7 Ways That You Can Get A Raise Without Asking
Everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder and make more money. However, sometimes promotions are few and far between and raises depend on a lot of factors outside your control. So how do you stack the chips on your favor so you become indispensable to your employer and they feel compelled to give you regular raises. Today, we are going to lay out subtle ways on how to get a raise without asking.
Remember that doing your job well is a basic expectation and that alone wont get your a raise. If you didn’t do you job well, they’d find someone else.
The trick to advancing and boosting your career and salary is to add more value for your employer and contribute more than you are getting paid. Listed below are some of the ways that you can get noticed and get paid a lot more.
Be A Jack Of All Trades
It is not enough for you to enclose yourself to the technicalities of your job. Instead, you can be the go-to person in the company who other people can approach for any particular subject connected to your field. In short, be a jack of all trades.
For example, let’s say you’re a Product Manager in the marketing department for a particular brand. Become the best product manager in your unit (first one to come in the morning, last one to leave, best performing products, sharing ideas with the team, etc) but also know more than everyone else. In your free time, do research about your field, your customer, and your competitors. Share news articles with the rest of you team, your boss and others in the business. Join associations and organizations tied to your industry and take leadership positions in these organizations.
Image if you were the president of the Association of Product Managers of America. That is a fantastic branding for your company and a great way for you stand out and be unique.
Eventually you your colleagues and customers respect your knowledge and credentials in the industry and go to you for any advice. Your company would never let you go and will continue to give you raises to ensure you don’t leave for another company.
Make Your Boss Look Great
Office politics is just a fact of life and an important tool to manage your career. You need to stand out but you also need to make sure that people you report to look good as it helps them move up. The more senior they are and the more money they make, the larger the budget they will control and therefore can pay you more.
So make your boss look like a great leader and look indispensable to the organization. This can be achieved in several ways. For one, you can directly tell this to the management committee and other people who are not in your department. It’s great for word to get around that your boss is a solid leader and people want to work for him as it puts his division on the senior executives radar.
Another strategy is when you have a success or a great idea, don’t take full credit and tell everyone that the idea would have never come to fruition if it weren’t for the support and buying by your direct leader. If there are specific awards your organization has, nominate them for those awards. Even if he doesn’t win, he will most likely be recognized in some degree.
Here is a great article by Forbes that provides more examples.
Get High Profile Projects
It might take you a long while, but you need to have the initiative to ask for a high profile project. Being in this scenario will help your name float to the right corners of the company, which will lead the top management to be aware of your existence.
The best way to reach that promotion and a higher salary is to be at the center of projects that the company is counting on. Those are the projects with the highest budgets, the most support and direct access to senior folks. Performing well under these circumstance will get you more high profile projects in the future and with that will come extra pay.
Own Up To Your Mistakes
Accountability and integrity are two of the most essential characteristics of an employee. Most people try to cover up their mistakes to keep their image squeaky clean. They also do this to avoid the repercussions for admitting fault.
If you want to be trusted enough for a position at the top, you have to show your boss that you are not scared of owning up to your mistake. Believe it or not, he or she will be amazed by your courage. Take note that when you undergo a failure or error, give your boss a heads-up and a brief explanation.
The most important aspect of this, however, is for you to have a solution ready. Even better, mention all of the steps you have undergone to mitigate and solve the problem without getting them involved.
Volunteer For Unwanted Job
It is a reality in the workplace that there are tasks that no one wants to take part in. They may be difficult, uncomfortable or just boring but taking one for the team, especially volunteering for it, can be a sign of a team player. Employers love that!
Also taking on tasks outside your standard position like organizing a charity event, holiday party, or introducing new employee engagement projects is a great way to become valuable and tie your name to the business making you indispensable.
Build Relationships With Other Business Units And Departments
In the modern office setting, it is already a given that you will be collaborating with other departments. It might be in the form of asking input and advice for a specific task or direct teamwork for a particular project. With this in mind, you need to build a relationship with everyone in the office. You can use these connections in situations where you will need a favor. Saving the day will definitely blow your boss’s mind away!
Get A Mentor
You need to have a mentor to help guide you through the office politics and to have your back when issue come up.
This should be someone who has power and clout within the organization. They can help you with strategies to climb the corporate latter, warn you about what landmines to avoid at the workplace and put in a good word for you at the top.
Conclusion
If you want to climb the corporate ladder, make sure to apply all of these pieces of advice. You don’t have to confront your boss and ask for a raise every year or so. Theses simple suggestions will make you so indispensable to the organization and your boss, that they will feel compelled to pay you more to ensure you don’t work for the competition.
If you want to know the nitty-gritty of this topic, read further on Mike Hollinsworth’s best-selling book, How To Get A Raise: The Exact Steps Necessary To Ask Your Boss For A Raise.
And in the end, if you just can’t get you employer to see the value in your and pay you more money, then you can bluntly ask, leave the company for a better paying job, start a part-time job or create passive income.