You deserve to be properly compensated for your work but knowing that doesn’t always make it easier to ask for it. If you want a raise or better benefits, it is probably easy to build your argument. You have to come up with the reasoning behind why you deserve it, determine how much you are asking for, and choose the best time to approach your boss. However, no matter how easy that step is, it doesn’t matter when you don’t feel confident enough to ask.
If you are struggling with gaining confidence to ask for a raise from your boss, here are some helpful tips to build it.
Focus on Your Strengths
More often than not, we focus on all of the things that we do poorly whether it is at work or in other areas of our lives. However, having this kind of thinking can actually negatively impact our performance, and it is certainly not going to help you build your confidence. You want to be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses so that you can focus some of your time and energy on improving where you could use it.
Focusing on what you can improve is great, but when you want to build your confidence, you also need to focus on what your strengths are. If you don’t believe in yourself and your abilities, it is going to be even harder for other people too. Try making a list of all of the things that you have accomplished or done well in the workplace. Don’t be afraid to add things that feel minuscule, the more you add the more clear it will become that you are a valuable asset.
Find a Mentor for Confidence
We often learn best from others, as well as by seeing how something works with our own eyes. Gaining confidence is not much different from anything else you are trying to learn, and what better individual to emulate than someone who you work with? Find someone in your office who you consider to be confident and successful and ask them if they would be willing to mentor you.
Observing how this person communicates with others, their body language, and more will help you learn how to express yourself in the same way. A lot of people’s confidence comes from small details in their behavior whether it be how they stand when they meet someone new or the language they use in different situations. You can adopt these habits or tailor them to your own personality to improve your confidence.
Practice!
The most important thing you can do to build your confidence before inquiring about a raise or promotion is to practice being confident. This can mean a few things but most importantly, you should practice what you are going to say and how you will say it before heading to your boss’s office. This can be done alone and, in a mirror, or with a close friend. If you have a good relationship with one of your coworkers, ask them if they will help you. A coworker is going to know your boss better than a friend outside of work, so they will be able to offer helpful insight.
You can also practice your confidence outside of the workplace so that when the big day comes it will be more natural. Try to introduce the same confidence-building techniques you use at work into other parts of your life, whether it be with friends or strangers. The more accustomed to believing in yourself you become, the more easily confidence will exude from you in the workplace. If you’re in need of an attorney, call a worker’s compensation lawyer
