Ep. 7: How to Get a Raise or Promotion!
What are you willing to throw your life away on? With Andrew Reid and the liberation. It's a serious question, one worth pondering. Am I living the life I want, an intelligent life, or something else? How can I have a better experience of life?
Speaker 1:These are some of the questions explored in this series of messages without the brag and the advertisement, getting beyond even human institutions and society into the wilderness, nature, the reality of how life actually operates on this planet. These messages range from intimate recordings from the awakened forest to concerts, national conferences, and broadcasts on a wide array of philosophical topics.
Speaker 2:Well, good morning, and it's another brilliant day in the Awakened Forest at the cabin, which I'm so grateful for having been preserved. And if I'm a little hoarse, it's just I had a few big events right in a row, and it's amazing that sometimes even when you're playing late or you're in an utterly weary straight, which the road normally does to you, that sometimes you don't think you have anything to give, and your performances are spectacular because you're reaching from your very core, from your true authentic self with all the veneer really washed away, and and that's where you sing the best, you give the best messages, and all that. Now this particular message has to do with the principles behind raises and promotions. And we'll talk a lot about money, the meaning of money in subsequent messages, as well as the six levels of value. Both of those are very important.
Speaker 2:But this one has application to most anybody. Why? Because we all want more. And that's not entirely true whenever you say we all want more, but it's relative. But most human beings, I would say at least 80% of the population, perceives that they need more, especially in terms of money.
Speaker 2:And it's such a great message for an individual as well as a company or corporation because if you can manage expectations of the people that work with you, or for you, however you want to language it, it saves a lot of hassle because sometimes people come in very ignorantly demanding more money when it's an economic question or demand. And there's only so much to go around in all that. So it's a wise thing to help manage people's expectations. So let's get into it. To get a pay increase, normally, have to be doing more than you're already being paid to do.
Speaker 2:A lot of people think, well, I'm I'm not doing very much because I'm not being paid very much. No. That's not the way it works. If you want more, then go ahead and put more wood in the stove. Don't be like the baby or the child mind that says, I'll do more if I get paid more.
Speaker 2:But, unfortunately, 80% of the population that calibrates below 200, that's the way they look at it rather than saying, no, I'll give more and then I'll be rewarded for that. Just on a personal level, I never look at a clock, never have. It doesn't matter how much I'm being paid. I always put forth my very, very best, whether it's minimum wage, whether I'm working as a volunteer or for free or whatever, because I'm living my best life, and I'm gonna throw my life away on that. And, of course, that is a key to success as was discussed in episode six.
Speaker 2:Longevity is not a good reason for pay increases. Just because someone's hung around the block or in the organization or whatever for a long time doesn't mean they merit more compensation. The question is, are they adding value? Can they sell? Can they increase revenue?
Speaker 2:Can they decrease expenses? Those are really the valid reasons. So whether you've been with the organization twenty seven years, that doesn't really count. It doesn't really matter. What are you doing now in the zen of today?
Speaker 2:Again, there's not this unlimited pot of money. Approximately fifty percent of all new businesses fail in the first five years. Then the next twenty five percent of those fail in the next twenty five years, just leaving only twenty five percent of businesses even lasting ten years. I'm always amazed. I hear MultiView were up on thirty years.
Speaker 2:I'm always amazed that at MultiView, we're at, like, thirty years of quantification like no one else, no other benchmarking company does, And we're still around, although we've had to adapt through the years. But again, asking for money is an economic request, and the ultimate determinant of the reply comes down to the realities of the economics of the organization. Does that not make sense? And let's face it, most leaders, managers are literally sweating it out to make the next payroll. And, you know, they're living we're living in this competitive world, and that's the way it is.
Speaker 2:So it is it's an economic ask. And so the question is, are the funds there? Okay. Just because a person's working hard or, quote, working hard or spending a lot of time at a task or their job or whatever, doesn't mean they're providing value for the organizations. It may mean they just lack the intelligence.
Speaker 2:They may lack the competence or the energy or whatever to do the job. And so if people are struggling with routine tasks even, you know, but it's taking a long time, too much the manager who's responsible for those allocation of assets has to look at that person and say, Is this person great ROI? That is return on investment. Do I need to remove this person from the organization? Do I need to repurpose them?
Speaker 2:Do I need to train them to do a better job? Those are the serious questions. Whenever someone is really taking too long in the perception of the manager to accomplish the job, whatever it is. So working hard isn't enough to merit a raise or extra pay. Most of your professional advancement will come from your leisure time.
Speaker 2:That is your nonpaid time. Nobody paid me to knock out my different degrees. Okay? I mean, I did it on weekends. I I did it with a screaming wife number one over me as I was knocking out my CPA and all this stuff because I was not spending enough time with her and all that because there has to be some sacrifice or has to be some devotion to whatever you're doing.
Speaker 2:Again, what are you throwing your life away on? And I was going to become a CPA, that was it, and knock out, you know, the different degrees and all that. But you're not gonna get great again at anything working a forty hour week. It's just not possible to become great. And I don't care how smart you perceive you are or how gifted you think you are.
Speaker 2:Even masters of any instrument have spent tremendous time, time that no one's paying you for. So that's the way it is. And I know that's you know, alarming to some people, but it's gonna come from your own time, your own self will, your determination. Another point is that the mature employee should inquire about the overall state of the business organization. As I alluded to earlier, most managers, most business owners, CEOs are sweating it out month by month.
Speaker 2:And they're always looking out or keeping a sharp eye for those people that are really contributing to the business, that are really adding value, that are increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, adding even to the sustainability of the organization. And so to inquire, how are we doing as a business? What are our downfalls? Where are there opportunities? Here's how I can play or increase the value or decrease the frustrations.
Speaker 2:And really pointing that out is a very mature thing for an individual to do, of someone of high mind, high consciousness, rather than having your little needy hands out there and saying, hey, give me more nuts. Each person in an organization ultimately sets his or her own pay based on the value they provide. As you enter our headquarters building, going up to the top level of the organization, there's this sign, again, that each person in the organization, you, that is, ultimately sets his or her own pay based on the value they provide. Yes. What am I saying?
Speaker 2:Is that each of us sets our own pay in this world, in this just world that rewards inputs with outputs. That is just the way it is. The equation is always mathematically sound and balances. So don't look at yourself as a victim or being held back by the big bad manager or being a speck being pushed around by the big bad world. You're responsible for your life.
Speaker 2:You have to be accountable for your life and every result in it. Put it this way, you're in the driver's seat of your experience of life and where you are. So if you don't like it, if you're depressed, great. If you're broke, good. If you don't have enough money or whatever, good.
Speaker 2:That is exactly the way this world's work. And through that pain, through that discomfort, through that desire, you'll find motivation or the energy to advance, to learn the skills that you need to. Okay. As we're seeking raises and promotions, if you can directly link your contributions to increase profitability or decrease costs, the easier it is for you to be compensated for your efforts. You know?
Speaker 2:So make it outrageously easy for those in a position to make those system changes, that is those pay changes to say, ah, you added a hundred thousand dollars here. Okay. Let's give you ten or twenty thousand dollars of that. Oh, you've decreased the expenses here by a hundred thousand dollars. Okay.
Speaker 2:Let's give you 10 or $20,000 of that. Most people will actually be quite generous in rewarding things, but if it's not clear of how you're producing value, how you're creating this, if you can't trace it back to it, it makes it more difficult. With organizations, we also suggest that you keep base salaries and hourly amounts low. That is, we always call them measly wages or measly salaries. And we place large emphasis on performance or results.
Speaker 2:So thus, again, keep your base salary and hourly amounts low and put the bulk of a person's pay coming from performance and results. This is healthy. This is the way the natural world works like I'm sitting in right now. If mama bird doesn't go out and get the worm, baby birds don't get fed. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 2:And this has worked so well. I take a look at Apple, National Healthcare, Fastenal, Procter and Gamble's, PAL Sudden Service, MBI, of course, all these world class organizations realize that strength comes from struggle. Just like a muscle being exercised, and if you don't use it, it atrophies. If you do use it, it gets stronger. And pay systems that are based on merit build much more competent and capable human beings.
Speaker 2:And so the compensation system is thus an extension of your teaching systems because all compensation systems teach. Right? I mean you look at the paycheck and go, wow, that worked out. I think I'll do more of that. That didn't work out.
Speaker 2:I think I'll do less of that. And thus, there it is. Again, we live in a world or universe even of incentives and disincentives. And so for an organization, if we want to get results, provide the incentive. If we don't want something to happen, provide the disincentive.
Speaker 2:And it's almost as easy as that. Compensation is such a huge aspect of multi view because it's such a spiritual topic and is not limited to the financial domain, even though that's what we're talking about here. All organizations have to consider this. But basically, we want people to bet on themselves and bet on the organization. That's the whole purpose of emphasizing performance results based compensation rather than this diaper of a high salary.
Speaker 2:And people that say, well, I gotta have this much of a salary, or I gotta have this much of an hourly rate, really don't understand that. That they're being almost subsidized to a certain extent. And that it's not a healthy situation in the long term for the company nor their own personal growth. Next point. Organizations don't do annual raises, period.
Speaker 2:Yes. We have these, again, measly, meager salaries, hourly amounts, but yet people make tons of money, I mean, of thousands of dollars. And when you do this and you give people opportunities to really explore their potentials in all this, you find that you don't have to do annual raises anymore. Why? What's the point?
Speaker 2:I mean, what's another 5% increase gonna do when people are already doing so well? So you don't have to think about COLA. That is cost of living adjustments and all that. Next point. Just make it easy for a manager to promote you.
Speaker 2:And this is done, again, just simply by providing value or providing relief for the manager, where they can't imagine operating without you, that you've made yourself indispensable, not through withholding codes like some IT people do. Again, remember, I used to run a programming operation and all that and some smart guys would retain their codes because they can't fire me because I have all the codes. Well, we've got systems that break that. But just make it easy for the manager to see that you're adding value. And this is done almost immediately.
Speaker 2:It's done through personal initiative. It's by being just smart enough to see what needs to be done and doing it without anybody asking. It's like at Arista, although you're hemorrhaging clients, this is a compensation company, right and left, and I single handedly stopped it just by calling up our clients and asking them what their frustrations were, they perceived that there's something that could actually help them, and boom, turned around. Nobody asked me to do that. So it's having some level of confidence in yourself, belief, and being able to have the intelligence to work out what people's problems are.
Speaker 2:And the thing is any smart person with a little bit of pluck, as they say in England, can see what stresses out the leader. What are they sweating it out on? What's consuming their weekends, their time? Okay. There is your clues of where you can make your contributions felt, and this idea of it being felt is very powerful.
Speaker 2:Not all people in an organization are paid the same. The people that contribute more get paid more, and that's the way it is, this idea of this meritocracy, even though some people try to demonize it. No. There's no two human beings with the same intelligence. There's no two human beings with the same capabilities or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Why should they be paid the same? That doesn't go anywhere near what reality is or the way the world operates. Next point, the client or customer will write every paycheck you will ever receive, and they will discharge you if you displeased them. Get this. So the boss, really, of all organizations is not the CEO.
Speaker 2:It's not the board of directors. It's not anyone in the typical hierarchy. Rather, the top of the org chart, the real boss is who? The consumer. Right?
Speaker 2:In healthcare, it's patients and families, it's those that you make sales to, it's all this. And just realizing that that's the whole goal of organization, helps you focus on the right things to create this value. Okay. If you're going to ask for a raise or for a promotion, best you schedule something with your leader or pick a very opportune time, but come in with a plan. So many people come in with this needy mindset and, oh, I need more money, and and you can approach that all kinds of different ways.
Speaker 2:But if you come in having put some intelligence, some thought into something and saying, here's what I could do here. This is what I perceive the issue is, and this is how the system would work. Well, that saves the manager a great deal of time because if you just come in and demand more money, well, suddenly, you put all this burden on them, and it takes a lot of energy to work out comp systems. Why? You're dealing with a very emotional thing.
Speaker 2:There's all kinds of implications. There's precedent that is established. All kinds of things. So come in with a proposal. And normally people will listen with that.
Speaker 2:Now with this said, I'll say this, come in even with some risk reversal. So rather than demanding immediate money or raise or increase or whatever, saying, hey. You don't even have to pay me now. Let's start out with proof of concept that we implement what I put in my proposal with your modifications, of course, leader, and let's see how it goes and then pay me. Well, that increases your likelihood of acceptance exponentially.
Speaker 2:It's called risk reversal, and it works in so many different situations. I think we also have to dispel the notion that you have these greedy employers or owners or whatever that just want to take all the chips and put them in their little bag. That's not usually the way it works. The good leader, the good CEO, the good business owner, they want to put as much money as they can into the pockets of their true partners, their true employees, people they work with, their associates. And that's the good leader.
Speaker 2:Like, I've got it set up where most MultiView people will end up being millionaires. Some already have done so so well. But those that really aren't kicking in, that aren't putting in the time, adding the value, whatever, no. No way would I do that. I would not disrespect the hardworking by giving unearned money to these people.
Speaker 2:You actually damage people by overpaying people because they feel entitled to it after a while and whatever. And and and plus, in their own psyche, they realize that they really weren't behind the victories and the increase of value that they can point to other people in the organization that really put out, that put in the weekends, that traveled to clients that spent, you know, their lives on the road or whatever building a company. So you actually damage people by overpaying people. Okay. To merit an increase or promotion, there's one thing that you can do that will help you out incredibly, and that's to learn to sell, to learn to sell.
Speaker 2:All of life is transactional, right? And the ability to communicate value, or predictability, is a great thing. So all I know is that I always am looking for the great salesperson because top salespeople just can't be denied. If they're bringing in the money, you you can't live without these people. Right?
Speaker 2:And it's why salespeople or top salespeople are the highest paid people in the world, sometimes even more than the CEO. I don't mind at all if my salespeople make more than me. Big deal because the whole business, the whole ministry of MBI is going forward. But normally, top salesman need not just the squishy relationship talents, which are incredible because we're all of our destinies are tied to our relationship powers. And, of course, you wanna hitch your wagon to a winner, but top salespeople have deep, deep industry product and service knowledge.
Speaker 2:I'm a great salesperson. Why? Because I know our materials up and down. And any question from a client, whether it be in music, whether it be in our health care consulting or our general organizational consulting, well, I can answer that question right there. I don't have to say, well, let me get a hold of Billy Bob over here because he knows that.
Speaker 2:Although you should do that because you never want to claim that you know something when you don't. You never want to BS a client. Because if you wanna lose trust from someone, you start to exaggerate. In my estimation, all exaggeration is a form of a lie. So in the MBI world, we we don't lie.
Speaker 2:We don't exaggerate. The truth is the truth. We say what we mean. We mean what we say. But this deep product and service knowledge helps us out.
Speaker 2:And and in my view, there's no way or path to being a great salesperson unless you really know it, and you know it almost better than anyone else, that you can explain how your customer service works and your system seven or your proprietary training system for customer delight. The things that MBI does, we've mastered. Mastered. Again, it's the reason we can go four and a half years without a single phone call not being answered a particular way within three rings by a competent person. Few organizations can even get their minds around that because they think that service failures and complaints happen every day.
Speaker 2:Well, we go months and months and months without a single violation of that. And if a service failure complaint is not communicated to me, the head, you're fired. It's it merits termination or it's a terminal event. Because if I don't know what the issues are with the organization as the leader in a position to make the structural and system solution changes, that blinds me. And the enterprise cannot improve without those structural changes, so they cannot be hidden.
Speaker 2:Okay. Equity. Equity is one of your paths to your greatest wealth. Some of my biggest moves, you know, where you end up with the the huge checks, the multimillion dollar deals and all that, are gonna come from equity stakes. So let's talk about that since we're talking about raises and promotions.
Speaker 2:Let's go ahead and go all the way. Most owners are a bit scarred as they usually know in their bones the extreme personal sacrifice that it took to build the business. The all nighters, the working almost every weekend, the hundred hour work weeks, the sleeping on cots like we used to do in cost report season. Yeah, we know that, and so that equity is pretty hard to let go of unless someone is a real trooper providing this value, good with clients, all that. So getting an equity stake is something that you should strive for, and most organizations will give this if you are valuable enough.
Speaker 2:And there's always, in all organizations, there's ups and downs. It's not always up. But an equity partner has to pay the price for this status. Okay, it just shouldn't be given to somebody. Because, again, most people have not even paid a fraction of the price to merit an equity stake.
Speaker 2:You know, when you've had to lend your own money back to the business, especially when you can't make payroll during tough times? How many of your kids' games or events have you missed because you're on the road making payroll for other people? How many of these people that want equity stakes has suffered breakdowns, physical hardships because of the demands of the job or the vision? So to be an owner stake is a big deal to have equity. Ownership equals accountability, as owners have to own every result without blaming others or making excuses for the lack of performance if it's not achieved, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. The equity person has to be of such a value that the organization almost can't function without you. And of course, if a person is going to get an equity stake or an ownership stake, one must think like an owner. That is, be able to see the big picture, not just the myopic view about your little position, your little department, your little area, your little service line. But really take the entire organization and look from this mature view.
Speaker 2:All owners know that growth is necessary, that you can't stay on the same level forever, that we have to adapt, that this world that we live in is very competitive and is changing all the time. And so we need growth, we need money to fund new initiatives. We need money in the bank so we can retool if a competitor outmodels us or if a disaster happens or whatever. But a healthy company is always looking for growth. And whether it's, you know, gross revenue, increases in EBITDA, net revenue, number of clients, and in all these situations, some type of dollar value can be attributed in the value calculation.
Speaker 2:And the last point here is that owners or people with equity stakes must be leaders. Yes, there's this leadership responsibility aspect if you are an owner or shareholder, and that you need to live the culture, you need to be inspirational, we need to be able to get people moving towards the common cause in the common direction. So yes, the job of motivation, of inspiration, of really the ultimate leadership quality, which is what? Success. However it's defined.
Speaker 2:Because that is the job of leadership, success, the accomplishment of the mission or vision. So there we go, there's some practical advice on how to get a raise, get promoted, and even get equity stakes in an organization.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you need anything further, just go to MBI.life.