Hi Nie!

Erin was struggling to ask for a raise. She had mounds of research that clearly showed she was underpaid by a lot, and she wanted to know how to ask for a raise to get her salary up to the market value for her work.

We worked through a step-by-step process to build her case and ask her manager for a raise. After she talked to her manager, she told me she felt great about the process and thanked me for showing her how easy it was.

So what happened next? Did she get her raise? Did they deny her request?

It would be nice if asking for a raise always produced an immediate and clear answer.

"I would like a raise to $115,000." "Done!" or even "No, we can't do that."

But raise requests are often met with something in between "yes" and "no". Something more like "I want to work with you to increase your salary, but we just don't have the budget right now" or "This isn't the best time."

The answer she got was "You still have some work to do to get that raise." She was devastated.

All that hard work and careful planning to ask for a raise and she still had more work to do? Now what was she supposed to do?

Just wait? Ask again? Or maybe you should just quit?

Fortunately, she had followed a clear process when he asked for her raise, so she and her manager could talk specifically about what to do next.

Ask for a plan

When you get one of those answers, you can avoid salary limbo by asking for two things:

• A specific plan or set of goals you need to accomplish to earn your raise.
• A timeline so you're on the same page as to how long it should take.

When you ask for those, you'll either have a specific plan and a timeline to evaluate your progress or you'll move to a more definitive answer like "no".

As Erin and I discussed her manager's response, she realized that this is actually a great result. "Yes" would've been better, obviously, but "You have some work to do" is helpful to.

Why?

Because then she could ask for a specific plan and timeline to demonstrate that she did that work and earned her raise in the estimated time.

Once she asked for a specific plan, her manager made a list of 5 specific things she needed to do to earn the raise she requested. They planned to revisit the list in three months.

Some of the things were easy like "Get an email from your flagship client echoing the accolades they gave you on that phone call". Some were trickier like "Put together a presentation to train your colleagues on the new process you designed".

Now she knew exactly what to do and how long it should take—she had a plan.

By asking for a specific action plan and a timeline, she avoided the agony of salary limbo and went to work on her plan. That's a lot better than sitting around in salary limbo wondering what to do next.

Have a great week!

Josh