Be Worth It
There are lots of things you might want-lots of reasons you may have picked up these texts – and many of them have nothing to do with work. A lot of them do though, and of those the most frequent ambitions people tell me about are getting pay raises and promotions. Indeed, even if it’s not top of your own personal list, you probably wouldn’t say no if a raise or promotion was in the offing.
I’ll tell you where most people go wrong, too. There’s a kind of assumption that if you’re doing a good job and you’ve been there a long time, you somehow deserve it. Wrong. Listen, times are hard.
Your boss can’t give you an upgrade of any kind without a damn good reason. So you’d better give her one.
This is a perfect example of not only working hard but also working at the right things. You are only going to get that raise or promotion if you can demonstrate that you are giving your company more value than they expected when you started the job, or last had a raise. That means you have to show them how you’re doing one of these things:
You are exceeding the targets that were set.
You are earning, or saving, the organization significantly more money than it expected.
You are more valuable because you’ve gained qualifications or experience.
You have additional responsibilities that weren’t in your job description before.
You give as much (or greater) value than other employees who earn more than you.
That’s what gives your boss the excuse to increase your recognition from the company. Hard work on its own is no more than you were originally contracted to provide. But demonstrating increased value gives you a strong case.
Help Them to Say Yes
The more you can help someone say yes to you, the less you actually have to ask for what you want, in so many words. You know that some people are easy to say yes to, for all sorts of reasons. Maybe the request is straightforward, maybe it doesn’t require much effort from you, perhaps they’ve asked at just the right moment, or in a particularly charming way, or maybe you owe them a favor, or perhaps you just like them and want to help.
Whether you feel comfortable asking directly or whether you want to find an indirect way to get what you want, the easier you can make it for the other person to help you, the more likely you are to get what you want. And the key to all that is to put yourself in their shoes and see it from their perspective. So that’s what we’ll do next.
Make Sure You’re Getting Through to Them
No one is going to give you what you want if they don’t know what it is-not on purpose anyway. And some people just don’t listen properly. You may be asking for something big from them, or they may just be giving you a bit of help along the way, but either way you need to make sure they’ve taken on board what it is you need.
Make Sure You’re Getting Through to Them
You know the people in your life who never listen properly, and then like as not blame you for the communication problem: “You never said….” Right.
We’re going to make absolutely sure they hear this time. So the first thing to do is to work out exactly what you want to say, and find the most succinct way you can of expressing it. Practice it if need be, so you’ll get it right. “I’m looking for cover on Thursday afternoon. Are you free?”
If there’s any complication repeat it in different words, maybe even ask them to say it back to you, “just so I know I’m making sense.” (Just be careful not to do it in a way that gets their back up or belittles them-you really have to judge this in the situation, I can’t actually be there with you.) This can help to fix it in their mind. Then summarize again at the end of the conversation.
If you feel the other person doesn’t fully grasp that you have a problem that needs solving, ask him questions: “How would you go about getting the customer to agree to a delayed delivery date? Bearing in mind that they have clients shouting at them already….”
Listen, if it’s that important to you that you free up this time, or get onto this course, or meet this deadline, or achieve that target, you can’t overestimate the importance of getting the right information through to the people you need on your side.
