If You’re A Product, What’s Your Price Tag?
The idea of writing about creating value came from that online course I’m taking created by Seth Godin on Udemy.com. It is a course on marketing /building a product BUT it also applies to career and personal development. How? We are a product. We are THE product of ourselves — we offer our services to others and get others to pay us according to the value we provide.
That said (if we are being honest to ourselves), how much value do we really create for the people/company we work for?
I had a conversation with our Project Manager about annual raise, bonus and paycheck. He viewed the paycheck as a symbol/ representation of the value you contribute to the company. I agreed. The topic came up because we just had our annual performance review. I was offered a reasonable raise (even though the company hasn’t made a lot of money). But I asked for a little extra ;)
Prior to that meeting, I watched a video by Ramit Sethi’s on Finding Your Dream Job. It covered a topic about how to ask for a raise. I applied one of these strategies by asking my boss “What would you expect of me to allow me to make more money?” He replied with “Well how much more are you looking at?”, I quickly replied with an offer. He gave me what I asked for — right away. It took him about 2 or 3 seconds. Then I wondered “Dang! I could’ve asked for more!!”
I left the room calm, face neutral — like nothing happened, trying to hide how happy I was. The advice I got from Ramit worked. Then our Office Manager asked me “What happened in there?” then I told her I just had my annual performance review (which I haven’t been notified of). I was caught off guard otherwise I would’ve been more prepared. But it was perfect timing how I watched that video (on asking for a raise) before the review happened. Looks like Lady Luck is on my side again.
Anyway, she asked me what I was given. I didn’t say anything but my body language revealed I was hesitant to share. Then she goes “Well I’m gonna see it anyway” (she has access to everyone’s salary information) and so I had no choice but to tell her. So to further develop my ‘team player’ skills, I shared the advice that got me that extra raise. Then she goes “Ahh good idea!! Thanks!!”
She then had her performance review. Equipped with the advice I’ve given her, I was hoping she got the same result. But unfortunately it didn’t give her what she hoped for. Apparently, if the boss gives her the extra money she asks for, some of the other employees had to take a pay cut. The budget for a raise is limited and it is divided accordingly. She still got a raise but she didn’t get the ‘extra raise’ I was able to get. I’m not saying I’m a special snow flake. I believe I was just better at showing my value to the company. To her credit, she works hard — harder than me but unfortunately my boss sees things differently.
Read the rest of the article at Improvement Curve
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