Lucy Ford

November 2012 - TD Magazine

Highlights of how a Fortune 50 training executive partnered with research experts to validate a leadership model for middle managers that is the foundation of the ASTD book, The Self-Aware Leader.

Validating a Leadership Model Pinpointed Self-Awareness as Key to Success

When it comes to negotiating salaries, I often hear:“I was always taught that if you ask for more money during the interview, you won’t get the job.”“I blurted out an amount, and now I regret it. What if I don’t get the job?”“You can negotiate? I had no idea. I thought you always had to take the initial offer and that was it.”Sound familiar?Myth-BustingWhen you ask for more money during negotiations, what’s the worst-case scenario? You won’t get the job? Think again.According to Fidelity, 85 percent of Americans who countered on salary, benefits, other compensation, or all three got at least some of what they asked for.Approached properly, nearly any offer can be improved. Think total compensation, not only the monetary salary.MoneyTalking about money often makes people uncomfortable. But if you don’t talk about money during the interview process, it can cost you.A Glassdoor study found the average American could be earning $7,500 more per year than their current annual base salary. Ouch!Raises are based on current salaries. So, a lower initial salary has a compounding effect. Some studies estimate that failing to negotiate can cost you up to $600,000 or more over the course of your career. According to Linda Babcock of Carnegie Melon University, this cost can be as high as $1 million to $1.5 million over the course of a career.Why Negotiating Your Initial Offer MattersConsider this salary comparison:Initial offer: Janice takes the initial offer of $73,000. She gets a cost-of-living raise of 3 percent, so her salary becomes $75,190.Negotiated offer: Lori negotiates and starts at $80,000. Add the 3 percent cost-of-living raise, and her salary becomes $82,400.Impact: A difference of $7,210. And that’s just the first year.The increased salary also affects 401K contributions, bonuses, and more, because they’re often based on a percentage of one’s base salary.Show Me the MoneyWhile pay transparency has increased in recent years, with 60 percent of employers stating a desire to provide more transparency, not all employers take the same approach. One in nine workplaces admits resisting pay transparency altogether.If a salary or salary range is not provided in the job post, during the salary negotiation phase of your interview, your goal is to have the interviewer name a salary first. This gives you a starting point for negotiating.NegotiateTo position yourself effectively when negotiating your salary, use this framework:KnowShowOWNKnow: Know your value in the marketplace. Salaries can vary based on years of experience, level of expertise, role, industry, and geographic region. Several online tools can help you benchmark your market value, including salary.com, payscale.com, or your professional association’s latest salary survey.You can also explore sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and Vault to get information. Better yet, talk to people you know in similar roles. Bonus: Talk with someone who’s recently left the organization where you’re interviewing and get the inside scoop on the salary range.This information gives you leverage.Know what you want beyond salary. You’re negotiating the whole compensation package. Does the company offer bonuses, stock options, hybrid or remote work, continuing education, paid time off (PTO), or paid sabbatical? Other perks may be available as well.When I coach people on salary negotiation, we dive deep and tailor the coaching, research, and strategy for their targeted role. Next, we role-play it. I play the role of hiring manager and ask tough questions.Does this work? Yes! My client Tracie said, “I was offered a position at a company I specifically targeted at 23 percent over my current wage.”Show: Show proof of performance through your documented achievements, special projects, and most importantly, your quantified results.Showing how you made money, saved money, or improved productivity in some way demonstrates to an employer not only that can you do the job but also that they’ll net an exponential return on their investment in your salary.A potential employer wants to know what’s in it for them (WIFT). Let this be your focus during an interview. It shows the contribution you can make to their success.Position your achievements in ways that are relevant to the organization and tie your work to the company’s goals. You’ll be able to do this more effectively by researching the organization ahead of your interview. This strategy also helps the interviewer (or your next boss) picture you in the role. For more power during your negotiation efforts, bring a plan demonstrating how you’ll hit your goals.People I’ve coached net results; this year one of my clients netted a $15,000 bump in base salary offer, a $10,000 sign-on bonus, more PTO, and a performance-based raise when she hits the goals she outlined during the interview.Own: You did the work. Own it! Communicate your results powerfully, positively, clearly, and confidently during the interview process.The work you do documenting your achievements—focusing on quantifiable results—will help you build your confidence, as will rehearsing your approach ahead of the interview.Congratulations! Now you’re ready to rock your salary negotiations!When you land your great offer…Get the Offer in WritingHandshake deals and verbal offers won’t do. Always get your offer in writing, including the extra perks you negotiated.Good luck! For more job search help, access my free job search action plan here.

How to Negotiate Your Salary During a Job Interview and Why It Matters

I want to talk to you about mobile learning experiences, but I have to talk to you about this really cool game first. No, come back! It’ll only take a minute. Two minutes, tops.Meet IngressIf you know me, I’ve probably bored you to tears about how much I love Ingress. But if I haven’t bored you yet, how lucky for both of us!Ingress is an Android device-based augmented reality massively multiplayer mobile game that is, essentially, a worldwide game of capture the flag. Players are aligned to one of two opposing factions who are seeking to control a mysterious force for the good of humanity—that good is interpreted differently by the opposing factions, naturally. Ingress is heavily location-dependent: players must use their Android devices in close physical proximity to “portals,” which are actual places such as landmarks, art installations, notable architecture, and so on,  in order to influence the game.(Cnet and Wikipedia offer slightly longer explanations of Ingress, if you’re interested. Or, you can just hangout with me. I will talk your face off about the game lore alone, I assure you.)While the game is addictive in ways that ever-present games can be (I’m talking about you, Koreen), Ingress adds a novel step by actually making players physically visit places to make things happen. When you play Ingress for more than a few days, you start to realize that everything about the game is geared to get you out of the house, into the streets, the forests, and local parks of your immediate area. People change their lunchtime and weekend routines in order to walk or drive several blocks (or miles) out of their way to interact with portals. Most importantly, they will often meet (in person!) people who they’d never have known and see things in their own town that they’d never have seen.The head of Niantic Labs has stated that the goal of his startup is to “develop products that facilitate interaction with the real world, both today and when computers become so integrated with our lives that they fade into the background.” This is increasingly evident as Niantic continues to fine-tune gameplay aspects to encourage and reward real-world, real-time collaboration and strategy. You’ve got to cooperate to succeed.Mobile or just pocketable?This brings me to my original topic: mobile learning experiences. As our mobile evangelists have been saying for some time, mobile learning is not simply e-learning on a small screen. While I believe that in the last year or so many of us have started to really understand this idea, I think there’s still a tendency to think more in terms of things like responsive design than mobile affordances when talking mobile.Are we trying to get current experiences to fit in our pockets, or are we trying to free ourselves to design something that meets our actual goals? I think that design of mobile learning experiences can in many cases take greater advantage of the ability of the learner to willfully change location (and context).A simple example of this is the “situated documentary” game Dow Day.Dow Day uses GPS to trigger experiences, including video, simulated conversations, superimposable images, and information, which augment reality in order to advance the learning activities. Items are collected along the way and can be used in game or traded with other players. Audio and video samples can be collected using the learner’s device microphone and camera. While it is possible to play aspects of the games using QR codes rather than GPS, the game is designed to get learners out into the real world environment where the events took place. (For a similar experience, see the NYC-based Jewish Time Jump, or somewhat less so in Albuquerque’s Mentira.)Of course, it doesn’t have to stop with location. Chad Udell recently mentioned that the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a temperature-sensing element. Think of the additional context-based performance support interventions that could be created with the addition of this one ability. Now think of the next layer of support when data accumulated over a period of time is aggregated and reported. (This is where xAPI comes in.)The main thing to remember is that the real innovation of mobile technology is not that we can transport our current performance support away from the desk, but that more of the world has fallen onto our palette. Let’s use it to create something meaningfully mobile.

Lucy Ford

About