Stop Saying Thank You Before You’ve Said the Number

There is a particular choreography women perform in negotiation rooms. The grateful tilt of the head. The preemptive smile. The opening line that begins, “I know this might sound like a lot, but…”

We have been trained, generation after generation, to soften the ask before the ask is even on the table. To audition for compensation we have already earned. To treat our own value like a request rather than a fact.

Enough.

In two days, Women in Law UAE is hosting a Zoom session that takes a wrecking ball to the apology reflex. How to Negotiate Your Worth, led by Crina Ancuta, MD, an executive coach and ex-managing director with more than two decades in leadership rooms where the stakes were real and the silences were long. She has been on both sides of the table. She knows the script. She also knows how to throw it out.

This is not a session about asking nicely. It is about asking accurately.

We will cover the full terrain. Salary, yes. But also bonus structures, equity conversations, promotions that should have happened two cycles ago, scope that quietly expanded without a title to match, and the recognition that somehow keeps landing in the inbox of the man two desks over.

Crina will share what actually moves the dial. How to anchor. When to pause. What to do when they tell you the budget is fixed (it rarely is). How to negotiate for the things that compound, not just the things that show up on the next paycheck.

If you have ever walked out of a comp conversation wondering whether you should have pushed harder, this one is for you. If you have ever accepted a number because it felt impolite to counter, this one is definitely for you.

Date: 24 April, 2026

Time: 12.30 Dubai time

Where: Zoom

Bring a notebook. Leave the apology at home.

See you there.

PS: Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash