There are tons of books in the marketplace that are geared toward helping you get a raise at work. At last count I took a look on Amazon and found over 2,300 of them. And that was just in the last two years! While most of these books have the same tired advice, I will attempt to offer something new and fresh on this topic. But spoiler alert: you may find the advice unconventional.
Because it is so easy to blame others when we don’t get a raise, I collected three tools that we can do ourselves in order to position us for a raise. This is not theory or feel-good stuff – it’s three practical tools I have found that are virtually all but guaranteed to get you a raise. And they can easily work to also get you to the next big spot in your career. So here are three creative ways to get a raise at work:
1. Quit Complaining About What’s Wrong
I have hired over a thousand people in my career. I have handed over raises to quite a few of these thousand – and to some? Well, they never managed to get a raise. One of the things that pretty much guarantees that your boss or manager or supervisor will not give you a raise is when you make you mission at work to be a constant “complainy-pants.” It is easy to point out what is wrong. Anyone can do that. It is in our human condition to complain and point out things that are not working. There is a biological reason for this – it is what kept us alive 30,000 years ago when we were living in caves. Yet today? Not super helpful to work. And here’s the thing:
Anyone can point out that something sucks. But few people can point out how to solve it. And those are the people who will get a raise.
Quit complaining about what is wrong at work, and instead get creative. Point out constructive ways you can help solve what sucks at work. When you can do this consistently, you will find that getting a raise comes easily.