She Got the Raise... the Title... and the Respect

<p>http://www.sherylkline.com/blog<br/><br/>Are you owning your value enough?<br/><br/>If that question made you take a pause, it’s ok. Not voicing our value or owning our worth has happened to most of us at one time or another.<br/><br/>But, it doesn’t have to. <br/><br/>According to DiversityWomen Media, ‘Women are often less assertive than men in the workplace and tend to apologize or minimize the importance of what they say when they do speak up-even female executives in meetings with their peers.’<br/><br/>Part of the challenge is that owning our value is a counterculture for many of us.<br/><br/>That was the case for Sue (not her real name:), a 1:1 Limitless Leader client of mine who is a female senior executive in finance. She had a 30-minute call scheduled for her annual review. The call was actually 10 minutes (...her boss was 10 minutes late and left 10 minutes early.) <br/><br/>She was rated as ‘far exceeds’ due to the growth of her line of business and progress on major (new) initiatives that she’s now responsible for. ‘Far exceed’ ratings by her boss are extremely rare. This should be great news for a new title, impressive bonus, and substantial raise, right?<br/><br/>Nope. No new title, bonus decreased, and her raise was underwhelming at best.<br/><br/>When I asked, ‘What did you want?’, she described what ‘would have been ok or better.&apos;<br/><br/>I asked again. ‘What did you want?’ ‘I mean what did you really want and know in your heart that you deserve?’ Most importantly, I asked ‘How did you want to feel?’<br/><br/>Her answers to these questions the second time were very different. <br/><br/>She said, ‘I want the new title.’ She was also explicit about the bonus and raise that she wanted. <br/><br/>She got clear and learned how to be confident that these ‘asks’ were small prices to pay for her work over the previous year and what she’ll deliver in 2022. <br/><br/>She emailed her boss and asked to schedule the remaining time for her annual review. <br/><br/>(NOTE: When at all possible, make su