Business Without the Bullsh*t Page 3

  Do you like public praise or does it make you uncomfortable?

  Does criticism leave you with hurt feelings or do you generally shrug it off?

  Do you prefer being told what you’re doing right rather than what you’re doing wrong?

  Your goal is to discover enough about yourself and what you need that you can articulate clearly how you can best be managed. If you don’t, you’ll inevitably receive whatever one-size-fits-all management style your boss finds most familiar.

  The best time to communicate your preferences is during your first meeting with your boss. If you’re already working for a boss, the best time is your next one-on-one meeting. Don’t put it off! The clearer you communicate what you need, the better the relationship you’ll have, to the ultimate benefit of both you and your boss.

  2. OVER-PREPARE FOR EVERY MEETING.

  Most bosses live in constant fear they’ll be blindsided by incompetence. To reassure themselves, bosses often pick an aspect of an employee’s job and begin randomly asking questions about the details.

  If you think this means you’re on trial when this happens to you, it’s because you are. Answer these queries with grace and aplomb and your boss will assume you’re competent. Hesitate or evade and your boss will assume all your work is slipshod.

  Since you don’t know in advance which questions your boss might ask, be prepared for every contingency. Plan on about an hour of prep for every hour with your direct boss, two hours for every hour with your boss’s boss, and so forth up the management chain.

  3. REMIND YOUR BOSS WHY YOU’RE VALUABLE.

  Even the best bosses tend to forget things. They usually have plenty on their minds and may not even know what you’re working on, much less what a fabulous job you’re doing.

  Worst case, this failure to communicate could result in you achieving goals and objectives that are no longer the boss’s priorities. If that happens, all your hard work will likely be seen as wasted efforts rather than accomplishments.

  To prevent this, create a “core message” that lets the boss know what you’re doing, and work that message into every conversation, even if it’s only a hallway chat.

  Examples:

  “The recruiting program I set up is putting us in touch with some very qualified candidates.”

  “We just ran my power-management module through an entire suite of accuracy and stress tests.”

  “My negotiation with Acme Corp. is taking a while, but I think I’ll be able to get the favorable terms we wanted.”

  4. CULTIVATE YOUR BOSS’S PEERS.

  You may think you have a one-on-one relationship with your boss, but you’re actually part of a crowd of people—from your peers to your customers to those who influence the boss’s decision-making.

  When it comes to evaluating your performance, your boss listens to the opinions of others in the company. Therefore, it’s not enough to simply inform your boss what you’re doing. If you want to advance your career and your personal agenda, you must ensure that the other people spread the word.

  Create a list of people who influence your boss and compose a variation of your core message for each of them.

  For example, suppose you’re in a marketing group working on the development of sales channels (people who don’t work for your company but who sell your product). Your messages might be:

  For your boss (VP of marketing): “I’m developing a channel sales program that will recruit new resellers.” (This is your core message.)

  For the VP of engineering: “My channel sales program will get your products into the hands of new customers.”

  For the VP of manufacturing: “With the channel sales program I’m developing, we’ll be able to better predict how many products you’ll need to build.”

  For the VP of human resources: “The channel sales program I’m developing will let us increase revenue without hiring more people.”

  For the CFO: “With the channel sales program I’m developing, we’ll get a twenty percent higher gross margin than through direct sales.”

  For the CEO: “My boss, [name], has me working on a channel sales program that could improve our overall profitability by several percent.”

  5. SHOW INTEREST IN YOUR BOSS’S CAREER.

  Once you’ve convinced the boss that you’re competent, it’s time to make yourself invaluable. To do this you’ll need to deliver what your boss wants—even before your boss knows he or she wants it.

  Over time, of course, you can observe and learn, but it’s smarter to get things moving more quickly by asking questions that will help you understand your boss’s way of thinking. As a side benefit, your boss may be flattered that you’re interested.

  Use the Internet, the grapevine, and the boss’s admin to learn about the boss’s work history. When appropriate, find opportunities (such as during lunch or off-site meetings) to express a healthy curiosity about your boss’s experience.

  Apart from the fact that most people enjoy talking about themselves, bosses find this kind of inquiry valuable because it provides them with opportunities to explain the logic of their decision-making processes.

  Examples:

  “I was on the Web learning more about our industry and I noticed that you presented at [name of event]. I’m curious: what response did you get?”

  “Your admin mentioned you used to work for [name of firm]. I’m curious: what’s the most valuable thing you learned from that experience?”

  “I hear you used to work in the [name] industry. I’m curious: what are the main differences between the way that industry works and the way ours works?”

  6. CULTIVATE COMPATIBLE PERSONAL INTERESTS.

  The ideal situation is to have a boss who looks out for your interests even during difficult times. This protectiveness is nurtured when the boss thinks of you not just as competent but as a kindred spirit.

  Therefore, if you want a better relationship with your boss, it never hurts to cultivate an interest in (and maybe some enthusiasm for) something that also interests your boss. Ideally this should be an interest or activity that segues nicely into the work experience.

  For example, if your boss likes to talk business while playing golf, learn to play. If your boss loves science fiction, ask which books are his or her favorites and then read them. If you think about it, you do this kind of thing all the time in your other relationships. Why not for the boss?

  Your goal is to get to know the boss without being creepy or smarmy. It helps if you remember that bosses are human and, as such, truly want you to understand what makes them tick.

  SHORTCUT

  GETTING YOUR BOSS WORKING FOR YOU

  COMMUNICATE what you need in order to do your best.

  KEEP your manager informed of your progress.

  MAKE a case that you’re doing a useful job.

  ENSURE that everyone knows how you contribute.

  UNDERSTAND your boss’s goals and desires.

  FIND and cultivate a common interest.

  SECRET 4

  How to Use Your Performance Review

  Most people treat performance reviews much as students treat report cards—as a way to find out how well they did when it’s too late to do anything about it. That’s naive, because your performance review is not a report card but a tool for you to get what you want.

  If handled correctly (as shown below) the “review” part of this process will be either a formality or a victory lap. Then you use the meeting to set expectations for the future and extract promises that will advance your career.

  1. ASK HOW YOU’LL BE MEASURED AND REWARDED.

  Every time you get a new boss or after you read this, schedule a one-on-one meeting with him or her as soon as possible. Ask the following questions:

  1. What are your expectations of me over the next year?

  2. How will you measure whether I’ve fulfilled them?

  3. If I exceed those metrics, what do I get?

  Your goal is to get your bo
ss to be as specific as possible on all three points. If you do not have this conversation, when your next performance review comes around, you will be blindsided, because you’ve only been guessing what’s expected of you and assuming what reward you’ll get.

  Whenever your boss makes you a promise, listen carefully to how that promise is worded. It’s one thing for a boss to say, “Do this and I’ll promote you” (which seldom happens), and quite another for a boss to say, “Do this and you might get a promotion.”

  Whenever you hear vagueness in a promise, ask a question that, if answered truthfully, will remove that vagueness. Example:

  Boss: Complete project A by August and you’ll be in line for a promotion.

  You: Assuming I do so, what’s the likelihood of the promotion on a scale of one to ten, with ten being a sure thing?

  If the boss can’t or won’t provide specifics, you can assume whatever promise is being made is meaningless. In business, a promise is only a commitment when it has measurable details connected to it.

  Take detailed notes on the conversation. Afterward, send an e-mail to your boss thanking him or her for being so helpful, and also documenting the specific commitments made on both sides.

  If you fail to document the conversation, there is a very good chance that, come performance review time, your boss will have changed how you’re being measured and forgotten whatever promises were made.

  2. PERIODICALLY COMPARE ACHIEVEMENTS TO METRICS.

  Throughout the year, send update e-mails to your boss, based on your original “here’s our agreement” e-mail, documenting both how you’ve been tracking against the boss’s expectations and the metrics by which those expectations are being measured.

  These updates are essential because they force you to pay constant attention to exceeding the agreed-upon metrics and keep you from being distracted by side issues. The updates also force your boss to explicitly state whether and how the metrics have changed in response to changes in business conditions.

  If your boss changes the expectations or the metrics, set up another one-on-one—ostensibly to discuss the new expectations and metrics, but actually to make it clear that you still expect to be rewarded based on whatever work you’ve already accomplished.

  This is important because bosses sometimes change employee metrics in order to avoid fulfilling commitments. For example, a sales manager might promise you a bonus if you beat your quota, and then raise your quota when you’re about to beat it.

  Example 1:

  Boss: You’ll now be measured on the profitability of the company rather than the amount of usable computer code you produce.

  You: I understand the new metric. However, I’ve outperformed our agreed-upon metrics for nine months now, so I expect to get a raise, regardless of our company’s financial performance.

  Example 2:

  Boss: We’re changing your sales quota so that it’s fifty percent larger for the current year.

  You: I will try my best to beat that goal! However, I expect my bonus to be paid based on my outperforming of the current quota.

  3. WRITE THE DRAFT OR PROVIDE “INPUTS.”

  Most bosses hate writing performance reviews. You’ve already made the job easier with your periodic reports, so it only makes sense for you to offer to take that burden off your boss’s shoulders and onto your own.

  Most bosses will be more than happy to let you write the draft. If your boss demurs, do it anyway, but send your draft as “inputs” to your performance review, which is much the same thing.

  As you write the draft (or “inputs”), stick to the facts of how you’ve performed relative to metrics, as documented in your periodic reports. Do not characterize your work as “superlative” (or the like). Leave that part for your boss.

  Include, as part of the package, the e-mail documenting the agreement you made with your boss in Step 1. That way your boss will be aware not only that you exceeded expectations but that you remember what was promised you.

  4. USE “SURPRISES” TO EXTRACT CONCESSIONS.

  With all the groundwork you’ve laid, your performance review will probably end up being a formality. You’ll get a high rating, a pat on the back, and the reward you were promised.

  However, even if you follow all the steps above, you may end up being blindsided. Examples:

  “I can’t give you that raise because there’s just been a salary freeze.”

  “I can’t send you to that trade convention in Hawaii because you didn’t do [activity that’s being mentioned now for the first time].”

  “Your promotion is on hold because [situation based on corporate politics].”

  If you hadn’t laid the groundwork, all you would be able to say at this point would be, “Oh. OK.” However, since you have laid the groundwork, you’ve now got your boss in a position where the boss has reneged on a commitment, which means the boss owes you.

  As calmly as possible, restate the fact that you’ve exceeded the boss’s expectations and that the boss made a specific promise to you in the event that you did so. Then ask the boss what he or she is going to do, like so:

  “I understand that there’s a salary freeze. How are you planning to get an exception in my case?”

  “Since this is the first time I’ve heard of this goal, I’m confused about how you expected me to fulfill it. So if you’re not sending me to Hawaii, what are you going to do for me, since I exceeded the expectations that you set at the beginning of the year?”

  “That sounds like a tough problem. Since the promotion is now outside your control, what about things that are inside your control, like comp days? Rather than the promotion, how about an extra week off this year?”

  Do not let your boss wriggle out of a commitment without you receiving some kind of concession in return. Otherwise your boss will always find a way to get out of any commitments that he or she makes.

  At the end of the performance review, repeat the same conversation that you had in Step 1. Document the results of that conversation.

  SHORTCUT

  USING PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

  FIND out what you must accomplish and document the conversation.

  TRACK and report on your accomplishments against your metrics.

  EITHER write the performance review draft or provide “inputs” to same.

  IF the boss attempts to renege, insist on some other reward.

  SECRET 5

  How to Ask for a Raise

  In the previous secret, I explained how to use your performance review to extract concessions from your boss. This secret works during your performance review but can also get you a raise even when it’s not your review time. Here’s how.

  1. UNDERSTAND WHY COMPANIES GIVE RAISES.

  Companies view your salary as an expense, so asking for a raise is asking your boss to spend more of the company’s profit, cash reserves, or borrowed money on you, rather than on other priorities.

  From the management perspective, your salary (and raise) has nothing whatsoever to do with what you need to stay alive or what you deserve to be paid. Both salaries and raises are based entirely on the cost of replacing you.

  If the cost of replacing you is greater than what they’re spending on your salary, you can ask for a raise and reasonably expect to get one. If not, you won’t get the raise. It’s really that simple.

  2. KNOW YOUR POINTS OF LEVERAGE.

  When you ask for a raise, you’re asking your boss to compare the cost of giving you a raise with the cost of replacing you. It is therefore in your interest to increase your boss’s awareness of that cost of replacement. Five costs come into play:

  1. Salary cost. If you’re being paid less than the average salary of somebody doing the same job you’re doing, in the region where you are currently located, it’s likely that your boss will need to offer a replacement more than you’re being paid.

  2. Recruitment cost. Finding candidates who have specific skills, interviewing them, and selecting a person (who
may or may not accept) takes time and money. There will also be direct expenses if your boss needs to use a professional recruiter.

  3. Training cost. If you have specialized skills and knowledge that are not generally available in the job candidate pool, your company will need to provide training in those skills and that knowledge to your replacement.

  4. Collateral damage cost. If coworkers and customers see your presence as valuable, the company may lose (and therefore be forced to replace) coworkers and customers who leave as the result of your absence.

  5. Lost opportunity cost. If you decide to leave for a better job, there will be a period of time when what you’re doing isn’t getting done. Depending on what you do, that can mean lost productivity or profit.

  Please note that none of these costs have any meaning whatsoever unless you are actually prepared to leave your job. That’s why you must always have other opportunities in the hopper. (See “Secret 22. How to Achieve Career Security.”)

  3. LAY THE GROUNDWORK.

  Now that you know your leverage points, you can lay the groundwork for a productive discussion of your salary and why your company should be paying you more.

  We’ll start with the easiest element: salary ranges. Many websites contain salary ranges for job categories sorted for experience and geography.

  If your job fits neatly into one of those categories and you’re being paid less than the average salary and you’re doing at least an average job, you obviously have a case for getting a raise. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple.