Dr. Victoria Medvec talks to a freshman class at Brookfield High School.
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series on the Brookfield Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023.
Appearing before a class of Brookfield High School freshmen last September, Dr. Victoria Husted Medvec offered this scenario:
You are looking at the requirements listed in a job posting but conclude you do not meet them all. Do you apply anyway?
More boys than girls in the class said they would apply anyway, and Medvec said that’s typical.
“Women are even less likely to negotiate for themselves than their male peers are,” she said.
But, the 1982 Brookfield grad counseled the students to apply anyway, if they really want the job.
“Those requirements are just listed as things they would like to have,” Medvec said. “It’s negotiable. If you’re interested in a role, (it’s your job) to raise your hand and say, ‘I want to do that.’ It’s never your job to know, ‘Am I qualified to do that?’ That’s somebody else’s job.”
Medvec is the author of the book “Negotiate Without Fear: Strategies and Tools to Maximize Your Outcomes.” The book emerged from the very specialized business she created, Medvec and Associates, “which seeks to counsel and improve the negotiation capabilities of major corporations,” said her son, Barrett.
“Several years into her tenured academic career, my mom realized the strong demand for the concepts and practices she was teaching to her students by the corporate world, especially in the realm of high-stakes negotiations, spanning strategies, operations, mergers and acquisitions, procurement and sales function by Fortune 500 companies.”
Medvec, a professor of management and organization at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, counsels Microsoft, Google, McDonald’s and major sports figures.
“My book focuses on how you can take the fear out of every one of those negotiations, she said. “What’s so interesting is that even people who do really gigantic negotiations, like, a billion-dollar deal, they still feel afraid when they’re negotiating for themselves.”
What’s more interesting is that the advice she gives these well-paying clients is the same she gave to the freshmen.
“It’s really, really important that we all know how to negotiate,” said Medvec, who studied psychology, economics and management as a college student.
We all negotiate at some point in our lives, whether it’s for employment compensation, a job role or new responsibility or – to bring the discussion to the students – for a summer job or an internship.
People negotiate for something they want, but an important first step in negotiating is not to talk about what you want, but to talk about what the other party wants. Think of “the other side, first,” she said, their needs, their problems, their challenges.
“I think about what is the other side’s reaction, how are they going to understand it, what are they going to think about?” Medvec said. “We often are very egocentric when we go into negotiations.”
By acknowledging issues that are important to the other side, and thinking about how those problems and challenges can be addressed, “I can use those things to get more of what I want.”
Medvec also tasked the students with looking at themselves and identifying the qualities that make them unique, that make them stand out. She called these qualities “differentiators.” These are the qualities you want to highlight when negotiating for yourself, she said.
For Medvec, her differentiator is her ability to speak publicly. While she has an in-born talent for it, she worked to improve it in high school by competing in speech contests and acting in school plays.
“You’re at the perfect time in your life to build your unique skills,” she said.
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The Brookfield Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame will induct its next class at 10 a.m. Sept. 14 at Tiffany’s Event Center, 601 Bedford Road, Brookfield.
Inductees will be Kathryn Yazvac Ferrara, Fred Paulenich, Joan Riccardi Humphrey, Alex Nagy (posthumous), Ray Blakeney and Dr. Erin Hennessy Cockrell.
Tickets are available at the school board office, 579 Bedford Road, or by calling Diane Riefstahl at 724-346-9615. Deadline to purchase tickets is Sept. 6.
