How the Sedona Method Helps You in Challenging Financial Times
How to Get Over the Fear of Asking for a Raise (Even In A Down Economy)
by www.Sedona.com
You may be thinking that now is not the best time to ask for a raise. The economy is bad and so perhaps is your company’s economy. Will your request for more money reflect poorly on your judgment? Will your boss get mad that you want to be paid more while the economy is clearly slumping?
So pressing are these fears that a survey by Ceridian, a human resources company, found that one in six workers say they’d never ask for a raise.
“There are two main factors that prevent us from asking for a raise,” says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates. “Fear of being fired or simply rejected by management and lack of a feel of self-worth or self-esteem.”
There are practical considerations as well. Experts generally recommend NOT asking for a raise:
- If your company is having layoffs
- First thing Monday morning or late Friday afternoon
- If your company has strict raise policies (for instance, it only grants raises once a year, and you had a raise six months ago)
- If you truly feel you don’t deserve it
Often, however, the only thing keeping you from getting the raise is you … or more specifically your emotions.
How to Gain the Confidence to Ask for a Raise
It is always beneficial to go into negotiations well prepared. Making a list of your recent accomplishments and having available salary comparisons for your area of work is a must.
But before you even get to that point, you must prepare yourself emotionally and this means letting go of your fears.
“The best things to do before you ask for a raise are to let go of your fear and self-doubt and also do the Cleanup Procedure on the person from whom you will be requesting a raise,” Dwoskin says. “The more released you are the better you will present and the more likely you are to get a positive response.”
What is the Cleanup Procedure? Well, it was originally created solely for The Sedona Method instructors because it is so important for them to be able to relate to and support their students, 100 percent of the time.
You can use the Cleanup Procedure to help you relate to anyone with more openness (even with yourself). It has an almost magical ability to help you shed any unresolved feelings you’re holding onto from a past interaction with the person.
So if you’re asking your boss for a raise, and just last week you had a confrontational business meeting with this person, it’s essential to “cleanup” before making your request. Cleaning up involves three groups of questions, each one focusing on a want (control, approval, and security), and the entire process is outlined in The Sedona Method.
When you have gone through the process, you will be able to fully accept the person as they are, and this puts YOU in control when asking for a raise.
The final step to releasing your fears and gaining the confidence you need to get your raise is letting go of your desire for the raise in the first place.
“Remember as you release that you can have a clear goal of what you want and then release to the point where you are OK whether or not you achieve your goal,” Dwoskin says. “Love is your basic nature and will attract its reflection if you simply get yourself out of the way.”
In other words, fully accept the person from whom you’re asking for the raise (as opposed to resisting them), and realize that you’ll be just fine whether you get the raise or not.
These are the emotional steps that will make asking for a raise as simple as can be.
“For a long time, I felt like I was worth a lot more than what I was being paid for my work. But when I actually applied The Sedona Method release techniques on it -- and my worthiness -- I got a raise of $6,000.00 a year. Hooray!” said one Sedona Method graduate.
How much will your raise be? Start releasing today and find out!
Source
Management-Issues.com July 14, 2008
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