Negotiate Your Way to Great Work
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
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You may have noticed some of the changes going on around here. I’ve been talking more about developing your strengths and living your passions. This is what we should all be doing. We need to leverage what we already are good at and develop the skills we are passionate about.
Many of you don’t get to apply your strengths and passions in your careers. I was talking to a client of mine about these issues. She knows what she is good at, but can’t seem to make the transition. Her boss gives her the same work day after day that makes her unhappy.
As we continued to talk I began to see a theme. She did not want to say “no” to the crappy work or negotiate to get the work that excited her. She felt stuck.
Take Back Control
This scenario happens millions of times a day. People do work that they dislike because they are afraid to take control of their career. They think that if they continue to do what is asked of them they will be rewarded. This is wrong. Most people won’t get rewarded for doing as they are asked. The rewards come from doing something out of the ordinary. I know every culture is different. I’ve only worked in American, Icelandic and German cultures, so I can’t speak for everyone, but these three cultures want employees who go for the unexpected.
If you want to put yourself in the position to create a project that unexpectedly “wows” your manager and colleagues, you have to negotiate.
You need to ask for work that will make you happy. I worked along side a colleague who negotiated her way to a promotion. It was actually very cool to watch. If our boss made her do something terrible like send out 1,000 letters, she would counter with, “No problem. Do you think I could also work on bringing in a free speaker for our meeting next month?”
Her boss hated to say no. Her boss knew she was dumping a crappy job on her and felt like she needed to be rewarded.
My colleague wanted to be in HR. She loved helping people learn, so she jumped on any opportunity to practice these skills.
How to negotiate your job duties
1. Use emotional leverage.
If your boss wants you to do some tedious task that they don’t want to do themselves, try saying, “Yes and I would also like to (fill in blank here).” Like my friend, you can use your managers emotion’s to help your career.
2. Get results
Once you ask for a task that you enjoy, you must do an amazing job. That means double and triple checking your work. My friend brought in a fantastic speaker who “wowed” the company. Everyone thanked this woman for making the meeting enjoyable.
3. Reinforce the good feelings
Once you do this extra task, ask how your manager feels about the results. Is she pleased? If she is pleased then you can use this tactic again and again until you are doing the work that makes you feel energized all of the time.
Career Development
These skills can help you negotiate a new position, find a job that’s a better fit, or start your own business. My friend got the promotion she was after and now she is doing work that she actually enjoys. She had to take a risk and so will you, but if you never ask, you’ll never build up your skills to do great work. If you aren’t creating your foundation now, there is no way to launch in to a career that will make your heart sing.
Announcing a Contest
Next week I will be announcing a contest at Work Happy Now. So stay tuned because my passion train is rolling and I want to help you.
* Are you on Twitter? Then join over 3,000 people who get my stress relief tips, happiness ideas, and thought provoking quotes. @workhappynow
* Nathan Hangen wrote a really cool piece. I’m not a fan of the title (Utopia is within Reach), but the message is wonderful.
If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:
> Stop Swimming Against the Tide and Meet Your Career Needs
> The One Thing More Important Than Your Career
Image courtesy of Matthias Wagner
You’ve piqued my interest now…what’s wrong with the title?
btw, looks great on this side of town. Keep rocking it man.
Hi Nathan, I’m not a big fan of Utopia. The word is a bit cheesy to me. Please don’t take any offense. The article was excellent inspiration for people to reach out and help others.
No offense taken
Just always looking to improve. I don’t really like the word honestly, but was going for some shock value.
Starting to negotiate, if you’ve never done it before can be a scary prospect. I would suggest starting by taking baby-steps and being on the lookout for small opportunities to hone your skills.
This way you can grow yourself a solid foundation and begin to feel comfortable with your skills, so that when more important negotiations come up the nerves will have greatly decreased.
Hi DC Jobs, There are so many opportunities to hone our skills. We need to take advantage and build our confidence.
Karl,
Excellent advice. I love it that your passion train is rolling. Can’t wait to check out the contest. Woo hoo!
Hi Tess, Hope you are ready to hop on board. It’s going to be a wild ride.
Hi Karl,
It’s so important to be able to incorporate some projects that play to your strengths/talents and passions into your paid work. One way is to ask your boss for work that will allow you to do this. I’d say that if you’re going to go this route, it might be helpful to go to your boss with a specific idea or project in mind, otherwise you’re just adding to your boss’s workload because it makes them have to think up projects that might or might not fit with your ideas of what you need. Another way to do this is to take the initiative, find a small project that uses the skills you’re passionate about and that you know would be really helpful to your department and then take the finished project to your boss.
Have a great day.
Hi Sue, I found that when people ask the boss the boss has an easy time of saying no. But when we just do and show great results it’s easier to say “Yes, I want you to do some more.” By taking the initiative and doing work that your boss is 99% likely to like then the results are much better.
Karl,
I think one of the key things about point number one is that it also shows a commitment to going above and beyond what is expected. Which I think can also look good, above even that this might be the “fun” work – is that it’s going beyond what is expected. That is a great employee to hold onto – and good management will realize this very quickly!
Hi Lance, Going above and beyond shows the people that she works with that she is a star. When you shine bright people want to be around you. It’s why people flock to your blog.
Great advice Karl! If we don’t speak up, we will not initiate any changes. Yes, change might come and it might not, but when we speak up, we take accountability and have much better chances of creating the reality we want whether in our jobs, or any area of our life.
Hi Evita, You are right. This works in many areas of life. We can’t let other people forge our path, we must do it on our own. It’s why personal leadership is so important. We need to be kind and encourage ourselves to do great work.
Reinforce the good feelings is sound advice … effective and precise.
Hi J.D. I’m glad you agree. Without a foundation to encourage good feelings, we will fall back into bad habits that don’t help us succeed.
Guys, if you’re old enough to work you can start earning a living working for yourself. Don’t let society tell you its impossible. You are stronger than you believe.