Average people ASK for raises. Exceptional GET raises. Here's why...

“If we embrace the chance of living life to the fullest, then we must be willing to accept responsibility for doing it.” ~ Ria Story

The quickest way to build trust with your boss is to get results. The easiest way to ensure you don’t have a boss looking over your shoulder is to get results. The quickest way to increase your influence with the boss is to get results.

It’s probably no surprise most people have learned if they get really great results, they will be asked to do more and be involved in more things. Why? Because they get results and bosses depend heavily on the people who get the best results. If you were the boss, you would too.

Far too often, some people attempt to regulate their efforts when they understand how bosses think and what bosses do.

They hold back a little. Their goal is to do what they consider to be a good job, not too far ahead of others and not too far behind others. Nice and smooth right down the middle, so they can feel secure about maintaining a steady income, feel good about giving an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, and avoid being asked to do more than what they already have to do.

They are not bad people. But, they also are not exceptional people. They are average people doing what average people do, a good job.

Doing a good job is not a bad thing, but doing a great job is an exceptional thing.

If you want to be a game changer, get noticed, and make a high impact, average people make it easy for you to shine...I learned how to become exceptional early in my career when I noticed how those around me could do more but wouldn’t.

"I was promoted 14 times during my 20 year corporate career while leveraging the simple principle I'm about to share with you." ~ Mack Story

Most of the time it’s not easy to get pay increases or promotions. There is only so much in the pot and only so many positions to be filled. If you want to climb the “corporate ladder” and the “corporate pay scale” you must make what I’m about to share a habit for the rest of your career. It will make you an exceptional team member in the eyes of high impact leaders faster than anything else.

Don’t ask for a raise; ask for more responsibility.

I learned early in my career most people complain about their pay. They don’t feel like they are paid enough. And as a result, they don’t give their all on the job. They let their feelings get in the way. They have the mindset of “If they will pay me more, I will do more.” So, their focus is on getting a raise instead of doing a better job.

When you start a new job at a new company, you don’t show up on the first day and receive two weeks of pay. That doesn’t happen. You must work two weeks first. Then, you get paid for two weeks. Typically, we must do the work before we get paid for doing it.

That’s why asking for more responsibility instead of a raise is such a powerful way to leverage your influence. Ask to be on improvement teams. Ask to be on special projects. Ask what you can do to help. Get involved. Volunteer for special events.

Everyone appreciates someone sincerely wanting to help.

Or, don’t ask. Just do. Do what you know needs to be done but isn’t getting done whether it’s your responsibility or not. Make it your responsibility. Make it happen. This is not a hard thing to do. If you have the time and the ability, do it.

Don’t worry about the average people giving you a hard time. Trust me. They will. I can’t tell you how many times I heard “There goes a shooting star.” or “There you go sucking up again.” Some were much worse.

What you need to know is average people aren’t willing to do what exceptional people are willing to do. They say, “You’re making us look bad.” That’s one of the ways they try to pull you back down to their level...If someone doesn’t want you to do well, are they for you or against you?

Are you living your life by default or by design?

Click here to listen to a 5 minute audio sample of Blue-Collar Leadership.

If you’re willing to invest in your Blue-Collar workforce, I am too.

Are you a blue-collar leader with 200 team members, who is willing to invest LESS THAN A PENNY PER HOUR (annualized) per person to help them become better people and better team members? Here’s the deal!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Listen to a recent podcast featured on GEMBA Academy where I talked about "How to Foster to Leadership in the Blue-Collar Workforce."

Visit BlueCollarLeadership.com for free videos, podcasts, and to download the first 5 chapters of two of my blue-collar books, including Blue-Collar Leadership & Supervision: Unleash Your Team's Potential, and to learn about what I learned while leading leaders and their blue-collar teams through 11,000+ hours of process improvement, organizational change, and cultural transformation in my book, Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean & Lean Teams. There's also an online store where you can purchase all of our 19 leadership development and personal growth books and other resources.

Click here now for a FREE download of the entire leadership principle-packed Chapter 11, "Get Out of the Way and Lead" from the first book in my Defining Influence: Increasing Your Influence Increases Your Options. In this nearly 20 page chapter, I share about:

·      Managing vs Leading

·      Scarcity vs Abundance

·      Formal Authority vs Moral Authority

·      The 5 Types of Leaders

·      Compare/Contrast 17 Manager vs Leader Perspectives

Click here to visit and subscribe to my YouTube channel which has nearly 130 short videos based on leadership lessons similar to the one at the start of this article.

Click here to subscribe to Ria Story's YouTube channel where she shares videos on leadership, leadership for women, resilience, courage, adversity, etc.

Note: I encourage you to be a river, not a reservoir. Please share my blogs with others if you find value in them. I believe in abundance and write them to help others become more effective, successful, and significant.

Make an impact!

Mack Story

I help leaders engage the front line to improve the bottom line.