573: The Easy Way to Get A Raise

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:01

Why is it that some people seem to move up the career ladder and make money much more easily? Well, others stay stuck in the same pay for years. Well, here's a little secret. It's not about working harder, as it turns out. It has a lot more to do with clear communication and knowing how to ask for what your work is worth to the organization, your boss, and the other people who have a vested interest. In this episode, we'll cover the most valuable ways to use 15 minutes a week with your boss, a story of how Justin got a 20% increase in pay when only asking for 12, and then how a minimum wage job making takeout pizza changed my life completely. Also, share some strategies to help you get your own raise in compensation with your company.

Introduction 00:53

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast with Scott Anthony Barlow. We hope you stop doing work that doesn't fit you. Figure out what does and make it happen. We help you define the work that is unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you feel like you were meant for more, and you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:19

Okay, when I was 17 years old, I worked for a takeout pizza place, and I really enjoyed it. It was fun. And I was pretty content with the work I was doing in the spare time for high school classes. But after I'd been there for a year, one of my co-workers urged me to do the craziest thing. She said that I should approach our boss and I should ask for a raise. She'd done the exact same thing at her year anniversary. Now I didn't even know that it was a possibility just to ask for more money. But I was excited about getting a raise, and I'd never learned not to. So I approached my boss, and guess what? I got a raise. And here's the reality, it was only a quarter on top of my, I think, it's like 5.25 minimum wage. But this quarter was the gateway quarter. That quarter opened my eyes to a whole world where I realized it was possible to happen to my career, and that I could ask for more if I believed that what I was doing was worthwhile or valuable, and from then on, I did just that. Now, okay, so here's a funny thing, if you count the businesses I've owned over the years and asking customers for a raise on contracts, and also all of the actual jobs that I've had then, I've asked for a raise around 40 times– seven of those were asking my employer for a raise. Sometimes it's been very small, other times it's been massive increases, five-figure increases even and negotiated a $20,000 raise, negotiated a raise that ended up leading to a $40,000 total increase, which was 20, I think, it's like $26,000 of actual salary, and then the remainder amount of RSUs. Here's the thing. It ended up not being that crazy of an ask or not that difficult of a negotiation. I made it easy for them to say yes, which leads me to exactly what we're going to walk through in this episode. How do you build a foundation that makes asking for a raise easy? This process will make the ask feel much more natural. It will make it easier for your boss to say yes and be on board and once that foundation is built, I'll give you an example here for what that conversation might even sound like, and often it's a series of conversations to have with your boss for that raise that, well, you might feel like you badly deserve. Okay, let's jump in here. If you're thinking about asking for a raise, you need to be providing more usefulness and worth than what is expected of you. This means you need to be doing much more than just the bare minimum in your role. Does that mean working insane hours? Well, it could be, but more often than that, it means delivering actual value– what your boss perceives as valuable, what the other people in your organization perceive as valuable, those people who are stakeholders need to understand what it is that is expected of you, as well as what you're actually delivering overall. Simply put, you must understand the expectations, and then you must exceed them. The most important expectations are in the eyes of those who have the ability to say yes, those people with a vested interest. Yes to raising your income. If you're not performing extremely well, you won't be in the kind of position to ask for anything above and beyond the norm– including a raise. You might think you're already performing well, but the question is, where do you stand with your boss? Let's walk through how you can always know where you stand with your boss. If you want to build a great relationship with your boss and have them always feeling like you're exceeding expectations, then the first step is to actually focus on that relationship, and one of the easiest ways to do this is having some kind of face time. I recommend scheduling consistent check-ins with them to discuss your progress and clarify expectations. Now you might already do this, or you might already have one-on-one setup, and this can be a proactive approach. It can demonstrate your commitment. It can also keep you on track, and if done well, it can guarantee that you're both on the same page. Now let's talk about what's most important to truly be on the same page. Because this can be simply a 15 to 20-minute weekly check-in. It doesn't have to be like hours and hours of call time or meeting or face-to-face time. It can be where you're simply explaining the work you're doing, the priorities you have, and specifically how it connects back to the goals that you've both agreed upon. It needs to have those parts. If it's missing something, it's going to be challenging to truly be on the same page. So let's just say it's every Monday. You and your boss have a 15-minute standing meeting at 10 am. You're going to prepare a document where you list out your priorities for the week and then make it easy for them to connect back how those priorities are going to support the goals that they or your company or you are trying to meet. If there's time, you can do a recap of the previous week. You can show them how you knock those expectations that you agreed on last week out of the park, and then you're going to repeat this weekly which this sounds are really simple and overly simple, and is actually relatively easy to execute if you can try not to overcomplicate it. This also feeds into the next most important part, which is, don't just meet your goals. You need to exceed them. You need to overachieve on your goals. Is another way to think about it. This means taking ownership of your tasks. It means not just striving for excellence. It means that you are truly looking at ways that are going to create value, not just what feels like value, but value in relationship to what you have agreed upon and then over-delivering. So we talked about reporting progress in those weekly meetings. When your boss understands your goals and can see your consistent performance, then as this adds up over time, especially if you are over-delivering on a regular basis, then this will make it easy, painfully easy, to recognize your value, especially if you now have all of the things that you've agreed upon, you can actually go back every once in a while, say quarterly, and then be able to say, "Hey, look, here's a quick summary of everything that we did over the last quarter. You and I met, we agreed on this, we agreed on this, we agreed on this. Here's my side-by-side results of what we agreed upon versus what I delivered. You'll notice that over the last quarter, I have delivered incredibly consistently more than what we agreed upon. So I just wanted to call that out. This seems to be working for me. Is it working for you?" This is just a way to even level up and help them see that connection over and over again. At the same time, it continues to build trust. Now that might be obvious. If you're consistently over-delivering, they see the pattern of that, they're connecting back the pattern to that. They're beginning to trust you, of course, right? By continuously clarifying your goals and overachieving on them, you ensure that your boss are also on the same page. This alignment makes it so much easier for your boss to justify giving you a raise when you decide to ask. So much easier. Once you've built the foundation to ask for a raise, the asking is just it feels like it flows a lot more naturally. This works hand in hand with what we just covered because the actual act of asking for a raise correctly can't happen without having that relationship, without having that trust, without having the awareness of your over-delivery non-performance, it just can't happen without it. When it's time to ask for a raise, how you go about this is super important. Instead of just demanding more money, we want to frame it as you and your boss or anybody else who's involved are working together to find a solution. It can be a really useful negotiation tool and technique to frame this up in a way that promotes partnership. We're working together to find this solution. This means that when you go to ask, you're not going to say, "Hey, can you give me a raise? Here's what I've been doing. I feel like I really deserve it. Here's the market data that supports that. Can you give me a raise?" That's not what you're going to do at all. Instead, here's an example of the way a usual ask for an increase might sound like in conversation. You're not going to ask a question that leads to a yes or no at all, because here's how the usual ask for a raise goes. I say, "Hey, can I have a raise? I have over delivered consistently, and we've talked about it, and I've overachieved. Here's all the things, here's the market data. Can I have a raise?" And your boss responds, "No, I'm really sorry. I don't think we can do that this year. It's not in the budget." And then you've now forced a decision, "No, sorry, can't do that." That's not super helpful. It's not helpful to you. It's not helpful to your boss, not helpful to anybody, quite frankly. Or somebody might go the absence of authority route where I don't think the higher-ups are going to be able to do that. So either way, it's based on how you approached it. You basically backed your boss into a situation where they are forced to make a decision, yes or no, not super helpful. Instead, a much better way to go about it than "Can I get a raise or not?" A much more helpful way can make all the difference.

Scott Anthony Barlow 11:31

You've already built this partnership foundation at this point in time in your weekly discussion of company goals. So that is the mindset you should have going into this discussion as well. You should invite your boss, or whoever partners in solving this problem into the discussion to actually solve this problem. Here's what the conversation might sound like. It might sound something like, "Hey, I am very aware that if I changed organizations, I could get paid significantly more. I've done the research. I'm well aware of that. But I want to be really clear. I don't want to go anywhere else. I actually love it here. I have had a huge track record of success that you and I had talked on a weekly basis. I'm overdelivering. I also want you to know that it's important to me for my own goals that I am getting to the point where I am making $157,000. This supports my financial goals. This supports what I can do for my family. This supports a lot of the life I want to build. And my personal goal would be to figure out, with your help, how to make it feel like a silly thing not to pay me that amount. I'd love to have a conversation with you of how we could make this happen and what it would take, and get your advice on that." So what I'm doing here is I'm creating a partnership. I'm helping make them aware of the problem. And then, instead of asking for an increase, I am asking for their help in solving this problem. I'm making them a partner in the solution. So I'm asking, "How can we..." not them, not me. "How can we, together, make this possible? What would this look like?" I'm also not putting such constraints on it that I'm forcing a decision or that I'm forcing them to get scared about it. Instead, I want them to know what the challenges are, how I'm looking at it, and that I want to be a part of the solution as well. This approach frames it as a problem-solving partnership. It also highlights your loyalty, your value, and your willingness to work together towards this common goal. And then after this initial ask, which the ask you noticed is about how might we have a conversation to make this happen, or how might we figure out how to make this happen? I can frame that with other useful asks as well, like, what would we need to do to figure this out? Who would we need to talk to, who would need to be involved? What would the circumstances need to be for this to be true? What would this look like for this to become possible? Those are much more useful questions. First of all, those types of questions, like those–what, who, when–type of questions, those tend to focus us on, "How might we solve this problem?" And then we make the issue less about "Can this be granted or not?", and more about "What would it take?", which is a different type of thinking, and it triggers a different part of the brain as well. This approach is going to cause them to think through what you're saying, and not just give a yes or no. We're also using the language of "we" when we're saying, "How can we make this happen?" Okay, so all these things tend to work together to add up to create a much more useful ask. Because often people have in their mind that when they go to ask for a raise, it's going to be a one-and-done type of conversation, "I'm going to go, they're going to grant a raise, and it's going to be amazing. Or what if they say no?" In any case, it's not usually a one-and-done conversation. Sometimes it is. But I've done this a lot of times over the years, not just for myself, but with our clients here at HTYC. And almost always, this is a series of conversations. Sometimes it's spread out over many months, sometimes even a year or more. For most people, though, it's a series of conversations that can get things going initially and sometimes produce results right away. I want to give you an example of this, not from me, but from one of our clients, Justin. We worked with Justin to negotiate an increase. I want you to hear how he approached his boss and turned the conversation into a problem that they could solve together.

Justin 16:07

And then I simply called my boss and said, "Hey, I have something that's really, really important to me to talk to you about, and I'd like to do that in person sometime in the next three or four days. Do you have time on Thursday or Friday? " But I called him on Monday, and I didn't tell him anything else. And then he didn't really reply. But setting the conversation up like that, I feel like it was really powerful because I feel like it flipped who was nervous. Because normally, I would go in and say, "Hey, you know, I'd like a raise. And I've done a really good job." And I'd be the one whose heart was pounding and who was nervous. And when I went in on Thursday and met with my boss, you know, I was slightly nervous leading into it, but not nearly as nervous as I was before. And I could tell he was just waiting for me to hand in my resignation, and I could see the look of relief on his face when all I did was ask for a 20% raise, which was like amazing, because normally you would say that, and they'd be like, "20%? Whatever." But just for for him to sort of sit back and I know that he also talked to his boss, and they sort of already knew something was up and we were meeting for an important reason. But for them to sit there and think, "Okay, well, like he's probably handing in his resignation, or he has another job offer for a few days", it kind of puts them in that mindset of, oh, this is what it really could be like if you did leave. And framing the conversation where I was not the nervous one, really, I feel like that was probably the most important thing out of this whole process. Another one of the things was, and it's going to be different for everybody, but for me in particular, I could pretty easily trace back some ideas and things that we've implemented over the past few years, and actually put $1 figure on some of those, not necessarily to say, like, "Hey, look, I saved the company $1 million, therefore, I want you to pay me 900,000 of that." But for me to actually look at it and say, like, "Whoa, this idea actually did save the company a million dollars, and this other idea saved the company another $500,000." It definitely made it easier for me to sort of convince me of my worth in the process. Because these were all ideas that I'm pretty confident if I wasn't working there, that nobody else would have necessarily come up with them, and being able to word things in the sense that made my boss feel like we were going to work on this problem together, versus just saying, "Give me this or I'm leaving." Saying, "Give me this raise or I'm going to leave" it puts everybody in a standoffish mode, and that's not really the best place for everybody to be at. But being able to word it as, "Look, I'm qualified for all these other jobs, and I could go get them today, but I don't want to. I want to say here. Here's what I'd like to get paid in order for me to stop looking at all these other job offers and jobs that are available, and here's what I want in order for me to continue with my career here and sort of stop focusing on other opportunities. And how can we make that happen together?" Like that was really powerful because it, like you said earlier, like it puts them in problem-solving mode, and it sort of takes the threat away, which is, you never want people to feel like they're cornered and they need to do this or else. Because that's just not a great way to approach anything in life.

Scott Anthony Barlow 20:23

Justin's story is a great example of how approaching the conversation the right way can lead to positive outcomes. However, I know you might be thinking, "What if my situation doesn't go as smoothly?" It's a common fear. It's a significant deterrent for many people. A lot of people never even ask, never even get very far into thinking about how it might be possible because they're worried about, well, "what if I say 'no'?", and how might it be perceived? Things that they haven't even happened yet, and still it deters us. Now, I've asked for enough raises and worked with enough people asking for increases to know that this particular fear is always in the back of your mind. What if they say no? What if I present them with this well-thought-out, precisely planned collaboration and I'm met with rejection? What then? Will they fire me? Will they look at me differently? Will they think I'm ungrateful or prideful or selfish? This huge deterrent stops so many people. So let me put your heart at ease. In 99.999997, I'm making up this number of cases where you have this conversation, the outcome is going to be overwhelmingly positive. So now we don't have any data to support that, but what we do have are observations with our clients over the years and doing this many, many, many times over, like hundreds and hundreds of times. So in all cases, it's created a positive outcome. Sometimes it promoted a better relationship, which, by the way, is the opposite thing people think might happen. They look at it as a net-sum game. I need to ask, so therefore that's going to erode some of the relationships that I have. However, I haven't found that to be true. I think that it can actually be the opposite way. I think you can strengthen the relationship by having a really great conversation in here for what you need and what your boss and other people in the organization need. Also, I want you to understand that what I didn't say is you're going to get exactly what you ask for 90% of the time. It's going to be a positive experience. But it doesn't always mean you get exactly what you ask for. This is a great part about the process. Sometimes you get a better result than what you ask for. Even if you don't get the answer you want, more often than not, it doesn't actually mean no. It could mean anything like if your boss says, "I'm really sorry, we can't do that right now." It could mean not now. It could mean, "I believe that you deserve this, but the terms need to be different." It could mean any number of other things. But even if you are met with resistance, it doesn't mean it's impossible, and it doesn't mean it can't create a positive outcome. If you've built the foundation we discussed, and your boss says no to your request for a raise, he'll more than likely give you a reason why feels it can't be done or whatever else, and it's up to you, since you built a great relationship, to then begin to understand the reasons behind the reasons, so that you can help your boss work through them. Here's the magic phrase to use in this instance. "I totally understand what you're saying. I really appreciate your honesty. What would need to be true? What would need to happen, or what would I need to do in order for this to become a yes?" This can turn the conversation into a very positive manner. If you were given a no, then, it's going to help you dig to understand what are the reasons behind the reasons and you will be able to have a place to work through those. That's often why this can turn into a series of conversations, too, because your boss or other people that you have as a vested interest might not know the answer. They might not have thought it through and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. We're solving this together. You might be given items to address, tasks to complete, goals to hit, or exceed in order to get this raise. It also might be they just haven't thought about how to do something that is going to be an exception to the rule. They might need guidance. They might need you to help them think through this as a partner in one way or another, which means that you're going to need to ask questions. You're going to need to be curious, you're going to need to not give up on the first obstacle that comes along, or if they don't quite know how to make it happen. You might be told the budgets are already set, or might be told any number of other reasons why it can't be done, or why it's going to be challenging. But challenging does not mean no. This is where you're going to lay the groundwork to continue the conversation. It might feel bold but insist on wanting concrete steps, actions, or processes that are going to ensure that it's going to lead you to receiving your requested raise. What this might sound like? It might sound like saying, "I would love to work with you to figure out what the concrete steps might look like. What specifically would need to happen? You know, who are the people that would need to sign off on this, if not just you? Who else has to be on board?" This series of questions will help guide you to the next step, and also you can continue to reinforce that, "Look, I'm not looking for you to do the work for me here. I want to understand and work with you to understand what it would take. How can I turn this into a situation where everyone in the organization who holds the super strengths might feel silly not paying me this amount? And it doesn't need to happen today or tomorrow, but I do want to understand what is needed so that I can make it happen with your help." The purpose in having this additional conversation is twofold: You want your employer to understand that you're very serious about receiving this increase and you're willing to do the work that is needed for, in some cases, both of them. Both you and them. And also the second purpose is to create an actual plan, which then allows you to achieve your goal. This navigation through an ambiguous situation that doesn't have clear guidelines, is a set of skills that you can use, not just for getting raises, but for almost everything that you might want for the rest of your life. So what we're talking about here, doesn't just apply with raises. It applies in any type of negotiation or interaction where you need to do something that is out of the norm, an exception if you will. And even if you get to an initial obstacle or no answer, you'll have positioned yourself as a person that's determined to move things forward, and determined to be a collaborator, and determined to be a partner. And this helps create a better relationship overall, too, which means that even if you don't get what you're looking for, it's going to create later opportunities that you can be given to do so, or even if you don't get what you're looking for, it's going to create a different relationship, which then will get you access to other opportunities in the future. Also, here's the thing like, now that this raise and your goals are on the table, then as soon as you can pin it down to a plan and what needs to be achieved, then you can go right back to the foundation that we set up and discuss this with your boss on a weekly basis. "Hey, here's what you said I needed to do. Here's what I'm doing. Here's how I'm over-delivering to be able to make this happen." Don't fear being told 'no'. No, very rarely actually means no.

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:26

I'll tell you that one of the biggest reasons that people never get a raise is what I mentioned at the front side of this. They simply never ask, or they're just incredibly uncomfortable asking, or they're worried about what asking means in the first place. There's so many things that tend to stop us. And if you want to negotiate an increase and feel like you need help crafting your ask, that's something we can help with. Sometimes all you need to do is have an outside person to help you think through, create a plan, and go into this with a strategy that's going to work for your situation. It just makes sense. And I'll tell you, I love to negotiate. I live this. I breathe this. It's one of the things I do for fun. Some people play golf. I get myself into negotiation situations. It's super fun, super enjoyable, and they look at it as an ongoing experiment. I know I'm a weirdo. However, I also know that each and every situation is different from doing many negotiations on my own, each and every situation is completely different. And even though I do this for fun, I teach it, we have built a company around much of this type of negotiation and interaction that is collaboration and partnership. I still take a partner when I'm going to negotiate something. So that's what I recommend to other people, too, take a partner, whether that's our organization, whether that is somebody else. However, if you want our help and you need support, here's what I would suggest– take the next 5, 10, 15 seconds, open up your email app. Email me directly. My email address is Scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just email me and put 'Conversation' in the subject line. And when you do that, I'll introduce you to someone on our team who can have a pretty informal conversation. And then we can figure out the very best way to support you in getting this increase, by the way, I'll mention this episode if it was helpful to you, and we can figure out the very best way that we can support you to make it happen. So do it right now. Drop me an email with 'Conversation' in the subject line now.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:29

Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up next week right here on Happen To Your Career.

Speaker 3 30:35

That just didn't have the autonomy that I know I needed, in retrospect, to thrive. So after a year in I said, "That's it." They were shocked, but I was not, because I was actually, between you and I, was miserable. Because I wasn't enjoying it. I was busy. But for me, the work wasn't meaningful.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:55

A big part of what we do here at Happen To Your Career, on this podcast, in our company, is not just to get people to better jobs or enjoy their work more or do work they love or whatever. Instead, it's much more about helping you realize what creates more fulfilling work and ultimately a more fulfilling life. And when we're talking about making an intentional career change, that process is pretty fun, or at least it can be, especially at the beginning, and it also is really challenging. For example, if you're in the situation where you just quit your job after a year because it wasn't a fit, how do you identify opportunities that do, in fact, fit?

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:41

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep and you get it automatically. Even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week, adios. I'm out.