If you’re serious about getting this rise, you must make an honest and fair assessment of your value in the five key areas we’ve just highlighted. I suggest you grade yourself in each area out of ten. There’s not a lot you can do about the first two, but you still need to know where you stand. For the other three, give yourself marks out of ten and then list your key strengths (to point out to your boss when the time comes) and your chief weaknesses.
Now, look. You’re going to have to be honest here and I know that isn’t always easy. But your boss isn’t going to have any trouble listing your weaknesses, so you’d better manage it too.
What are you worth? You need to know before you got a pay raise!
You don’t have to tell anyone else but yourself, after all. If you want to maximize your value – you’ve got to minimize your weaknesses. And you can’t do that if you don’t know what they are.
If your assessment indicates that you are already worth way more than you’re being paid, you may want to go ahead and ask for a rise right now. But if you want the best possible pay rise (or other recognition of your value), you’d do better to improve on your direct value, performance and team value as much as possible before you ask. The more you’re worth, after all, the more you’re likely to get.
Find your weaknesses
If you’re serious about identifying your weaknesses (and you’ll -have to be if you want a decent rise), try asking other people. Your best friends in the organization – or colleagues from past jobs – may be prepared to tell you. Or they might anonymously tell someone else acting on your behalf. Or agree to get together with others and write you an ‘anonymous’ collective note. (If no one dares point out any weaknesses to you even when you ask, and even if you get them drunk first, that’s probably a big clue to your first weakness.)