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Welcome to the powerhouse Revolution Podcast. I’m Lucy Gernon, ex-corporate leader turned CEO of my dream business, helping corporate female leaders just like you to create your dream career and life. At 40 I quit the corporate world as I was tired of doing a job that no longer led me up and wanted to live my life my way. I created the power house Revolution podcast, to give you simple, actionable tips and strategies to help you create the perfect career and lifestyle that you and your family deserve. So if you’re a corporate female leader or manager who is ready to step into her superpowers and live the life you were born to live, you are definitely in the right place, because life is way too short to dread Mondays. Okay, let’s jump into today’s episode.
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Do you want more money? It’s a question that I want you to reflect on. In this week’s episode of the podcast, we are going to be talking all about money. Now money can bring up lots of different emotions with all of us because we all have a relationship with money whether you realize it or not. And your current circumstance, your current salary, your current bank balance is all reflective of your current money mindset. So in particular, today, we are going to be talking about something really, really exciting, which is five little known secrets to help you to get up to a 20% salary increase in your leadership role. And I have created a fabulous checklist to accompany this episode to support you as you prepare for that conversation. And as you actually have that conversation and you can grab that free resource right now at signup dot Lucy garden.com forward slash salary checklist. That’s signup dot Lucy garden.com forward slash salary checklist. This is where I’m going to be taking you through step by step by step all the things you need to do to prepare for that meeting with your boss, and also how to get the increase.
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So first of all, I want to talk a little bit about this money mindset piece before we dive into the secrets because I work with obviously a lot of women in leadership, it’s my whole business. And the reason I started my business was because I want you to unlock your full potential. I want you to believe in yourself and the immense value that you bring to this planet, I want you to get paid in accordance with your worth. I want you to use your money not only to buy holidays, and handbags and makeup and spend it on your family, I want you to use it to invest in yourself so you can continue to grow and grow and get better and better and feel happier and more fulfilled and make more money. But we can’t do that unless you begin to believe in yourself. Okay. So the reason I decided to record this episode today is because I notice a lot of you out there who are not being paid in accordance with the value that you’re creating for your organization. So this is a really, really juicy episode, we are going to be covering when to ask for a salary increase. We’re going to cover how to prepare, we’re going to cover exactly what to say how to follow up and so much more. Now, we know that men are excellent at bringing this stuff, okay. And I’ve been speaking to a good few people in HR recently, some clients, some others I’ve just been chatting with. And we’ve been talking about this very topic. And I get so frustrated when we hear that term, the gender pay gap, because we’re blaming the organizations, okay, we’re blaming the organizations. But actually, the statistics show us it’s because of us is because of us, because we don’t value ourselves and what we bring. So let me back that up with a little bit of facts here. In the World Economic Forum Global gender pay gap report in 2021. It found that women earn about 77% of what men earn, okay, that means for every dollar or euro that manner and women are only earning 77%.
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There was another survey done by Glassdoor, which found that 68% of men will negotiate their salary when accepting a job offer while only 52% of women do the same, okay? And there was another study done in 2018 by the Journal of Organizational Behavior, which found that women were to be 16% less likely than men to negotiate their salaries. So we can put a lot of blame on the organization’s for not paying us our words. But if you don’t know your worth, and if you don’t know the value that you bring for your organization, why would your organization just want to give you more money, okay? Their business at the end of the day. It’s not that they don’t value you, it’s that you don’t value you. So that’s the first mindset shift I invite you to reflect on. And that’s what we’re going to be getting into today. Okay. So the very first thing we are going to get into is when to actually ask for a salary increase, okay, now, I have worked with a few women, obviously, in my business, and this kind of thing has come up, it’s come up with women in my mastermind groups, it’s come up in my one to one coaching, it’s come up all over the place where there are new opportunities that are happening, and women are in that negotiation process. And I absolutely love inspiring and supporting you as you go through that process, because you are applauding amazing, I really mean that like you are so like the impact you are making in the world, you don’t even see what I see, you don’t see what other people see of you, you see the problems you see, you know that you’re not good enough. And you see the decisions you didn’t make, right? And you You say you’re not a strategic thinker. You are, okay, so you’ve got to know your worth. So what you want to do is, there’s two times when you can ask for a salary increase, okay? So if you’re multitasking, come back to me, the first time is obviously in your annual performance review appraisal, okay, and the second time is around the other time, okay? So if you are right, now listen to this, when it comes out, you’re obviously not going to be in the middle of your end of year. So you can take action on this right now. So if you are out of cycle, you are entitled to bring your dissatisfaction to your regular one to one with your manager. Now, if your monitor is not great, and as you know, as you climb the the corporate ladder, one to ones tend to be less and less, which really also pisses me off because they’re so bloody important. You need to ask your manager for a one to one, okay. Now in this meeting, you can talk about what’s going well for you, what’s not going well for you and really raise your dissatisfaction. But you want to be well prepared going into that meeting and with data, which is exactly what I’m going to talk you through today. Okay. So are you ready to get into the five secrets, so we’re going to be going through the five secrets that you need to know in order to get a salary increase.
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So secret number one, I’ve already alluded to it, it’s Know your worth, know your worth. So you want to be looking at the value you create for your organization, and not at your self worth. Now, this is a really important distinction. So if you’re multitasking, come back to me, you want to be looking at the value you create for your organization, not how much you think your work worth. Okay, so you’ve got to do the work on your own money mindset. So as I spoke about at the start, we all have a relationship with money. And it’s based on your conditioning, it’s based on your childhood. So I mean, I see it all the time with women all the time, I see women who come in to me, and they want to work with me, and they want to invest in themselves. And there’s not even a question that they’re just ready to go. Like, there’s not even a doubt in your mind at all. They’re smart. They know that when they invest in themselves that they’re shorting because they’re in control of their investment. And they just, they just do it, okay. And that’s like several times neuro depending on what it is. Then I see other women who like the thoughts of them, spending are investing money in themselves, like makes fills them with dread, they just don’t feel they’re worth it. Even though they have the money. This is the thing, it’s not that they don’t have the money, the money is usually there, either in the bank account, or it’s either there and shares, but they don’t feel that they’re worth this. So now let me tell you something. And again, if you’re multitasking, come back to me. If you don’t feel you’re good enough to invest in yourself, you are not going to feel good enough to ask for a salary increase, okay, so you have got to realize that if you want to invest in yourself, be that getting Botox, like I do invest in in coaches like me, or investing in a course you really, really want to do, or investing in you. I’m not talking about something material, I’m talking about something that’s going to fuel your personal and professional growth and development. If you are not there yet if you can’t just hand over your your credit card or take money out of your bank account, because you have blocks around your value and if you are worth it, and can I really do this for myself, what about the children? And what about this? If you can’t do that you’re not in a position to go for a salary increase. Okay, I can tell you that with certainty. Alright. So you’ve got to do the work on your money mindset. You need to build your confidence and you need to really go in to the conversation with your manager knowing for sure that you deserve this, or you’re not going to get it okay. You want to really Manage your energy and realize that they’re not doing you a favor if they give you the salary increase, okay? You deserve this, okay, you deserve this. So what you really don’t want to do is go in with a with an energy of looking for permission, because permission based energy is weak, okay? We don’t want you to be perilous. And we want you to be a powerhouse because you are okay. And it all starts with knowing your worth.
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Secret number two, then is benchmarking. Now, this is a really boring, yet super crucial part of the process. You want to benchmark against other companies. So you can go on to Glassdoor there’s lots of different places you can go to benchmark your role. So what would you be getting paid in another company for a similar role, or other similar level? Look at the male and female salaries, okay? If the companies have gender, pay gap reports, go dig them out for other companies and do your research. Okay. That brings me on to the second part of that is you want to look at the gender pay gap report for your own organization if you have it, and you want to leverage that heart. So one thing I want you to understand is that your HR, your CHR, or your you know, your HR leader, whoever it is, they’re responsible for delivering the company HR strategy, okay? And a massive part of all of those strategies in most organizations is retention of female talent, okay, retention of female talent, attracting top talent is always in there. And we know now that women are leaving the corporate world in record numbers, okay. And I would slow him down a little bit, thank God, but like, this is probably on your company’s agenda. Okay, so if you know somebody in HR have the conversation about what is the company’s strategic direction, around female talent, okay, or the gender pay gap, arm yourself with as much information as possible. Now, what you can do is you can actually request the benchmarking report from HR because they typically will do a benchmarking HR report within your organization. So if your organization is anywhere credible, they should most likely have this. And this will show where you fall in your salary, in your, by your level, okay, it’ll show where you fall within your band and everything by gender. So request that from HR, okay, so what you want to do is gather as much information as possible to see first of all, if you actually are an outlier in terms of your, your level and your organization and beyond your organization. And obviously, if you’re not well, that’s a different conversation. Okay. So this is all on the assumption that you are not being paid as much as your male counterparts and other people who have maybe come into your organization after you. Okay. That’s the second thing. So step one is to know your worth, do the work on your money mindset. And second secret number two, then is to do your benchmarking. Okay.
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Secret number three, then is to gather the evidence. You need to be able to show how your specific efforts and your team have impacted the company bottom line, you need to be able to very clearly show that how your value is driving your department or your function or your region’s budget, okay? You want to show how you are linking to the tangibles. Now, depending on the level you’re at in your organization, you could be a couple of, I suppose levels removed from those kinds of conversations, and you know, you might be so if you are you want to start asking for for information, you can go to your finance team, you can ask your boss, you can go online, all your companies, if you’re listening to my podcast are probably publicly listed, you can get all of those financials from the previous year. Okay, so you want to have tangible financial figures. Then once you have that you want to prepare a comprehensive list of tangible results projects and ally, are there additional responsibilities that you’ve taken on that are all aligned to your company’s strategy and that have impacted the bottom line? Okay, so, excuse me again, I remember I’ve done this with a few women where they’re looking at their CVs, and you need to be able to in that very top section of your CV, you want to be having five very, very clear, like smart, I’m gonna say smart, is that the right yeah, probably is smart achievements, which show tangible results. So it shows $1 Figure it shows a time saving that links to $1 figure, it shows a a cost avoidance is another thing massive one to consider. So for example, if I think back to when I worked in the corporate world, cost avoidance the amount of money I know now that I saved, the company I worked in is massive, because I had retained my team for years in terms of why if I looked at the attrition rate and my team versus other teams within the company, I know that my team were are loyal to me for years, okay? That would have saved the company, blah, a lot of money. But I wasn’t thinking in that way. So I never did that. Okay. And I know a few people in recruitment, and right now, the average cost of replacing an employee’s anywhere between 16 to 25% for the recruitment fee alone. So this doesn’t account for the intangible costs, like the disruption to your team, the decrease in morale, the impact on the culture and like this has has a massive long term effect. So you need to start thinking strategically here and you need to start getting creative around. What do you do really, really well, that’s actually saving the company money, things that you’re taking for granted, or things you want to start honing in on because they are your superpowers? Okay. Equally, obviously, if you have any cost saving initiatives, or any projects you’ve worked on that have actually impacted the bottom line, this is the time to leverage the absolute Shitload those, okay. You also want to collect positive feedback and testimonials. So ask your team members, ask your peers pull out two 360 feedback, you want to be preparing a book of evidence that you are amazing, because you are okay. You want to be digging out your performance evaluations that highlight your account your contributions and the value you bring to your organization. In particular, if you have been outperformed, say, and this would happen a lot, a lot a lot, where you might be outperformed for one or two years in a row. But you haven’t got it, you know, you might have got your merit increase in your in your appraisal, but you still might not be at the level of your male counterparts. You’ve got to be okay, you’ve got to do this gardens because you are blazing the trail for the women who are coming after you, your daughters, your nieces, your nephews, your those little kids that you see Oh, playing outside your house, those little kids that you see in the supermarket, you are blazing a trail for them. So if we don’t start owning our worth in this generation, like what is going to happen for our kids, all right.
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The fourth secret then is after you have you know, you’ve got everything together, you’re going to go into that meeting and you’re going to know your worth, you’re going to have prepared, you’re going to have all your evidence. And you’re going to have that initial conversation, okay, you’re going to go in thinking about, you know, what objections might your boss have? What objections might they have? Will they say things like, I don’t have the budget? Will they say things like it’s out of my hands, it’s with HR, come up with a list of things that you know that they’re going to say to you, and then have something prepared for each one of those objections. This is key. Okay, so if you’re multitasking, come back to me. Just because your boss says no, right now, it doesn’t mean it’s no forever. And it’s your job to be able to articulate your value in such a way that your boss feels compelled to take action and your company feels compelled to take action, because talent is scarce right now. Okay, everyone’s trying to get the top talent and everyone’s looking for experienced leaders like you. All right. So you have got to own your worth to go into that ready to have the conversation armed with your data. And going in, in an in an adult kind of confident state. You’re not going in feeling like you know, oh, poor me, I should be getting paid more or don’t go in with an energy of I’m so pissed off that you don’t see my words, you want to be going in like a powerhouse, right? You want to be going in strong, confident, sure of yourself, sure of the value you create and ready and excited to have a negotiation conversation. Alright. So after the conversation, most likely your boss is probably going to be surprised. So you know, you could obviously when you’re setting up that initial meeting, tell them what it’s about, so that you don’t completely blindside them. All right, you might just say something like, you’re setting up this meeting as you want to have a discussion with them about your current renumeration or your current package, and that you’re going to have prepared something in advance. So that gives them a chance, I suppose, just to kind of get ready for it to okay. But after you’ve had that conversation, that is only the start of the process.
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Alright, you want to set up a follow up meeting, alright, and you want to make it clear that this is just the start, and that you’re not going away? Alright, so you want to request that your manager speaks to HR and then encourage him or her to do the research that they need to do. So in that meeting, your manager is probably going to be asking you for different things that you haven’t thought of and reasons that that it’s not going to work or they could say very, very little. And if that’s the case, you know, you’ve given them enough information for now. So just tell them to go away and do their research on that if they need anything else from you to come back to you. Alright, and then agreed to meet back and I would say give it two to four weeks tops because you don’t want this topic to go cold. Alright, so when the time comes then four For your follow up meeting, here’s how to approach this important step. So the purpose of the follow up meeting is to continue the conversation and address any questions or concerns that may have arisen during the initial discussion. So it’s an opportunity here for you to provide any additional evidence or clarify any points further and really demonstrate your value to the organization. Okay, so this is not about you needing more money because you deserve it. Right? We know that’s true. But your company doesn’t care about that. Your company cares about the bottom line. So you need to be able to articulate the value that you’re bringing in particular to your organization.
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So to get ready for the follow up meeting, there’s five things that I’d like you to do. The first thing is to reflect on that initial conversation. So take a minute or take a few minutes just to review the key points that were discussed. Before you go into the follow up, consider maybe any objections that your supervisor or your manager has raised and how you could effectively address them. And if you’re not sure, guys, just talk to one of your colleagues, talk to somebody you trust on how you might address that, okay, you can send me a DM on LinkedIn or Instagram, I’d be happy to help. The second thing you want to consider that and is gathering any additional evidence. So between the time of your last discussion, and your follow up meeting, you want to have been watching their body language you want to be have been listened to their objections, you’re going to be gone. Hmm, they weren’t so sure. And that maybe I need to bring more data. This is where you need to get any additional supporting documents or data that will strengthen your case. All right, this might be more achievements or positive feedback you’ve got from colleagues or you know, any other relevant information. So for example, if you’re with your organization, a long time, your tacit knowledge is worth millions of dollars, okay? So you need to get creative here on leveraging your unique strengths. And also your unique position within your organization. Okay. The third thing you want to do when you’re considering or when you’re preparing for the follow up is just rehearse your talking points. So really practice what you want to say and how you want to say it. You want to really be emphasizing your dedication to the company, your passion, you know, for your role and the value you bring, and just keep the conversation focused on your achievements, and the impact you’ve made, rather than comparing yourself to others, okay, so we don’t want to go in with the victim mentality, and he’s getting paid more than me and like, that’s not fair like that is not going to get you anywhere, okay? You want to keep the conversation high vibe, positive and focused on the impact you’re making, not comparing yourself to other people. Okay? Like I said, as well, number four, then is to anticipate any potential questions or objections, and prepare your responses that are so compelling that your manager cannot ignore what you’re saying. And remember, just keep focus on the value you bring to the organization, not the value, you think you know, what your own self worth. And then the fifth thing I want you to consider there in the prep for the follow up is to stay confident and professional. So approach to follow up meeting with real confidence and maintain a really professional collaborative demeanor. So if you’re doing this in person, you know, go in in a good moods, go in looking professional, sit beside your manager, like, Have you no, no, I don’t mean to have the crack. You don’t want to be going in laughing and joking, this is a serious conversation. But you want to keep it high vibe, and you want to keep it joyful, and you want to keep it all very positive. Now, you might be getting nervous about going into these conversations. Alright, so there’s a little tool that I always use, and I’m going to tell you now, and it’s called the powerhouse polls. So this has been proven in neuroscience that when you do this, it changes the biochemistry in your body. Alright. So if you literally stand and I don’t know, because I’m standing up, have you stand up tall, do with me, if you’re not driving, or if you’re walking or whatever, just stop, stand up straight, put your shoulders back, head up, put your hands on your hips, boobs out. Alright, I want you just to stand in this powerhouse pose because you are a bloody powerhouse. And I want you to just breathe. I want you to breathe and I want you to visualize everything that you have done that is good for your company. I want you to channel every single, you know, fire that you pulled out where you took time away from your family to do it. I want you to think about what you did during the pandemic and how you kept your company afloat. I want you to think about all of the positive feedback that you have got from your manager, from your team from your peers. I want you to channel every ounce of positivity as you stand They’re in the powerhouse polls. And if you can do this in the mirror even better, because I want you to look at yourself, and I want you to remember who you are and what you bring to this world. And then I want you to setting into that meeting, okay, you’re setting back to your desk and go on Zoom, feeling strong and confident. And here’s a little tip, if you are doing this on teams, or on Zoom or virtual call, if you can stand up when you’re having this conversation, it’s going to really, really help your energy, okay? If you’re sitting down, you might feel a bit more relaxed. Again, either sit stand, so it’s easier for me, but I would really encourage if you can you stand up. Okay.
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So, very, very Finally, let’s just do a quick recap on the four secrets I’ve shared before I get on to the final one. So the first one is to remember, know your worth, okay? Know your worth, do the work on your money mindset, build your confidence and get really clear on what you bring to this world. Secret Number two is do your benchmarking, gather your data, gather your evidence, yes, it’s work, but it’s absolutely going to work. Okay, do the benchmarking. Secret number three is to gather your evidence. So this is where you’re going to prepare a comprehensive list of tangible results, successful projects and any other additional responsibilities that you’ve taken on that has aligned to the company bottom line. And don’t forget the cost avoidance piece here, too. Secret number four is then after your meeting, you want to go into your follow up meeting, do not let your manager away with this.
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And secret number five, finally, drumroll please, is you’ve got to be willing to leave. Now, this might seem counterintuitive, but it’s an essential mindset shift to adopt during this negotiation process. And let me explain why. When I worked in the pharmaceutical industry, in one of the companies I worked in, it was like it was like my second home because it was up the road from my house, it was in the town I lived in, I was the first place I ever worked that I really felt important. I you know, I had a lot to give, I was valued and I had no intention of going anywhere. Okay, I had no intentions of going anywhere. But my organization knew that. Okay, they knew us, of course, they knew it, I wasn’t a flight risk. So if you truly want to get a salary increase, alright, you have got to be willing to believe. Now, this doesn’t mean that you’re actively seeking another job or planning to resign. It means you’re owning your value, and having the courage to consider that there is a whole big bad world out there. And if your organization fails to recognize you and compensate you appropriately, and money is something that’s important to you, well, then it might be something that you need to consider. Therefore, on the flip side, if job satisfaction and job fulfillment is more important to you, and you are getting fulfillment in your role, and you also have a great work life balance, and you also have flexible work, and all of these things that money can buy, well, then that’s totally up to you, okay. But if you really, really value money, and you feel like you have been you’re being underpaid, and you feel like you deserve to be paid more, you have got to be willing to leave. Because when you go in with the energy of Listen, I know that I’m valuable in the marketplace right now. I am not threatening you in any way, shape, or form. I’m just stating facts. I’m assessing my options. And, you know, I’m really loyal to this company, I really want to stay. However, I don’t feel like my, the value I bring is reflected in my paycheck, and I want this to be evaluated. That’s what I would say to you. Okay, now, that is it for the five secrets. I know we’ve covered a lot and that is exactly why I have created a checklist for you go to sign up dot Lucy garden.com forward slash salary checklist that sign up dot Lucy garden.com forward slash salary checklist and you can download it for free. It’s a really, really useful resource that you can have as you prepare to go in to your salary negotiation meeting. That’s it for this week’s episode of the powerhouse Revolution podcast. If you enjoy this episode, go back and listen to episode number 47. It’s why it’s okay to invest in your own development. I talk a lot about money mindset in here and a lot about women owning their worth and why it’s so so important for you as a woman to continue to invest in yourself because you are worth it. So that is episode number 47. You can find it on my website, or Spotify or Apple just search powerhouse revolution episode 47 and it’ll take you right there. So until next time, be safe be well and I’ll see you then. Bye for now.
