It was the first meeting with my new manager. And he looked quite puzzled.
“Yes,” he said, “we can work towards a promotion. I know you’ll get there, but it’ll take time. For the Associate Director level, you’ll need to demonstrate a lot…”
Now I was puzzled. I’d been asking about a promotion from Manager to Senior Manager, not Senior Manager to Associate Director.
“But I’m a Manager now,” I interjected.
His expression shifted to shock. “You’re just a Manager? Absolutely, we need to get you promoted to Senior Manager. I can’t believe you’re not there already.”
And just like that, my brand-new manager got my promotion through – because I asked.
I almost hadn’t brought up the promotion question that day. It would have been so easy not to. But this was a lesson I learned over and over again in my career – it’s better to ask.
And yet often we don’t. The rationale goes like:
“I’m too new.”
“It’s not the right time.”
“It’s probably a no because…budget is tight, hasn’t been done before, etc.
Right now, think about something you wish to ask for, from anyone in your life. If you’re hesitating, can you say why? Are the reasons necessarily true? Could you be over-weighing the possible negative consequences?
That’s the first hurdle – deciding to ask. So now you’re committed, but you’re not sure what to say or how.
I recently advised a potential client how to ask their manager to pay for leadership coaching. (If you’re in that situation, ping me, I have resources for you!). Generalizing the advice, here are some guiding principles for asking:
- Be direct and upfront with the request
- Talk about benefits, not features (ie what the result will be, not how you get there)
- Include your manager’s priorities, using their own language, if possible.
- Pause along the way for questions or feedback
- Don’t attempt to address every possible concern up front. Wait for them to ask.
Be prepared to listen, share more information, pause, and see what they say.
If you’ve been a reader for a while, you know I love practice. So please practice asking. It’s a good time to do so as budgets are being used up and set for next year. Asking doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be the “right time,” and the principles are really just suggestions.
But by putting yourself out there and asking, you’ve just raised the likelihood of getting what you want from near zero to….a much larger number. Well done!
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