Professional Negotiations Win-Win: Proven Strategies for Getting What You Want from Your Employer by Peter J. Goodman is a great little book on negotiations on employment issues. Goodman incorporates the approach described in Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreements Without Compromising, by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. In fact, Roger Fisher even wrote the foreword to this book.

The book focuses on professional negotiations using a principled negotiation strategy for proposals where everyone wins instead of bluffing. The first part of the book is a basic overview of the negotiation process and the skills that are essential to negotiating successfully. This part contains the first two chapters. The chapter on focuses on the basics including listening, communicating, self-control, focus, and of course the four keys outlined in Getting to Yes:

1. Separate the people from the problem.
2. Focus on interests, not positions.
3. Invent options for mutual benefit.
4. Insist on using objective criteria.

Chapter Two is a good primer on how to prepare to trade. Every negotiator knows that preparation is key, and Goodman lays a solid foundation for this important step.

The second part of the book discusses specific issues of employment negotiation. Chapter topics include: the interview, salary, stock options, signing and performance bonuses, benefits, relocation, various confidentiality agreements, severance packages, employment agreements, and annual reviews.

The final part of the book looks at the big picture, covering topics such as practitioners’ perspectives on negotiations and teamwork.

The appendix includes two model agreements that heavily favor the employer with instructions to put your knowledge to use by identifying undesirable clauses within the agreements and then restructuring each clause to balance the agreement. There is a clause-by-clause analysis after each agreement.

Overall, this is a great little book that shows how to get what you want from your employer and co-workers through collaborative negotiation. This book can help anyone in various aspects of their professional development process. Negotiation is part of life, and it is especially part of the world of work. This book provides tips and strategies that will help you not only build professional relationships and improve his own, but also help you get ahead in all areas of his career.