Ask Your Boss for What You Deserve

There’s a ton of fear around asking for what you want or—gasp!—what you feel you deserve in the workplace. Even in 2022,?salary?and money are still seen as very taboo topics

However, your boss should be there for you. Moreover, an ability to?communicate openly and respectfully with your boss?is guaranteed to earn you respect and trust going forward in your career.?

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Asking for anything can be uncomfortable, but let's dive into why it's that way in the first place.

Why It's So Scary to Ask Your Boss for What You Deserve??

To begin to tackle your?fear?behind asking for what you want, you’ll need to first identify where your fear is rooted. Four common fears in?asking for a pay bump?or other changes are:

Fear that you don’t deserve it?

This is pretty common and can come up at any time, for any ask. This is?classic impostor syndrome—and it’s important to be able to recognize it and shut it down.

Here’s the deal. If you’re asking for a raise, we trust you’ve done your research and crunched the numbers. If impostor syndrome is still garbling in your ear, shut them out.?

Fear of rejection

If you don’t ask for what you want, you don’t ever expose yourself to the chance that someone will say no. That’s how rejection-based fear works.

But, as any old inspirational basketball poster will tell you, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” Take the shot.?

Fear of negotiation

Negotiation?can be scary, especially when it involves money. We’re not here to tell you that negotiation is easy and can be learned overnight. However, we are here to tell you that knowledge is power.

Come to any?negotiation prepared with research, results, data, and numbers whenever you can.?

Fear of job loss

This is a legitimate fear for many. Surely your?less-than-satisfactory employment?is better than no employment at all, right? Well, not really. Negotiation,?career exploration, or job adjustments?should not get you fired.

Rather, when done right, asking your boss for a change should show a real investment in your position—and in your future with the company.

Using Science-Backed Methods to Ask for Anything?

So, by now you’ve identified your fears and you might be thinking, “yeah, so what?” If your fear is still looming large, you'll need an additional weapon to yield when asking.

That’s right, we’re bringing in science to help you get what you want at work.?

Anchoring Effect

The?anchoring effect?is a cognitive bias that describes the human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered to them—otherwise known as “the anchor.” Once the anchor is presented, all judgments are made around the anchor.?

The anchoring effect is commonly used in car sales, where an initial sticker price is set and the two parties negotiate from there. Similarly, the anchoring effect can be used in a salary negotiation.

Be thoughtful when offering your anchor.?

In our communication, we advise that you set your salary expectations higher than the number you’d be comfortable landing on, assuming negotiations will happen between the initial ask and the agreed amount.?

Use the Rule of Reciprocity

The?rule of reciprocity?depends on the assumption that humans are more likely to return good deeds. In many social situations, we pay back what we receive from others.

When using the rule of reciprocity in a negotiation setting, you don’t want to present by saying, “I’ll give you X if you give me Z.”

Rather, come to your negotiation with all the accomplishments you have already achieved—as well as your plans for future projects and improvements.?

For example, if you’re looking for a?flexible work situation, you might lead by detailing all of the distraction-free work and strategy you can achieve while?working from home?or a remote location.

If you are looking for a title promotion, you may present the skills you have learned or optimized in the past year—as well as how you plan on using them in your new role.?

Opportunity Cost?

In investment terms, an?opportunity cost?is a benefit an individual, investor, or business misses out on when choosing another alternative.

While we all know you are much more than an investment to your boss (or at least you should be!) it doesn’t hurt to bring this bargaining tactic to the table.?

We’re not suggesting that you affix cold, hard numbers to your presence at your company (you're?always?worth more?than a dollar amount). Rather, it’s affixing your value both to date and going forward. Present this to your boss when making a specific ask.

While collecting and?analyzing your own KPIs, we bet you’ll be surprised at just how valuable you are—and that’s great?motivation?and inspiration for how much more valuable you can be.?

Let's Get To Asking

Without further ado, let’s ask our bosses for what we want (and what we deserve!).

We promise it's not going to be as scary as you think. Here are a few templates to get your asks into writing—or to use as a guideline script to ask face-to-face.?

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