7 Ways to Advocate for Yourself: Advice From Industry Leaders
During ModelExpand’s Women in Leadership Breakfast this September, we heard from executives at Ubisoft, Flywheel, Amazon and Autodesk as they gave insight into their experience with advocating for themselves at work. We have compiled the top 7 actionable steps and strategies from our panel of leaders for how to have a successful conversation around asking for a raise or promotion. You can also check out the panel recording here.
Our Panel of Leaders:
Advice from top industry leaders
1. Be vocal about your career vision.
Don’t be nervous to express that you want to grow and take on new challenges. Have a “roles and goals” conversation with your manager to highlight your career growth path in the next year or two. As a manager, Rovina Valashiya, Principal Product Manager at Amazon, appreciates these conversations with her team because it presents the opportunity to help them navigate towards their goals together. In her own career, being proactive and sharing her vision with managers in this way has opened doors and propelled her responsibilities.
2. Track your progress, even if your manager doesn’t.
When advocating for a promotion or raise, it is important to make your success visible. Natalie Gaysinski, Engineering Manager at Autodesk, shared her method of transparency: “I have a page shared with my manager consisting of 3 sections: Outcomes I am contributing to, Values I am showcasing + Value gaps I am working on, and Expectations for my desired next role and how I am already meeting/exceeding them. Showcasing my work in comparison to company expectations has been my strategy to remove any potential bias around promotion decisions.”
“Here is the research I have done that shows what I should be getting paid, and I want to understand how we can get to this number.”
3. Do your research.
When advocating for a raise, it is important to do research around the industry-standard pay for your position. Amanda Martinez, Engineering Manager at Flywheel, gave us an example she used when advocating for a raise: “Here is the research I have done that shows what I should be getting paid, and I want to understand how we can get to this number.”
4. Make a clear summary of your growth.
Communicating your career growth can often feel intimidating. However, if you take the time to evaluate your performance and how your skills have grown, it can often be the confidence boost you need to advocate for yourself. Brenda Panagrossi, VP of Platform and Product Management at Ubisoft, reflects on a colleague who successfully advocated for himself: “He clearly laid out the increasing level of importance of the various projects he was working on and compared his skills to what he thought were the capabilities needed for a promotion. What I appreciated about his presentation was that it was factual, not emotional. It was an analytical approach and succinct.”
5. Have empathy and awareness for who your audience is.
Your audience may not just be your direct manager or team lead, it is the managers one or two levels above that also are tied into the decision making process. It is important to create a detailed value story for the person in front of you, while also assessing talking points for them to easily champion you to their boss and so on.
“Preparing and practicing your talking points will allow you to be calm and collected, and often you find the other person will soften their stance.”
6. Be aware of your tone and body language.
Your nonverbal cues can often betray you. Even if you have a great presentation prepared, you want your body language to be relaxed and non-combative to ease feelings of defensiveness for both parties. Preparing and practicing your talking points will allow you to be calm and collected, and often you find the other person will soften their stance.
7. Keep the conversation going.
Having frequent feedback loops with your manager and requesting regular performance reviews will allow you to become comfortable with these types of conversations. In doing so, when it comes time to advocate for a raise or promotion, you will be equipped with the skills to have a constructive and successful discussion without feeling too intimidated.
Join us for our Next #WomeninLeadership Breakfast
If you missed this event, stay tuned for our #WomeninLeadership Breakfast in November!
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ModelExpand is an inclusive recruiting strategy firm that helps companies through strategic consulting, workshops and events. As tech continues to grow, ModelExpand's mission is to ensure people from various backgrounds are included. The #WomeninLeadership Breakfast Series is open to all.
