Negotiation #6: Negotiate Your Resources

Resources Matter

When people think about negotiation, they often think about resources. Salary offers, lab space, start-up packages—these are the classic “macro-negotiations.” But resources also matter in everyday micro-negotiations: the supports, tools, and investments that enable you to thrive. Negotiating resources ensures you can do your highest-value work while avoiding burnout.

Five Key Resource Negotiations

1. Salary

Your salary is the foundation of financial stability, and it should be negotiated—not just once, but repeatedly. Ask for the maximum salary for your rank, role, and qualifications. This is not about greed; it’s about sustainability. Without it, you may find yourself taking on moonlighting shifts or extra jobs just to make ends meet, trading precious energy and time that could be better invested in your career and family. Over time, inflation erodes salaries, and new hires may start at equal or even higher pay. Periodically revisit your compensation to ensure you’re at least at parity. Salary negotiations aren’t a one-time event—they’re an ongoing conversation.

2. Administrative Support

Your time is valuable. Without support, you risk spending it on tasks that others could do more efficiently. Administrative help—whether in your professional role or in your personal life—is not a luxury. It frees you to focus on your highest-value work. This could mean negotiating for an assistant at work, or seeking help at home with childcare, groceries, or household responsibilities. Both matter.

3. Career Development Support

Investing in yourself is the single best investment you will ever make. Institutions often provide resources for professional development—courses, workshops, leadership programs, or conferences. Use them. All of them. And don’t stop there. Request funding for external programs that enhance your skills. If your institution won’t cover it, invest in yourself directly. Unlike the stock market, self-investment always pays dividends.

4. Institutional Resources

Your institution is more than your workplace—it’s a platform. From libraries to grant offices to its reputation and network, your institution provides resources you can leverage for your growth. Use its name to open doors. Use its systems to streamline your work. Use its structures to amplify your contributions.

5. External Resources

As valuable as your institution is, it shapes your thinking. To grow, you must step outside its culture and learn from other institutions, organizations, and communities. External resources offer fresh perspectives, new approaches, and different solutions to familiar challenges. If you have to choose between only internal or external opportunities, lean toward external. But ideally, pursue both.

Resources Expand Your Capacity

Negotiating resources isn’t about asking for perks—it’s about ensuring you have what you need to do meaningful work at the highest level. The right resources free you to focus on your value, legacy, and purpose.

What’s Next: Negotiating Your Team

Resources matter, but they only go so far without the right people around you. In the next post, we’ll explore how to negotiate your team—because no academic physician succeeds alone.

Reflection Questions

• When was the last time you renegotiated your salary, and are you confident it reflects your current value?

• What kinds of administrative support would free you to focus on higher-value work?

• Which career development opportunities are you currently underutilizing?

• How can you better leverage your institution’s resources—or expand beyond them?