ALT-2 Get that Raise Put yourself in your Bosss Shoes
It's easy to make your boss into the bad guy, particularly when he or she holds the threat of a raise over your head. However, to deal effectively with your boss in the raise process, it is best to be able to see your boss as a human, with strengths and weaknesses just like you. Put yourself in your boss's shoes: You are pressured with multiple projects, the higher-ups want to cut costs and keep wages low, and your employees want more money and perks. You are caught in the middle, having to balance the needs and wants of the two groups. Who do you try to please? Doesn't sound easy, does it?
As an employee, the more than you can put yourself in your boss's shoes, the more civil and professional your appeal for a raise should be. Being able to empathize with another person, particularly your boss, enables you to see more clearly how a decision that suits everyone can be reached. Knowing what your boss faces, you can help your boss while helping yourself. Becoming partners to ease the pressure on your boss means that you are looking out for your boss, and your boss is more likely to look out for you.
It's not always easy for bosses to share information on the situation and resulting pressures with you. By being open and honest with your boss, trying to understand your boss's point of view, you can begin a dialogue and a course of action that will enable you to work together for your mutual benefit. This is not a once-a-year event, however. If the only time that you want to understand your boss is at raise time, your gesture will lack sincerity.
Presenting factual support for your raise request gives your boss something to work with, a set of claims against which to balance corporate dictates. Providing alternative rewards may provide not only a little creativity, but another opening to reward your hard work. Most of all, developing a good relationship with your boss by putting yourself in your boss's shoes will pay off in a happier working environment for everyone...and who couldn't use that?
