Making the Most of Our Career

February 28, 2019 By Deanna 3 Comments

I don’t know about you but my career is thriving and I expect it to only go up from here. I take it very seriously and want to not only grow myself professionally but also the company. This article is for anyone else who also wants to grow their career and needs some direction on where to focus. After all, focusing on our careers can be one of the highest paying investments.

I want to speak in general terms since there will probably be people of all different career backgrounds reading this.

Career Hacking

Firstly, I’d like to give a shout out to ESI Money as he is the first person I heard talk about the concept of career hacking. I’m sure there were others but I wasn’t quite ready to hear it until I was.

There is no shortage of career hacking articles on his site.

One of my favorites by ESI is titled, How to Manage Your Career and Make Millions. ESI gives 7 very helpful tips. When you are done with my article, I highly recommend you head over there and check it out.

The general concept of career hacking is to know what is expected of you, exceed it, document it, and report it. As important as tracking is to our financial health, it’s equally important to our income growth. You may be killing it in your career, but if you aren’t tracking it, it might go unrewarded. I’ll get to some tracking tips but first, let’s explore ways you can grow in your career.

Improved Efficiencies

Anytime we can improve our process efficiencies, it frees up more time to work on other important projects in the company. Here are some suggestions to consider in light of becoming efficient.

Kaizen

noun

A Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency, etc.

Some companies actually hire a third party to come in and kaizen operating procedures. The idea if that an outsider can often see inefficiencies in a process better than the people on the inside.

Okay, so I know kaizen is a noun but I’m may use it as a verb so here is the Ms. Fiology definition:

Kaizen

verb

To improve something.

Even if your company does not do kaizens, you can. Perhaps ask a colleague, who does something totally different than you, to observe your processes. Additionally, you can write out all of your processes from start to finish and then review them with a colleague. You might even find that once you write things down, you’ll recognize your own inefficiencies. If you do either of these, be open to constructive criticism as the end result is to trim some fat.

Moreover, if you have a colleague kaizen your processes, you can offer to do the same for them. As you get in the habit of reviewing processes, you will get better at finding ways to streamline things.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when doing a kaizen:

Is each step necessary for the end goal?
Can multiple steps be combined?
Are there certain steps which can be delegated to someone else?
What technologies can be implemented to improve efficiencies?

I think you get the idea and remember, this is something worthy of doing often either at specific time periods (i.e. annually, quarterly) or when you recognize the need.

Get Outside of Your Comfort Zone

If you’ve been in your career for a while, you may be in a rhythm and have a system down. If you are comfortable, it’s a good time to ask your boss if there are new projects you can help him/her with. Identify a need in your company and offer to solve it.

Especially if you’ve done a kaizen, you now have freed up some time in your schedule.

Say yes to projects that you wouldn’t normally say yes to because a.) you’ll bring a fresh perspective to it and b.) you’ll stretch yourself to learn new things.

Additionally, talk to your boss about helping grow the company. Even if you are not in a sales position there are ways you can aid in the growth of the company. As the company grows, hopefully, your salary will as well.

As I learned from my boss there are two types of growth: top side and bottom side. I wrote about it in an article on ChooseFI, but I’ll review the concept here.

Essentially the top side growth includes all of the things you’d expect in sales (i.e. new clients, new accounts, etc). Bottom side growth is the behind the scenes type of stuff (i.e. efficiencies, administration, reducing overhead, etc.). If you’ve improved your efficiencies, you’ve helped in bottom side growth.

Goals

If your company has a global goal setting practice be sure to participate in it and/or even suggest one. However, if not, you can always set your own goals. I prefer quarterly goals because it is long enough to achieve something but not so long that you forget.

Choose goals with clearly defined action steps that are measurable and will be apparent when obtained. Also, give yourself grace. If you set a goal but are not able to achieve it, the review is what is important. Ask a colleague evaluate it with you and ask the following questions:

Why you weren’t able to obtain it?
1. Were you lacking resources?
2. Does it require more time?
3. Can someone help you?
4. Did other projects prevent you from achieving said goal?
  1. If yes, what is most important to focus on in light of your role?
  2. Can something be delegated?

Sometimes you’ll realize the goal is worth abandoning but just do it with careful review.

Tracking

Let’s talk about tracking your progress. In my career I mostly focus on the retention of client accounts; however, I do aid in the growth of new accounts. When we obtain a new account, the company receives a growth in commission. We track commissions globally and this past year, my team has decided to additionally track new commissions quarterly. If you don’t track you don’t know how much you’ve grown.

Here are some ideas of how to track your progress:

Make Sure Your Role is Clearly Defined

Firstly, if you don’t know your exact role and purpose at the company, make sure you meet with your supervisor and get this defined in writing. Once you understand your role, go back to writing out your daily processes. Make sure all of your processes support your role. Since we are career hacking and exceeding expectations, be sure to track ways in which you’ve excelled beyond what is expected of you. For example if you are to retain accounts, but you also aid in adding accounts, record that.

Improvements

Most likely you’ll want to keep your role, processes, and the tracking of efficiencies in one place. Whatever method that works for you is the one to choose. If you like tracking on an excel doc, do it. If you use a task managing system and can track that way, do it. Additionally, you’ll want to clearly define the time you’ve created in your efficiencies. For example, quoting accounts takes me x number of steps and y amount of time. However, after performing a kaizen on my process, I’ve been able to shave off 2 steps and 15 minutes of time.

Include measurable goals and track your progress towards those goals. It can be as simple as listing the stated goal, the date you start, and the date you’d like to achieve it. Then keep a log anytime you work on your goal. Furthermore, include a time stamp for when you achieve it.

As I mentioned above there is a time and a place to abandon goals. Be sure to include this analysis in your tracking.

Closing Thoughts

I think it’s easy to become complacent in our career and especially when we’ve been doing the same career for years.

If you are interested in growing your income and professional life, goals, efficiencies, growth, and tracking are an essential part of your career.

Ultimately, once you’ve gone through a cycle of tracking you’ll have tangible things to review with your boss. Perhaps your progress will justify asking for a raise in income.

Please share your thoughts and I’d certainly love to hear your feedback on implementing any of these practices.

Do Hard Things

November 29, 2018 By Deanna 7 Comments

I participated in a #thankfulnesschallenge this month and wrote a post about gratitude being a state of mind. Furthermore, I challenged you to track the following in regards to doing hard things:

How many times you wanted to give up
The number of times you actually gave up
The total number of difficult things you did

I participated too and will share what I learned about myself in this challenge. Moreover, I will share some changes I’m making in my processes at work as a result of my reflection on this challenge.

Do Hard Things

Firstly, I am certain I missed tracking results several days but I did track. I mostly did this in my place of work but the results did include a few personal moments, like working out when I didn’t feel like it. Anyway, here are my numbers for a 3-week challenge:

Total number of difficult things I did – 18
How many times I wanted to give up – 6
Number of times I gave up – 0

The important thing was to not actually give up. It’s okay to want to give up. Heck, it’s quite normal. However, it’s what we do with that desire to want to give up that creates character. I’ve discovered that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

I’ve also learned that it’s in the overcoming where I become the woman God wants me to be. Although, it often does suck in the process and for that, I cannot go it alone. My first line of defense is prayer. My second line of defense is my team and by team, I mean the people who have been strategically placed in my life.

The importance of having a team

Team is defined as:

noun

A group of players forming one side in a competitive game or sport.

verb

Come together as a team to achieve a common goal.

I have a team in the office. Additionally, I have a team of warriors in my recovery. Furthermore, I have a financial team. We all have teams and choose the players in our lives. Sometimes it’s done unconsiciously but I prefer to consciously pick my teammates.

My mind can be a battlefield and when I’m left to my own defenses, it’s not always pretty. If I find myself squireling down a hole of unproductive thoughts, I call in my team for reinforcement. They challenge me, they hear me out, and most importantly they talk to me about solutions.

Doing hard things at work

I discovered that the bulk of my challenges these days come at work. Perhaps that is because I spend a good chunk of my time every week at work. Also, it’s called work which implies that it can be hard. Since I’m a fan of doing hard things, I want to embrace this and get better.

Upon reflection over this past month, I’ve conferred with some of my work teammates on how to get better. As a result, I have five strategies I’m employing in my career to create efficiencies and protections.

1. Ask for help

I noticed that when I was faced with incredibly hard tasks at the office, I often talked to my colleagues on how to do it. I believe I’ve developed the ability to ask for help from years of being in recovery.

It’s a great habit to build as other people can often see the problem objectively and hence suggest a solution we might not see while in the midst of it.

Furthermore, if it’s a problem at the office it could affect the entire team, so they have some interest in helping me solve it. Typically, I just need to talk it out, hear others input, formulate a strategy, and then execute. Simple.

From my experience, it’s easy to get stuck in the problem. Asking for help from others is often the lubricant needed to keep things moving.

While I didn’t mention tracking this in the challenge, I noticed that almost every time I had to do hard things I asked for help.

I believe, although I don’t have statistics to support this, that others don’t always ask for help because they see it as a weakness. Sometimes I’m guilty of this and want to prove I can do things alone in my career.

However, almost every time I call on reinforcements for help, the problem is solved more efficiently. And let me clarify, I am not asking for others to do the work for me. Typically, I’m just looking for another set of eyes on it. Although, there certainly are times when another colleague may be better suited to help with the execution.

Bottom line, when things get overwhelming, ask for help.

2. Batch processing

Okay, email is a big problem. I mean BIG and I’m certain I’m not alone in this as we all get bombarded in our inboxes daily. A growing inbox can be quite derailing from the projects I need to complete.

One of my colleagues recently employed batch processing his emails. This is not a new concept. It basically means setting aside specific times each day to process a certain thing in a batch-like manner.

I asked him how it was going for him and he expressed that it improved his workflow. I have no shame so I decided to copy him. He already worked out the kinks and discovered three times a day to be the magic number.

I now have three chunks of time blocked off on my calendar each day for processing my emails. I’ve found it reduces a lot of frustrations and also allows me uninterrupted times of focus on my work.

The key to batch processing emails is to not look at them in between these times. We use Gmail at the office and there is a great extension called boomerang. Here are some of the features that I utilize with Boomerang:

Schedule emails to be sent later
Boomerang an email to return to my inbox at a later date
Send emails and boomerang them back if no one responds
Pause my emails

Overall this little extension helps me reduce my inbox clutter.

When I’m in between email batch processing times, I utilize the pause feature. If I’m expecting an urgent email, I can use delivery exceptions to allow for emails from specific senders.

Overall, I’m 100% in and will continue to embrace batch processing.

3. Task Management

We utilize a great collaborative work management tool in the office called, smartsheet. This also helps reduce inner office inbox clutter as we can communicate within certain projects on smartsheets.

However, I’ve found it to be too robust for my daily task list. I had reverted to using pen & paper to write my daily to-dos. It seemed silly and so I talked to a colleague about it. I use todoist for my personal tasks and he suggested I additionally start using it for my work tasks.

I love it! The different main project headings in my todoist app are:

Work
Blog
Investments
Personal

Under the work project, I’ve created a project called Quick Work Tasks. This is for the little one-off things that need to get done but are not necessarily a full project. My colleague suggested this and it’s genius! As I am batch processing emails or receiving calls, I can put little one-off into this list with a scheduled date and then move on.

If something hits my radar that is going to involve multiple steps, I create a sub-project under “work” in my todoist app and list the potential steps needed to complete this project.

Because the app allows me to create different color-coded projects, I find I can use it for work and personal without interference.

Furthermore, todoist allows you to schedule reoccuring tasks.

Now the first thing I do every day at the office is to review my todoist list.

4. The power of two

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

My boss has reminded me that we don’t need to go it alone. When there is a potentially hard meeting scheduled, we should go in twos. After all, Jesus sent out his apostles two by two. It creates a stronger front.

I manage client accounts and feel a strong sense of responsibility to do it well. I take complete ownership. Sometimes this means that I go it alone; however, my boss has encouraged me to call on reinforcements.

We’ve built a strong team and for the most part, we have the capability of doing meetings in twos. I needed to be reminded of this possibility which leads me back to point #1 – remember to ask for help.

5. Eat the Frog

Mark Twain said, “eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

A former colleague used to come into the office and say, “let’s eat the frog!”

It basically means doing the thing you don’t want to do first. It helps you take charge of your day and is a hedge against procrastination. Here is a great little article on identifying the frogs of your day as well as tips for actually doing it.

I had to wake up extra early one day this month for client open enrollment meetings. I discovered my day was extra efficient and as a result have started waking up earlier every day. This allows me more quiet time. Furthermore, I am identifying the frogs of my day and then eating them!

Closing Thoughts

No one likes to do hard things but it’s in the hard stuff where we develop grit.

For me, the key is having systems in place to fall back on when I’m feeling overwhelmed and want to give up. Additionally, it is a hedge against me reverting to old behavior like hiding.

Moreover, the systems allow me to get better in life and who doesn’t want to get better?

Alright, I’d love to now hear from you. If you participated in this challenge, how did it affect you? If not and want to, I recommend you do it for the next couple of weeks and come back and share your results. We are a team and together we can get better…

Negotiating for a Raise as a Woman

October 22, 2018 By Deanna 13 Comments

Firstly, I think the title of this article should just be negotiating for a raise. Period. However, apparently, it’s a bit different for women. So, ladies, this one is for you! Would like some tips on how to negotiate for a raise as a woman? Yep, me too. Let’s explore this together

Sage Advice on Asking for a Raise

I worked in restaurants basically from the time I was 16 until I was 36 years old. At some point, I worked myself up in the ranks of serving to be a server in a fine dining restaurant. Furthermore, I became the assistant manager and wine sommelier of that fine dining restaurant.

Servers at this fine dining restaurant were paid a high hourly rate rather than being tipped. Members were charged a service fee but servers didn’t receive a commission. Occasionally, we’d receive additional tips but that was the outlier rather than the norm.

Early on in my career at this restaurant, I asked for a raise. I did it all wrong. How did I know I did it incorrectly? My boss was kind enough to turn it into a teaching moment:

Me: I am having a difficult time making ends meet on my current wage. Can I have a raise?

My boss: Don’t come to me and ask for a raise because you need it. Come to me and ask for a raise because you deserve it.

It was brilliant and sage advice. I’ve never forgotten it. My boss, of course, had a longer discussion with me on this topic but it all stemmed from that one sentence. That is the sentence I remember most. He basically told me to work hard and set myself apart and then come to ask for a raise.

Applying the Sage Advice

I took my boss’ advice literally. I set myself apart and worked hard. Eventually, I asked him if there was more work I could take on to earn more hours and hence increase my pay. He offered me to come in and weed the beautiful garden in the summer months. I did it.

I also became the most conscientious and highly requested server. How? By treating the members with care and respect. Furthermore, I worked to make their fine dining experience phenomenal. We had an awesome chef so I knew that area was covered. All I had to do was be congenial, attentive to their requests, make recommendations based on my knowledge of our food and wine, and see their experience to completion.

Moreover, I tried to make my boss’ job easier by doing what he asked, showing up, and doing things he didn’t want to do. Eventually, I was promoted to assistant manager and finally the wine sommelier. And I received raises without asking for them.

The other nugget of wisdom this boss shared with me was in reference to comparison. I don’t remember how this conversation came up but I probably asked how much I was making in comparison to someone else.

My boss told me that what other people made was none of my business nor was it any of their business what I made. More sage advice.

“Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt

As a result, I’ve always tried to focus on my work, my performance, and my salary.

Transition to the Business World

The above experience I shared had nothing to do with being a woman. I suspect he’s given the same advice to the male servers.

As I’ve moved away from restaurant work and into teaching and eventually business, I now recognize that I never negotiated for a salary. Why? I suspect it had something to do with my insecurities and lack of self-worth.

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, anyone?

Even after getting sober and landing my current job as an account manager, I came at it from the scarcity mindset. I was still in a lot of debt and felt like I needed them more than they needed me. Fortunately, my new boss saw potential in me. Furthermore, he talked to my former boss who gave me a rave review. I was hired and I accepted the salary that was offered.

Through the early years of this career, I was simultaneously tackling my debt. I employed career hacking and drove up my salary. I tried to make my boss’ job easier by doing what he asked, being fully present and doing things he didn’t like to do.

You know what? I got raises and bonuses without asking for them. Every time I did, I’d tithe off the top and put the rest towards my debt.

Eventually, my debt was paid off.

Shift in Mindset

I’ve found a pot o’ gold with a new mindset

Something happened as I paid off my debt. Well, to be honest, a lot of things happened in my life as a result of getting out of debt. The biggest thing is that my mindset has shifted from scarcity to abundance. I’m above the line and think about money differently. I know my value and am learning to place a higher value on my time.

Furthermore, I view money differently in my life and the life of our company. I’m continually looking at things from the angle of:

Will this be good for the company?
Will this help us grow?
What is the most efficient use of my time here?

Within the last year, I was asked if I preferred receiving bonuses or raises. In the past, I would have chosen a bonus because I always needed money. Now, I think about the long-term result and recognized that a raise will compound annually. I chose to receive raises.

Women and Negotiations

Now let’s drive down to the granular level of what occurs when women negotiate for a raise. So far the career advice I’ve shared can be applied to anyone. Most of my raises were given to me without negotiations. I’ve had some amazing bosses.

However, there is a time and a place for negotiations. Perhaps I’ll need to negotiate in my future. Furthermore, the argument could be made that I’d be further ahead in my salary had I negotiated from the beginning. Maybe not.

It’s Risky

Women who negotiate face a risk that men don’t. To go further into this I refer to Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer at FaceBook. She has studied it, lives it, works it, wrote a book about it, and created a community around it. Lean In is the name of her outstanding book and community. It is a book that I believe all management thinkers should read.

Sheryl Sandberg talks about how women who negotiate risk their reputation. When a woman negotiates hard, she can come across as bossy and aggressive which in turn can have a negative effect on her career. However, men are often celebrated for the same negotiation tactics. A man can walk in and say I deserve a raise with little effect on his reputation.

According to Emily Amanatullah, a business school professor, research shows that managers want to work less with women who negotiate during an interview.

Ugh, so what do we do with that?

Sandberg talks about how we combat this bias by learning to negotiate communally. Sheryl is quoted as having said, “I want to be clear, I’m about to give advice that I don’t want to give because I don’t want these biases to exist. But the best way to get rid of these biases is to get women to negotiate well,”

If we can frame our requests around a greater good, we will have greater success.

Isn’t that basically what my boss at the fine dining restaurant told me? “Don’t come to me and ask for a raise because you need it. Come to me and ask for a raise because you deserve it.”

How can we be deserving of a raise? We deserve raises by being of value to the company we work for. How can we be of value to the company we work for? We provide value by being efficient and driving up revenues. Furthermore, we need to know what’s expected of us, beat, track it, and report it.

Go here for some action tips on negotiations.

Final thoughts on asking for a raise as a woman

Through the years I’ve learned a thing or two about being a valuable employee. To be honest I never really looked at from the standpoint of being a woman. I naively thought if I provide value, I’ll be rewarded for it. In reality, that has happened.

I think my naivety and work ethic has paid off. My boss recently told me my stock is high at the company. Furthermore, we are on the same page with my salary goals. I plan to work for it.

The big difference in my work today is that I recognize my skill set and know where I’m of the most value for the company. I delegate tasks that will distract me from how I best serve the company. Furthermore, I’m embracing technological changes which provide efficiencies.

Finally, I recognize my value. If I’m ever in a position where I need to negotiate for my salary, I will. Now that I’ve read Lean In and know the possible risks I face as a negotiating woman, I’ll do it thoughtfully, communally, and respectfully.

Hopefully, my work will make a small impression towards changing the bias women face.

Now it’s your turn. Women, I’d love to hear from you – the good, the bad and the ugly. What have you experienced in your careers and negotiations? Do you have the salary you know you are worth? If yes, how’d you get there? If not, what are you doing to get there?

Bonus or a raise – what would you choose?

October 15, 2018 By Deanna 21 Comments

My company gives quarterly reviews and sometimes it includes a bonus. Moreover, I receive raises. Within the last year, our director of operations asked me if I prefer receiving a bonus or a raise. Without giving it too much thought, I said I’d prefer a raise.

As a result, I no longer receive bonuses but now receive more raises.

After giving it more thought, I still choose raises overall, but let’s explore why.

Bonus or a Raise?

When I decided to delve a little deeper, I did what most wise personal finance bloggers do…I took a poll on Twitter:

As you can see more folks chose a raise over a bonus. Additionally, I received some good comments on people’s reasoning. Since I some of you may not be on Twitter, I thought you may appreciate reading the feedback.

If you decide to get on Twitter, you can follow little ole’ me here.

Without further ado, I present you the lovely feedback I received from the Twitter community (in no particular order):

Yep, my thoughts exactly.

Both would definitely be nice! Tim has an awesome blog and book titled, The Profit Dare.

Actually, I think I told the director of ops that exact thing. SavorLa gets the win for the best hashtag.

Yeah, I kind of agree, Sarah.

Jamila has an awesome podcast, Journey to Launch, which I highly recommend. Hmm, this answer might have been influenced by her recent announcement that she quit her job!

Smart answer. Okay, I did place this one after Journey to Launch’s comment so I guess there is some particular order. 😉 Jay writes over at 5 to 9 living.

Chef on FIRE writes over at, you guessed it, Chef on FIRE.

Michelle was the first one to bring up this excellent point about a higher salary giving you more negotiating power. Nice! BTW, Michelle is a debt-free lawyer and writes over at Struggling to be Debt Free.

My buddy, Military Dollar, was the first to comment with these wise words.

All excellent points, Mr. Teach, Money, Life.

Thanks, Side Hustle Girl!

The right answer is often situational as of Mice and Money‘s comment indicates.

This seems to be a theme as you’ll see when you read on. BTW, I love Kevin’s blog name, Life Reboot Project.

Touche, FIRE the 9 to 5, touche. This one made me think because I do agree with the saying, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but I mostly love my job so I’m still going with the raise.

Sure is, Financial Orchid!

Love the logic here. Dillon is a moderator at ChooseFI and Mustachians in Practice Facebook groups and is the author of funny comments.

Who likes debt with their cupcakes? Not these two RNs! They paid off their debt and are now pursuing financial independence and I suspect, like cupcakes.

Maybe.

Fair enough. Amanda Page is an awesome writer, FYI.

Yep worthy point. Allyson writes over at Auditing Myself. Love the name.

Aah, If only I could go back to that conversation I had with the director of ops and say, both. Al is the author at The Water Whole Online.

And last but not least…

Haha, this comment didn’t help me decide but it definitely made me laugh out loud. Nicely done, The 76K Project.

Final Thoughts

I trusted my gut reaction on this because I think about money a lot. Additionally, having some feedback from the personal finance community confirmed my reasoning.

Ultimately, it comes down to a person’s specific situation and career path. For me, I plan on staying at my job until I retire so the compound effect of raises makes mathematical sense.

A bonus makes sense for someone who is not going to be at their current job long. Additionally, if you are better at managing lump sums of money, take the bonus.

This is the first year, I’ve chosen to receive raises over bonuses. I will see how my final salary turns out for 2018 compared to previous years.

Now, it’s your turn. How would you react? What would you choose – a bonus or a raise?