“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

Raise time is a conundrum for managers, eagerly anticipated and anxiously dreaded. As both givers and receivers, managers are at once the brokers and the broken. That’s because, except at the senior-most levels, what applies to their employees, generally applies to them as well. Stature changes scale, not principle.

By intent or by accident of position, raises are a way of exerting power over staff and yet, for many supervisors tied up in a complex merit raise process, it is a disempowering and frustrating exercise, fraught with the potential to enhance the discontent and cynicism of that very same staff. Raises are necessary evils, barely satisfying long-standing wants with, at best, short term returns. At the end of the day, the positives are fleeting while the negatives linger in the fridge like a left-over tuna salad sandwich.

I have been asked by a number of readers to discuss raises… more precisely, how to ask for them.

There is a difference between unionized and non-unionized staff raises, the former governed by negotiated collective agreement, the latter essentially by management fiat. I will focus on the second.

Asking for a raise is a little art and a little science. But with timing so much a factor (as we will see), it is also a lot of luck. It shouldn’t be, but it is.

So, here below, are four things to take into account when asking for a raise.

1. Consider the Context.

Put your desire (need?) for a raise in context. It may be the best of times to ask for a raise, but it may also be the worst of times. Every company goes through stuff and even those that try to benchmark the industry and that try to maintain a proven, disciplined, meritocratic process regardless of economic volatility and market vagary will take a step back when things get tough. Despite policy, companies are at different places at different times and, as your mother probably told you, there is a right time and a right place for everything. In your specific company, division or even department, the timing may simply not be right for a raise.

Yes, you say, but yours is a special case. You have taken on additional responsibilities or have achieved something truly special over the course of the past year. There is an old English proverb that goes: Circumstances alter cases. So, indeed, yours may be a special case, but, if the company is having financial issues, if there are confounding circumstances, you may have to rethink your timing or, at least, your approach.

Under stress, companies don’t always behave in a consistent or fair manner. Asking for a raise creates stress. Your boss may be under pressure. Perhaps, an important deadline has been missed, a performance target missed by a mile. Your messenger is no longer in a position to be helpful.

That does not mean you shouldn’t bring up the issue at all. As negotiation guru Chester Karras has wisely declared, you do not get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. Most likely, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. So if you realize the timing is bad but feel you are truly deserving of additional recognition and remuneration, discuss it with your supervisor, tell him or her that you understand the situation and do not wish to add pressure to the system but, all that said, you would like this to at least be acknowledged in your appraisal and at least mentioned to senior management. It might just get you to the next level. At the very least, it will be appreciated and be added to the bank of good will from which a raise could be drawn when the timing is more propitious.

Bottom line: Look around. Listen hard. Be wise.

2. Be honest with yourself. Do you really deserve special consideration?

Did you have an extraordinary year or did you ‘merely’ do excellent work or extra work. Because, frankly, excellence and hard work are not causes for reward. They are, in tough times especially, the minimum acceptable standards for performance.

Most companies of size have a raise policy and raise period, likely in the first quarter. Pretty much the only way to get a raise outside this period is to get a promotion or, at least, a notable increase in responsibilities. In cases where an employee had a significant achievement, the likely reward is not a raise but a bonus.

You’ve got to stand out. You have to take leadership on high visibility projects and then execute perfectly. You have to turn around disasters that have been hanging like albatrosses around the corporate neck. Perhaps you have revitalized a fading brand. Or saved a plant slated for closure because of poor productivity. Perhaps you have come up with a groundbreaking technology that opens up a new and highly lucrative market or dramatically reduces costs. If you show you can spin straw into gold, you have a claim on some of that gold.

Conversely, if your request comes as a surprise, don’t be surprised if it is rejected.

3. Be prepared.

So you have your supervisor’s attention. Set up a formal meeting expressly for the purpose. Nothing dampens the mood like an unwelcome surprise. As with any meeting, you must go in prepared. Remember, this is your meeting so you must take control.

By now you should have looked through all the salary calculators and know what is appropriate for your position, in your industry, in your area. These calculators always have a range. Find your place in the range based on your level, experience, and scope of responsibilities. Fudge for qualifications and skill set. By defining a range, you are not only helping yourself, you are giving your manager a negotiation strategy and wiggle room. Present your accomplishments – the ones that are the foundation of your request and put a present and future value on these accomplishments. How much money have you saved or earned or will be saved or earned for the company now and down the road? By giving him a range and the ammunition to use, you have done half his work for him. He can calculate in his mind the ceiling suitable for the circumstances and he knows the minimum you will find acceptable. That minimum number should be one at which you will come away satisfied.

Some companies cap promotion raises at 5%. Some companies will try to limit the ‘damage’ by splitting the raise over two years. Know your company and, again, know the context in which your raise will find itself.

Do not threaten. Under any circumstances. If an employee lays down an ultimatum and threatens to leave should the ultimatum not be met, a good company man will say, “Good bye. Send a postcard.” A poor manager will succumb, look bad to his boss and resent you for it. Rightly so.

4. Have a sponsor. Have two.

You’ve heard the expression: It’s not what you know; it’s who you know. Well, I would amend that to: It’s not who you know; it’s who knows you. It is good if your supervisor is supportive, better if he is mentoring you, better still if he is managing your career. But it help immeasurably if your supervisor’s boss knows and likes you, wonderful if the CEO knows who you are and has heard good things.

Outstanding performance gets noticed. Heading up a project of import can put a spotlight on your work, especially if the outline, progress and/or conclusion of said project are formally presented to senior management. Three times blessed. It is an opportunity not to be missed.

It also does not hurt to be friendly to senior people in the Human Resources department. Yeah, I know. But some of them are actually human. HR specialists can be pretty good at structuring a deal that works for the company and employee. They would know precisely what can and can’t be done, given the financial climate and salary structures under which they have to operate. They know how to work the system because they are the system.

Conclusion

There is no bulletproof way to ask for a raise. But, if it is truly merited and it otherwise doesn’t seem forthcoming, ask you must. Put the odds in your favor. Get your timing right, get your support in place, be prepared and make your case calmly and forthrightly. It may just be the smartest thing you did all year.

Good luck.

A few weeks ago, in a Marketplace Mores column, Matthew Lynn of Bloomberg News published a piece that declared, “If you want to be wealthy, it helps to be rude to people”.

He cited research conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, on students from various socio-economic backgrounds. The wealthier students tended to be more disinterested in others and less likely to engage in conversation than their less-privileged brethren. The psychologists concluded that what they were seeing was a reflection of basic animal behaviour: the higher animals are in the food chain, the stronger and fitter they are, the less they need others. “It is the experience of wealth that leads individuals to become disengaged”, observed Professor Dacher Keltner.

With this as the backdrop, Lynn then talks about CEOs, who he has found to be, often enough, an unpleasant bunch. “They bully, cajole, threaten and fume. There are very few examples of (CEOs) flattering or charming their way to the top. The accumulation of wealth requires an ability to crush rivals, stamp on employees, and sweep aside all opposition. Charm doesn’t come into it.”

I disagree. It is true that some chief executives can be… how should I put it?… determined. It is also true that some can be downright aggressive when push comes to shove. But I would argue that the ability to lay on the charm when and as required is a fundamental skill that most decent CEOs have mastered.

Engaging with others, generous listening, sending “I’m interested” signals… all enable successful leaders to enroll employees in corporate programs, secure the loyalty of customers in negotiations, create alliances, finesse bank loans, enthuse analysts, etc.

Most customers and suppliers will push back when they feel they are being bullied. Rudeness would be rebuffed vigorously. Balance of power is often established behind the scenes, while the more visible road to good intentions is being paved thickly with charm. Sometimes it works the other way around. One player is allowed to make public points if he is willing to make private concessions. There’s winning and there’s winning.

Employees are more easily cowed by authority; the fundamentals of hierarchal behaviour are well ingrained in most of us. But the true enrollment of employees, instilling real excitement, involvement and commitment, is not possible without first creating a belief in the sincerity and caring of the CEO. A ‘charming’ CEO will always get the benefit of the doubt. At least the first time.

CEOs tend to talk to other CEOs. Alliances, in theory a coming together of equals, can not be consummated if one potential partner aggressively pushes a win-lose scenario on another equally ‘determined’ chief executive. I have seen many an alliance and numerous potential acquisitions founder, not on the basis of due diligence but because of ego-driven obstinacy and the inability to finesse, i.e., charm, one’s way past clearly surmountable stumbling blocks.

By the way, if you are going to be rude, you had better be the CEO. It is a trait less tolerated by superiors, peers and staff as you work your way down the org chart. And it is one I’ve seen used as an excuse when staffing sacrifices have to be made.

In most cases, charm is a first resort, bullying the last. Power, wrapped in a smile, is almost impossible to resist. It is the ultimate expression of walking softly but carrying a big stick.

I always liked factor analysis as a strategic tool. To begin with, statistics were never a strength of mine. Factor analysis is different; there is nothing arcane about it. It is simply a method of observing linear combinations of attributes or factors. They may or may not be accurate measures of interdependencies. Multiple attributes can be highly correlated with no apparent reason. And if important attributes are missed, the value of the analysis is reduced accordingly. That said, marketers often use them successfully to construct perceptual maps and other product positioning devices. At the very least, it is a neat, almost elegant, way of capturing and presenting information.

Factor analysis was a tool used cleverly by Steven Levitt, the University of Chicago economist who, with N.Y. Times journalist Stephen Dubner, co-authored Freakonomics in 2005. The subtitle of Freakonomics is apt: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Cause and effect were turned upside down as they searched for interdependencies and correlations that to others seemed, at best, coincidental. They were able to debunk commonly held theories on many topical issues…as, for example, why the crime rates in New York City fell precipitously under the watchful eye of Rudy Giuliani.

Without being referred to specifically, factor analysis was also used by Malcolm Gladwell in his very clever new best-seller, Outliers: The Story of Success. It takes a leap of faith the size of the Grand Canyon to suggest that Bill Gates’ ultimate success was the result of accumulative advantage starting as an eighth grader when he had unlimited access to a computer, access denied even to university students. Ditto for hockey players who took advantage of the age cut in minor hockey to jump ahead of the pack.

Cultural legacy provides the basis for an even more startling leap from rice paddies to Chinese aptitude for math and deference to Korean Air pilots being the unwitting triggers to a succession of horrific crashes.

Gladwell is near-Holmsian in his ability to apply observation, deductive reasoning and inference to reach his conclusions. But he has the numbers to back up the anecdotal, if anomalous, evidence.

This is a fun book. It is, like Gladwell’s other books, breezy and easy to read. And while some of his theories might be a stretch, they aren’t as silly as, say, the Paul Revere stuff in The Tipping Point. It is replete with interesting concepts and enough terminology – divergence testing, orthogonal intelligence, concerted cultivation and mitigated speech – to wow even the stuffiest psychologist.

Like Levitt, Gladwell makes you think. Unlike Levitt, he offers up the basis, if not the blueprint, for making the most of your potential.

It’s all in the numbers. And, as you know, numbers don’t lie.