Tag: explains

The bestselling author of ‘I Will Teach You To Be Rich’ explains exactly what to say to get the raise you want

meeting, bossSo you did your research on the average salary for someone in your position.

You framed your request for a higher salary in terms of what the company is gaining.

You forced your best friend to practice the negotiation with you until midnight.

And still, you can’t get the hiring manager to offer you the number you were hoping for. Don’t despair — there’s more you can do to make that job offer more attractive.

That’s according to Ramit Sethi, author of the 2009 bestseller “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.”

Sethi tapped Justin Wilson, a former management consultant, for his top negotiation tips and learned there are two key steps to take after the hiring manager tells you there’s no more flexibility in terms of salary: Negotiate other modes of compensation and request an accelerated salary review process.

Sethi and Wilson role-played a conversation between a hiring manager and a job candidate, with Wilson as the candidate. Initially, Sethi had offered Wilson $50,000 a year and Wilson had asked for $65,000. Sethi countered with $57,000, citing the tough economic circumstances.

Here’s how Wilson responded: “One of the things we didn’t talk about is some of the other modes of compensation — so stock options, bonus. Would it be appropriate to talk about some of those?”

He added: “Understanding that you guys may be constrained from a budgetary perspective right now, if there’s more flexibility around stock options or bonus,” he’d like to discuss those issues.

When Sethi and Wilson unpacked what was happening in the conversation, Sethi pointed out that Wilson gave the hiring manager a little bit of power by asking whether it would be “appropriate” to discuss other forms of compensation.

Moreover, Sethi said, Wilson expressed sympathy for the hiring manager by saying that he understood the company’s financial constraints.

ramit sethi and justin wilsonWhen Sethi agreed to offer Wilson a greater number of stock options, Wilson said, “I think that goes a long way to closing the gap. … The one other thing that I would love to talk about is what would the review cycle be for my performance in terms of evaluating my candidacy for a promotion or a raise?”

He went on to ask for a review after six months, in which they could revisit the topic of salary. The hiring manager agreed.

Sethi said it was meaningful that Wilson showed appreciation by saying that the hiring manager had nearly closed the gap.

And asking for an accelerated review process is perfectly reasonable, Sethi said — in fact, if the company doesn’t agree to it, you might be right to get slightly suspicious and probe a little more.

The takeaway here is that you can almost always find some common ground between you and the hiring manager, even if it requires getting a little creative.

Don’t get discouraged when you feel the company has hit a wall in terms of salary — stay open and flexible and you’ll likely be able to reach a mutually beneficial agreement.

The video of the conversation between Sethi and Wilson is featured in Sethi’s Ultimate Guide to Getting a Raise & Boosting Your Salary. Watch it here:

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A woman who increased her salary by $30,000 explains why she expects to double it in the next 2 years

claudia

“You don’t get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate.”

That’s what personal-finance expert Farnoosh Torabi preaches.

It helped Torabi double her salary — from $45,000 to $90,000 — at age 26 back in 2006. More recently, it helped 28-year-old Claudia Telles score a $30,000 raise at a Chicago hospital.

What’s more, Telles — who went from making $41,000 on the business-operations team to $72,000 as a quality specialist — plans to double her new compensation in the next two years, she tells Business Insider.

It’s more than possible, she says, thanks to a critical mind-set shift.

“I noticed my perception of a good salary and self-worth, career-wise, changed once I started surrounding myself with top performers,” she says.

“Before meeting ambitious professionals, increasing my salary by $5,000 would have made me beyond happy. Afterwards, asking for a $30,000 salary increase didn’t even seem ridiculous. I have friends and acquaintances that have been able to double or triple their salary, and to me, it’s the ‘new normal.'”

Moral of the story: “Be careful who you surround yourself with because they influence your standards and definition of what ‘normal’ is,” Telles says. “My standards keep doubling because of who I surround myself with.”

She isn’t the only one to suggest a correlation between success and who you choose to hang out with. As self-made millionaire Steve Siebold writes, “Exposure to people who are more successful than you are has the potential to expand your thinking and catapult your income. We become like the people we associate with, and that’s why winners are attracted to winners.”

The thought of negotiating another big leap isn’t intimidating to the 28-year-old — nor is it impractical, granted she continues performing at a high level and bringing value to her company.

“To me, it’s just the reasonable and right thing to do,” she says.

SEE ALSO: 7 steps to negotiate a higher salary, from a 28-year-old who made a $30,000 leap

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Billionaire investor Ray Dalio explains the process he uses to find ideal employees

ray dalio

If you take a job at Bridgewater Associates — the world’s largest hedge fund, with $169 billion in assets — you’re agreeing to abide by founder Ray Dalio’s “Principles,” a manual of 210 musings on management and character.

It serves as an introduction to the hedge fund’s culture of “radical transparency.” At Bridgewater’s Westport, Connecticut, headquarters, all meetings and interviews are recorded and logged.

Employees are also required to refrain from keeping criticisms of their colleagues or managers, including Dalio, to themselves

To ensure that the right people are recruited, Dalio lays out his hiring philosophy in “Principles”: “Hire right, because the penalties of hiring wrong are huge,” he writes.

Dalio values a person’s character and way of thinking over their skill set, and he has managers express this in Bridgewater’s job postings.

For example, a current posting for a compliance associate states that the team is looking for someone who is “Logical with strong common sense,” “Not afraid to speak up and make suggestions for areas of improvement,” and “Self-aware, reflective, and able to learn from mistakes.”

Dalio writes that instead of trying to overcome the fact that managers have a tendency to look for their own traits in applicants, it is up to the manager to use different team members as specialized interviewers to root out a candidate’s character.

“For example, if you’re looking for a visionary, pick a visionary to do the interview where you test for vision,” he writes. “If there is a mix of qualities you’re looking for, put together a group of interviewers who embody all of these qualities collectively.” It’s of utmost importance that you deeply trust these interviewers, he says.

bridgewater associatesIt’s necessary to pay careful attention to someone’s track record, Dalio explains, but to also use references, research, and interviews to understand why candidates made the career decisions they did.

He and his managers look for someone who is just as inquisitive about the company and interviewers as they are about the candidate. “Look for people who have lots of great questions,” he writes. “These are even more important than great answers.”

It’s up to a manager to find “sparkle” in a candidate. “If you’re less than excited to hire someone for a particular job, don’t do it,” he writes. “The two of you will probably make each other miserable.”

And then if you feel this “click,” make your salary offer a premium on what that candidate was paid before, and what you think their attributes justify. Don’t worry about the market value of a job title.

After you finally make your hire, Dalio writes, ensure that you keep an eye on this person’s progress during the onboarding process to validate whether you made the right decision.

It’s about finding someone you respect and identify with. “Don’t hire people just to fit the first job they will do at Bridgewater; hire people you want to share your life with,” Dalio writes.

SEE ALSO: The world’s most successful hedge fund just made a big change — here’s a look inside its unique culture

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Millionaire Ivanka Trump explains how to make a great first impression

Ivanka Trump

First impressions are everything. 

In fact, within just moments of meeting you, “people decide all sorts of things about you, from status to intelligence to conscientiousness,” report Business Insider’s Shana Lebowitz and Tech Insider’s Drake Baer. And according to the experts, “it takes just three seconds for someone to determine whether they like you and want to do business with you.”

Luckily, you have some control over how others perceive you. 

Ivanka Trump, the executive vice president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization, CEO of Ivanka Trump Collection, and founder of #WomenWhoWork, recently explained to Cosmopolitan magazine’s Leslie Yazel how to make a great first impression:

Before entering a meeting, take the initiative to research and form educated opinions about important topics so that you have an insightful position to share if and when the time is right.

Technology can be a major distraction, so leave your phone or laptop behind if it will not add anything to the meeting.

Also, be on time or ideally, a couple of minutes early, and dress in a polished and professional manner.

Next time you’re walking into a job interview or a client meeting, keep these tips in mind.

SEE ALSO: Millionaire Ivanka Trump says following these 6 negotiation rules can get you anything you want

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Google’s HR boss explains why the company wants Googlers to fall short of some of their goals

laszlo bockFor years, Google has used an internal grading system for employees, called OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results.

Here’s how it works: Each Googler sets a goal and three key outcomes that result from achieving that goal. At the end of the quarter, they get a grade between 0 and 1 on each key result.

The ultimate aim isn’t to score a perfect 1, but to land somewhere between 0.6 and 0.7.

The idea is that, if you score a 1, your objective was too easily achievable. If you score between 0.6 and 0.7, then you were probably thinking big.

Google’s SVP of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, recently explained the rationale behind the company’s scoring system in a talk with Kris Duggan, CEO of Betterworks:

In order to set these ambitious goals and have them be credible, you also have to realize they’re not all going to be successful. We look for that 60% to 70% success rate across everything we do.

What’s nice about that too is you don’t actually need a sandbag [where an employee sets a goal they know is easily achievable], because people know like, “I’m going to set a bunch of hard goals, I’m gonna miss a bunch of them,” and it’s okay. It’s not okay to be 60% achieving on everything forever, but if I have a bad quarter, or bad few months, or bad year, or if I’m off on a few areas, totally fine.

Bock also said that Googlers’ performance on their OKRs isn’t tied directly to their compensation or eligibility for promotions. That’s because their goals should be what Larry Page and Sundar Pichai refer to as “moonshot” goals, in which they “really swing for the fences.” Presumably, it wouldn’t be fair to penalize employees for pushing themselves.

These moonshot goals are similar to what management theorists call stretch goals, which go beyond what seems possible.

Even outside of Google, setting (and trying to achieve) stretch goals is a crucial part of employee performance. Recent research by the leadership development consultancy Zenger/Folkman found that the most meaningful behavior of top employees — according to their managers, peers, and reports — is setting stretch goals.

For employees, the takeaway here is that it’s wise to set at least one objective that you know will be ridiculously hard to achieve. Then, of course, you need to work as hard as you can to get there. It could impress your manager more than setting reasonable goals and hitting them, no problem.

Meanwhile, managers can develop their employees by suggesting goals outside those employees’ comfort zones, and showing some understanding if they don’t make it all the way there. Ultimately, you’ll probably wind up with better — if not perfect — results because you encouraged greater effort.

Bottom line? Whether you’re working at Google or elsewhere, stretch goals are one path to make sure you and your team never stop improving.

SEE ALSO: Google’s HR boss explains why he thinks managers should have as little power as possible

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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff explains why a Hindu guru and Colin Powell were critical mentors

marc benioff salesforce

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is helping lead a fight against a Georgia religious freedom bill that, if signed into law, will protect certain institutions’ ability to deny service to members of the LGBT community.

It’s the second time Benioff has gone up against such a bill; he leveraged his business connections to spearhead a boycott against a similar bill in Indiana last March — and won.

Benioff’s penchant for activism and charity has been clear since he became Salesforce’s founding CEO in 1999.

At the New York Times New Work Summit on Tuesday, Benioff told moderator Jenna Wortham that former Secretary of State Colin Powell inspired him to integrate philanthropy into his company from day one.

He explained that in started in 1996. It was his 10-year anniversary at Oracle, and he was reflecting on his career. While he was a successful executive, he wondered if he would be spending the rest of his life making money for someone else. He told his boss that he needed time off and ended up going on a trip through India with his friend Arjun Gupta, who later became the founder of Telesoft Partners.

In India, he and Gupta met the Hindu guru Mata Amritanandamayi. At one point, Gupta pitched the business idea he was working on. The guru replied: “This is such an exciting vision for the future of the technology industry, but while you work on your career … don’t forget about doing something for others. Don’t forget to actually improve the world, as well.”

Benioff joked with Wortham at the summit that the message went over his buddy’s head, but that in all seriousness, it planted an important seed inside his own head.

Not long after returning home to California, Benioff received a call from a fellow American traveler he met on the trip, inviting him to the President’s Summit for America’s Future. Held in April 1997, it gathered the five living presidents (with Nancy Reagan representing her ailing husband Ronald) and cultural leaders to promote a movement to help ease the pain of America’s destitute youth.

Benioff was in the crowd of around 5,000 people when retired Gen. Powell walked onto the stage to tell everyone they must contribute their time and resources to tackling poverty.

marc benioff immelt colin powell“How can we fail when we have the kind of commitment we see from our presidents and our political leaders, and our public-spirited leaders, and all the leaders in every institution?” Powell asked the crowd.

Benioff said that as he listened, he was thinking “this is the same exact thing” the guru told his friend.

Back at Oracle, Benioff founded Oracle’s Promise, a program to bring computers to schools across the US. It was this program that introduced Benioff to Powell, when Powell called to pledge his support to a middle school in Washington, D.C. Benioff told him that he’d get Oracle employees to help install the 100 computers.

But the employees never showed up. A manager told Benioff over the phone that the combination of the intense heat and the lazy attitude at the end of the quarter must have kept them from pitching in, Benioff told Forbes in 2010. He called Powell to apologize, but Powell said it was no problem. Fifteen minutes later, an Oracle employee who showed up late to help informed Benioff that Powell had brought in a battalion of Marines at the drop of a hat to install the machines.

The Marines’ response, when compared to the Oracle employees’ response, served as “a seminal moment” in his life, Benioff told Forbes.

It tied back to what he learned from Powell and the guru weeks before.

Two years later, when Benioff decided that he was going to found Salesforce, “In my mind I started thinking, ‘OK, is there a model, in the way that I have a technology model and the way that I have a business model, is there a philanthropic, social good model where I can integrate the culture?” he told Wortham.

He decided to do so with the “1/1/1” model, where 1% of profits, 1% of equity, and 1% of employees’ time would go to the office’s community. Building philanthropy into the business allowed these values to scale, even as it became a global company with 20,000 employees.

In 2003, President George W. Bush made Benioff co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, and Benioff came to know Powell personally. Powell became a mentor to him, and in 2014 Powell joined Salesforce’s board, tying things full circle.

You can see the full New Work Summit interview below.

 

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A CEO explains why everyone should have this group of people in their lives

employees, meeting, work, office

As an incredibly indecisive person, I’ve always relied heavily on other people’s input when making career decisions.

But the process by which I solicit other people’s feedback is pretty haphazard: Maybe I’ll call my mom, maybe I’ll do some research online, maybe I’ll draft an email to a former professor and then delete it because I don’t want to bother them.

In the end, I usually wind up just as confused as when I started.

Recently, however, I spoke with Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO of Likeable Local and author of “The Art of People,” who told me about a brilliantly simple strategy for getting trusted career and life advice: Recruit three to five people to serve on your own personal advisory board.

Kerpen got the idea from Dorie Clark, a personal branding consultant and a friend of his, who recommends that everyone — not just entrepreneurs or CEOs — form their own advisory board.

Kerpen said most everyone has people they consider mentors, either from school or previous jobs. These are the people you should ask to serve on your advisory board.

I was curious whether someone who’s successful, influential, and presumably very busy, would really agree to participate in something like this. Kerpen said they probably would: “Despite what people might think, I actually think the more successful someone is, the more they want to help and give back and help other people younger than themselves.”

Once you’ve found those three to five willing advisors, Kerpen says you’ll want to “get them together on a regular basis [three to six times a year] with the specific goal of helping you in your career, with whatever specific objective you have at the time.” Maybe you’re hoping to start a company, or maybe you’re a manager and you want to be a vice president at your organization.

“You want to find people that have succeeded in areas you’d like to succeed in one day,” Kerpen said.

At each meeting, present one or two challenges you’re working on and have everyone offer their insights.

Having multiple smart, accomplished people in the room “magnifies the power of each person’s experiences,” Kerpen said.

So what can you offer your advisors in return, other than free dinner or coffee?

When Kerpen was thinking about launching Likeable Local, he provided a leadership training exercise to his board of advisors, and told them he hoped they could network with each other. (He also compensated them financially, though he says that’s not necessary for a personal advisory board.)

In the end though, Kerpen writes in “The Art of People”: “I learned that it’s been my success that has made my advisors feel most rewarded.”

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Barack Obama explains what he learned from scooping ice cream as a 16 year old

obama ice cream

President Barack Obama looks back fondly on the summer of 1978, spent behind the ice cream counter of a Baskin Robbins near his grandparents’ Honolulu home — even though at the time, he saw it as a threat to his basketball career, he wrote in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.

“Rows and rows of rock-hard ice cream can be brutal on the wrists,” he wrote. “As a teenager working behind the counter at Baskin-Robbins in Honolulu, I was less interested in what the job meant for my future and more concerned about what it meant for my jump shot.”

“My first summer job wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it taught me some valuable lessons,” Obama said. “Responsibility. Hard work. Balancing a job with friends, family, and school.”

It was 16-year-old Obama’s first job, and even though financial aid helped him attend the esteemed, expensive Punahou School, he didn’t begin working until the summer before his senior year of high school.

It’s part of the reason why his administration is launching the Summer Opportunity Project, he wrote, a national program to get teenagers into their first jobs, to teach them the value of hard work and keep them out of trouble when school’s out.

“And while I may have lost my taste for ice cream after one too many free scoops, I’ll never forget that job — or the people who gave me that opportunity — and how they helped me get to where I am today,” Obama wrote.

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