HOW TO NEGOTIATE YOUR SALARY (part 3)

DOES YOUR PAYCHECK STILL MAKE CENTS?

In previous articles, we’ve talked about being a giver v. taker, solving your own problems, solving your boss’ problems, and knowing your bottom-line value.

This week, you’ll get two more strategies that you can use as you negotiate your salary.

Have fun with this!

BUILD A CONVERSATION

Asking for a raise is not a one-time deal. Rather, it is a series of conversations built on a strong relationship you have with your boss and other decision-makers.

If you’ve had success using the one-time salary negotiation conversation in the past, good for you. I assure you, you are part of the minority.

For the vast majority of us, getting a raise requires patience and persistence. It requires building a conversation. It requires actually being worth the salary that you’re asking for and building the trust necessary to ask for it.

In fact, depending on what type of bump in pay you’re looking for it could take weeks, months, or even years to ask for more green without appearing mean or demanding.

One of my favorite books on how to build an effective job promotion plan is 30 Day Job Promotion by expert career coach Susan Whitcomb. Also, there are some great tips found in this Harvard Business Review article.

Remember, it’s not a one-and-done, it’s an authentic and strategic conversation.

STAY OUT OF CRAZY MODE

Negotiating your salary requires you to be awesome at work by delivering bottom-line value and building an authentic conversation with your boss.

As you both discuss salary, understand that money is a touchy subject for the majority of people. There can be a lot of emotion attached to it. This may be  true for you and likely is true for your boss.

So, as you broach the subject of money, be aware of your emotions around it.  And help your boss stay calm in the process too. Tread carefully.

How can you do this?

First, it’s helpful to know what triggers someone’s fight - flight - freeze response or “crazy” mode.

David Rock published an article in the NeuroLeadership Journal that outlines the five threats that cause others to go into “crazy” mode. The threats relate to a person’s perceived status, autonomy, certainty, relatedness, and fairness. You can read more about the threats here.

As you negotiate your salary, you’ll want to manage your own threat responses and help manage those of your supervisor’s. If you accidentally trigger a threat response in your boss, responding with calmness can do much to deflate the situation.

Remember, the threat is not real!

Second, focus on gratitude and the long-term relationship you’re building with your boss.

Let’s say that you get told “no” to your raise request. After all, “no” is one of the options in salary negotiation.

Prepare yourself ahead of time by painting a picture of how you want to respond to that answer.

Remind yourself of the long-term, big-picture partnership that you want to have with your boss. Remind yourself about how grateful you are for the job you have. Remind yourself that this is not a life and death situation - you are okay!

ACCESS MORE JOB-SEARCH TIPS

If you’ve found this salary negotiation series helpful, please leave a comment below. And, if you’d like other career-building strategies and tips, sign up for your free course here. Make it a great day!

HOW TO NEGOTIATE YOUR SALARY (part 2)

DOES YOUR PAYCHECK STILL MAKE SENSE? (part 2)

Last week we discussed two things you can do to prepare for salary negotiation - being a giver and solving your own problems.

If your paycheck still makes cents and you’d like it to make you dollars - maybe even thousands more dollars - keep reading for the next two steps!

3. SOLVE YOUR BOSS’ PROBLEMS

Solving your boss’ problems is like shifting into the fast lane for more mulah.

Think about it. Who has the power to give you a raise? Likely, it’s your boss. There are probably other stakeholders in this decision too, but your boss is an important one to persuade.

Without him or her you’re stuck in the mud.

What’s the most persuasive way to convince her of this?  Solve her problems. Wait, what? Hang in there. I know this may be a bit counterintuitive, but nothing convinces the boss more fully of your value than by helping her out. Do this enough and she’ll want to keep you around and engaged.

Think of your boss as your most important client at the consulting firm of YOU.

4. KNOW YOUR BOTTOM-LINE VALUE

Okay. You’re working on giving, you’re solving your own problems, and you’re solving most of your boss’ problems - especially the ones that you are uniquely qualified to solve, what’s next?

The next step is to know your bottom-line value.

In other words, how does the work that you do benefit the company's bottom-line? Specifically, what dollars and cents get created because of your grunt work? The more measurable your value, the better.

For salespeople its revenue.

For operations people it might be ways that you’ve helped cut costs or up-sold clients.

The marketing team might point to how many leads they’ve brought in a certain amount of time or how many of those leads ultimately led to sales.

Every position has some type of bottom-line value company, so figure out yours.

One side-note - if you or your coworkers are questioning your position’s value, you might want to look for another job. Your position may be on the short-list to be cut!

The bottom-line here is to figure out the dollars and cents of your contribution. This will be key to next week's post on “How To Negotiate Your Salary.”