women leaders who are not already practiced and comfortable in negotiation settings, but those who find negotiating stressful, uncomfortable, and difficult. Negotiating is a routine part of daily life and leadership, and approaching it with confidence and skill continually signals that you know your worth.