Negotiation #10: Negotiate Your Boundaries

Boundaries Are Non-Negotiable

Everything you’ve built—your value, your health, your schedule, your team—only holds if it’s enclosed within boundaries. Think of boundaries like the fence around a house. The property exists whether or not the fence is visible, but the fence makes the boundaries explicit. The same is true in your career. Boundaries define what belongs and what does not. They protect your most valuable work, time, and energy. Without them, everything you’ve negotiated can easily be eroded.

Five Steps to Negotiating Boundaries

1. Be Clear About the Value You Are Protecting

You’ve already recognized your value and invested in it. Now, get clear about what that value produces: publications, funding, discoveries, mentorship, impact. When you understand the results your investments yield, you’ll be more committed to protecting them.

Boundaries aren’t about practicing “no” for its own sake. They’re about protecting treasure. When you see your work as treasure, boundaries become natural.

2. Define What Doesn’t Fit

Not everything belongs within your boundaries. Some requests are simply irrelevant to your calling as a clinician scientist. Examples: being asked to join a committee to plan faculty and staff birthday parties, or serving on an initiative that doesn’t enhance your career development. These don’t fit. Once you define what doesn’t belong, you can decline quickly and confidently.

3. Define What Trumps Other Priorities

Emergencies happen. Some things rightly override everything else—a sick child, for example. But other requests may not deserve that level of urgency.

Decide in advance what trumps your schedule and what does not. Does an “urgent” meeting from your chair override your writing block? Or do you protect your priorities unless it’s truly mission-critical? By clarifying in advance, you remove anxiety and make decisions with confidence.

4. Make Your Boundaries Explicit

Boundaries exist whether spoken or not, but sometimes you need to state them clearly. For example:

• “I don’t check email between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. I’ll respond by noon.”

• “I’m on my way to a scheduled writing block. Can we meet at 4 p.m. instead?”

Explicit boundaries reduce misunderstandings and free you from feeling pressured to over-explain.

5. Pay Attention to Boundary Crossers

Some people will ignore or repeatedly test your boundaries. They may be colleagues, mentors, or leaders you respect. Still, if they consistently cross your boundaries, it’s a sign they don’t respect you or your work.

Notice the pattern. Address it if needed. And over time, begin negotiating your way out of relationships that do not honor your boundaries.

Boundaries Protect What Matters Most

Boundaries are not walls; they are definitions. They clarify what belongs in your life and work, and what does not. They protect your value, your energy, and your purpose. Without boundaries, every other negotiation unravels. With boundaries, everything you’ve built is secured.

Reflection Questions

• Where in your career or personal life are your boundaries currently unclear?

• What kinds of requests consistently pull you into work that doesn’t fit within your role?

• How could you make your boundaries more explicit to others?

• Who in your life repeatedly crosses your boundaries—and what would it look like to renegotiate or release that relationship?