If you can’t prove the value you create, negotiation won’t save you.

Leverage determines which negotiation strategies are available to you. Not effort, not seniority, not even competence. LEVERAGE!

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If you have vivid fantasies of your company’s building burning to the ground (obviously with nobody in it, calm down) and screeching “Fuck You” to your horrid boss as you prance away unscathed with your cat, I have a crucial reframe you must consider.

Your current job is not robbing you of “going all in on yourself” as social media suggests. Yes, it may cut in to your scheduled fun-time because you’re trading time for money. But it’s important you see it your current role as a vehicle to your ideal life versus the pothole or the roadblock that’s blocking your access. I know. I hate playing the game, too, and I hate offering help to bosses who clearly despise us (or, at worst, refuse to recognize any single contribution we’ve made to the company.)

You will not pull from Sandy the Brown-Noser’s playbook by reinventing your role to that of 12 people and “looping in” your supervisor as a wide-mouthed bystander to your awesomeness. All this tends to do is make your colleagues loathe your every fiber while simultaneously pulling back on their own efforts, because, well, Sandy gobbled up the attention and made your job 17 times harder for no reason. We’re going to build leverage through better and smarter communication, good old-fashioned self-reflection, and a bit of research.

There are several options for building internal leverage where you currently work:

• Negotiate higher hourly rate• Shift responsibilities• Reduce hours with proportional pay• Contract instead of W-2• Revenue share• Specialized role premium

These options, I’ll admit, are not sexy. They fail to wow audiences the way “I QUIT MY 9-5 WITH NO BACK-UP PLAN” headlines manage to do. Despite my nagging feeling that using your 9-5 as a runway should be headline-able, it isn’t, because it occurs slowly over time and actually requires you to put forth some strategic effort. That dumb-dumb who earned a promotion and is now your boss after only being with the company for 9 months compared to your 6 years? They negotiated better.

Negotiating is one of the most underrated, underappreciated skills----and, dare I say, particularly for women.

Even with potential for negotiations going sour, the above options are still very low risk compared to starting your own side hustle or your own full-fledged business.

It’s important, though, that we begin with some self-reflection and honesty. Getting paid more (or the sense that we “are entitled to be paid more”) is widely misunderstood as a matter of 1) how long you’re with a company (i.e., “seniority”), and 2) effort. Effort does not equal outcome, and loyalty to an organization is, for better or worse, a workplace feature of times past.

Allow me to illustrate by use of a quick (and sort of cute) example.

I used to teach Clinical Psychology to undergraduates. When I gave some students a B or C on their work because of scoring low on objective criteria, like clarity of their argument, ample evidence to support their statement, etc., at least 5 or 6 kids would respond with, “But I tried so hard!” It’s great that you tried so hard, Daxton, but you still got a C. Why? Because effort doesn’t mean shit. Praising effort is for children and puppies. In the world of business and adults, while we can appreciate sweat equity, we ultimately expect a specific outcome. Outcomes = leverage.

Differently stated: People tend to ask for raises emotionally, while companies only approve raises economically. You have to show people that paying you more makes financial sense for them. In what ways does giving you a monetary bump benefit the organization? If your argument is centered entirely around how it benefits you, “Because you’ve been taking on more responsibility lately” and “Have been here for a while” so “you just feel like it would be fair or that you deserve it”, expect no more than the teeny $1500 tip automatically afforded all employees after they’ve suffered for 365 consecutive days beyond their start date. This is not a raise. It is a participation trophy for surviving another year…

The best negotiators prepare for these sorts of conversations months prior with clear, objective evidence. They track things like:

* Systems they improved (NO ‘VIBES’--- NEVER USE ‘IMPROVED CULTURE’ AS A METRIC, IT’S MESSY AND IMPOSSIBLE TO MEASURE/PROVE)

* Time saved

* Problems prevented

* Processes redesigned

* Revenue supported

* Clients retained

You should be able to provide concrete answers to questions like:

“What measurable value do you produce?”“What problems do you solve?”“What would break or deteriorate if you left?”

Most people approach negotiation the same way regardless of their leverage. That’s the mistake!

If you can clearly answer questions like “What measurable value do I produce?” or “What would break if I left?”, your negotiation should be direct and evidence-based. You’re not asking for a favor — you’re presenting a business case as to your awesomeness and your productivity. I know, I know, productivity is the devil and we want slower lives less prone to unraveling by Satan Himself, otherwise known as Capitalism. But that’s life and that’s work, and we should be thankful we live in a society run on these sorts of standards. It’s why access to convenience and luxury is so high.

Show your organization the systems you improved, the problems you solved, the revenue you supported, or the time you saved the organization. Frame the raise as alignment between your compensation and the value you already deliver. Remember: they don’t give a damn about making you feel better by paying you more, and they certainly will not make salary decisions based on how much they think you “deserve” it. This is a numbers and impact game.

In the situation that you have evidence to support your awesomeness, the conversation becomes simple: “Here’s the impact I’ve created, and I’d like my rate to reflect that contribution.”

But if you can’t answer those questions yet, negotiating for a raise isn’t the first step. The real move is building leverage before the conversation even happens. You must start tracking outcomes. You must volunteer to fix broken systems--- yes, for free. Take ownership of measurable problems without the passive-aggressive email afterward to announce what you’ve done. Make your work more visible by being in the trenches more often.

In other words, design your role so that your absence would actually matter!

Sure, negotiation involves some degree of persuasion and performance. People who are memorable and “impossible to ignore” have mastered the art that is professional give-and-take. But it’s also crucial you position yourself carefully so as not to come across as the entitled dumb-dumb your boss probably is.

If you can prove your value, negotiate with evidence.If you can’t yet, negotiate with strategy. Build the impact that is truly “impossible to ignore”.

As Warren Buffett once said, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” Your positioning is up to you.

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