How To Negotiate Compensation Like A Boss
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'Life Engineered,' Steve hosts Brian Liu, founder of Aurora, a company that empowers tech professionals to negotiate better salaries and career terms. Brian shares three key tips for effective salary negotiation: framing the negotiation as a win-win alliance, understanding and strengthening one's BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement), and debunking the myth that good work alone will be recognized. He emphasizes the importance of proactive communication and self-advocacy in achieving career success and offers a special discount for viewers interested in Aurora's services.
Takeaways
- 😀 The channel 'A Life Engineered' provides a structured engineering approach to life and career, with a focus on under-discussed topics like salary negotiation.
- 📧 Brian Liu, the guest, is the founder of Aurora, a company that helps technical talent negotiate their careers, charging a commission only on successfully negotiated increases.
- 🤝 The key to successful salary negotiation is creating win-win deals, viewing the negotiation as an alliance where both parties benefit.
- 💼 It's a misconception that asking for more money appears greedy; instead, focus on creating value for the company to justify the increase.
- 📝 Aurora's clients create a document during the offer stage outlining expectations and outcomes, which helps align with managers and set the stage for negotiation.
- 🚀 A real-life example shows how aligning on role expectations can lead to a higher job level and increased compensation without damaging relationships.
- 🤔 The BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) is crucial; understanding and strengthening your BATNA can lead to better negotiation outcomes.
- 🙅♂️ Rejecting an offer is not the end; it can lead to better opportunities and should be considered a valid part of the negotiation process.
- 📈 Over-communicating your work and achievements can make you more visible within a company and set you up for successful compensation negotiation.
- 🔄 Creating a feedback loop with your manager by asking for feedback, mapping it to skill development, and showing improvement can enhance your negotiation position.
- 📊 Maintaining a 'brag document' or 'brag book' to catalog your achievements helps in showcasing your impact and is beneficial for future negotiations.
Q & A
What is the main topic of discussion in the 'Life Engineered' channel video?
-The main topic discussed in the video is salary and compensation negotiation, specifically how to approach it in a way that is beneficial for both the employee and the employer.
Who is the special guest featured in the video?
-The special guest in the video is Brian Liu, the founder of Aurora, a company that helps technical talent negotiate their careers.
What is the unique aspect of Aurora's business model?
-Aurora's unique business model involves charging a commission only off the negotiated increase in salary (the 'Delta'), meaning they only take money if they successfully help their clients negotiate a higher salary.
What is the concept of an 'alliance' in the context of salary negotiation?
-An 'alliance' in salary negotiation refers to a mutually beneficial deal where both the employee and the manager negotiate terms that benefit both parties, creating a win-win situation.
How does Aurora help its clients create a win-win negotiation?
-Aurora helps its clients by creating a document at the offer stage that outlines expectations and outcomes for the role, aligning with the manager, and then using this document to advocate for the client's needs in a way that shows added value to the company.
What is the significance of the BATNA concept in salary negotiations?
-BATNA, which stands for 'Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement', is significant because it represents the negotiator's alternative options. A strong BATNA gives the negotiator leverage and confidence in the negotiation process.
Why is it a mistake to believe that the company is the only option during a job negotiation?
-It's a mistake because it leads to a scarcity mindset where the negotiator feels they have no other options. In reality, there are often many opportunities available, and having a strong BATNA can lead to better outcomes.
What is the role of visibility in salary negotiations and career advancement?
-Visibility is crucial as it ensures that a person's work and contributions are recognized within the company. By over-communicating and making one's work and achievements visible, an employee can set themselves up for successful compensation negotiations and career advancement.
What are the two quick hacks suggested by Aurora to set oneself up for successful compensation negotiations?
-The two quick hacks are negotiating for feedback to understand performance expectations and mapping this feedback to work that allows developing the necessary skills, and over-communicating one's accomplishments and priorities to make work visible within the company.
What is the 'state of me' email and why is it recommended by Aurora?
-The 'state of me' email is a weekly and monthly communication tool where employees share their accomplishments, areas where they are blocked, and their priorities. It is recommended to make an employee's work visible, especially in large organizations.
How can someone learn more about Aurora and potentially benefit from their services?
-To learn more about Aurora, one can visit their website at www.teamrower.com. They offer a discount for those coming through the 'Life Engineered' YouTube channel, providing a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Outlines
🤝 Introduction to Salary Negotiation and Guest Expert
The video introduces a structured approach to life and career, emphasizing the importance of salary negotiation. The host, Steve, welcomes Brian Liu, founder of Aurora, a company that helps technical professionals negotiate better job offers, raises, and promotions. Brian's company operates on a commission basis from successful salary negotiations, focusing on empowering underrepresented professionals. The conversation aims to provide viewers with valuable tips on salary negotiation without damaging relationships or appearing greedy.
💼 Creating Value and Understanding Alliance in Negotiations
Brian shares the first tip on salary negotiation, which is to create a win-win situation by focusing on value creation for the company. He explains the concept of an alliance, where both the employee and the manager benefit from the negotiation. The strategy involves preparing a document outlining expectations and outcomes for the role, which can be used to negotiate salary increases effectively. An example is given where a client successfully negotiated a higher job level at Microsoft, resulting in increased compensation and a faster career progression.
🛡️ Strengthening Your BATNA in Negotiations
The second tip involves understanding the concept of a BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement). Brian advises viewers to strengthen their BATNA and be aware of the other party's BATNA during negotiations. He discusses the common mistake of feeling obligated to accept an offer due to the fear of missing out, and instead encourages viewers to adopt an abundant mindset, recognizing that they have options and can afford to walk away from an unsatisfactory offer. A story is shared where a client declined an offer and later received a much better one from Tesla, illustrating the power of having a strong BATNA.
📢 The Myth of 'Work Speaks for Itself' and Communication Strategies
In the final paragraph, Brian debunks the myth that good work alone will lead to recognition and compensation. He suggests two strategies for increasing visibility within a company: negotiating for feedback and over-communicating one's accomplishments. The first involves asking for feedback, understanding it, and then demonstrating improvement. The second is to maintain regular communication with managers about achievements, blockers, and priorities. Brian emphasizes the importance of making one's work and impact visible to ensure successful compensation negotiations in the future.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Salary Negotiation
💡Win-Win
💡Alliance
💡BATNA
💡Scarcity Mindset
💡Abundant Mindset
💡Leverage
💡Feedback Loop
💡Visibility
💡Brag Document
💡Overcommunication
Highlights
Introduction to the topic of salary and compensation negotiation, emphasizing its importance in professional development.
Brian Liu's introduction as a guest expert in salary negotiation with his company, Aurora, which helps technical talent negotiate their careers.
Aurora's unique commission-based model where they only charge if they successfully negotiate a higher salary for their clients.
The importance of approaching salary negotiation as a mutually beneficial alliance rather than a zero-sum game.
Creating a document outlining expectations and outcomes for a role as a strategy for successful salary negotiation.
The concept of a 'win-win' negotiation where both parties benefit, and how to frame salary requests within this context.
The story of a client who successfully negotiated a higher job level and compensation at Microsoft by aligning expectations and demonstrating impact.
Understanding the BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) and its role in strengthening one's negotiation position.
The common mistake of feeling obligated to accept a job offer due to scarcity mindset and the importance of recognizing one's value and alternatives.
The story of a client who declined an offer and later received a significantly better one from Tesla, illustrating the power of betting on oneself.
Dispelling the myth that 'work will speak for itself' and the necessity of proactively communicating one's achievements for successful compensation negotiation.
Tips on negotiating for feedback and creating a feedback loop to demonstrate growth and close performance gaps.
The strategy of over-communicating one's work progress and achievements to increase visibility within an organization.
The recommendation to maintain a 'brag document' to catalog achievements and ensure they are recognized by management.
Brian Liu's final advice on the importance of learning to advocate for oneself and the benefits it brings to one's career and life.
Information on how to learn more about Aurora and the special offer for viewers coming through the Life Engineered YouTube channel.
Transcripts
welcome everybody to a life engineered
on this channel we take a structured and
Engineering approach to your life and
career I just started an email
newsletter so if you'd like the latest
from the channel go ahead and subscribe
the link is in the description below
today we're going to talk about a topic
that I think is ridiculously under
talked about in the world today which is
salary and compensation negotiation
today we have a special guest his name
is Brian Liu he's helped hundreds of
people better negotiate their salaries
thanks for joining the channel today
Brian thanks for having me Steve I'm the
founder of Aurora and we're a company
that empowers technical talent to
negotiate their careers we're kind of
like a career coach but with the
specific expertise of negotiating job
offers raises promotions and Severance
packages and the goal is really to
create these win-win deals between you
and your company we charge a commission
off of the negotiated Delta and our
mission as a company is to give
underrepresented professionals the
confidence to negotiate and we achieve
this through our pro bono coaching
service
yeah so what it means with this
negotiated Delta is that if you are
unable to negotiate for a higher salary
they take no money only if you are able
to negotiate a higher salary you
compensate Brian and his company so it's
a super interesting model one where it's
just like why not like go and figure out
how to get the skills to negotiate a
higher salary because it's something
that I think that will benefit you for
the rest of your life yeah I appreciate
that and we really do see it as as
educational in addition to very
practical just like a little bit of
context on me so I personally came up
with the idea for Aurora after my friend
got a job offer that was below what she
was currently making and she was this
phenomenal engineer first generation
college student from Stanford and I
remember asking her if she's going to
negotiate the job offer and she replied
do you think I should and for me I was
just so shocked that some of her caliber
would question whether she should or
should not negotiate and that led to me
creating raw Brian's here to give us
three tips about better negotiating your
salary so I'll let you take it away for
the first one the first quick way to
understand is how to negotiate in a way
that doesn't look greedy so this is a
really common concern and hesitation for
most people negotiating you don't want
to damage relationships you don't want
to look greedy to your manager think
about how you can create value for the
company and make this a win-win
agreement and the best way to make it a
win-win is to really think of the
relationship you're negotiating with
your manager as an alliance so what is
an alliance it's a mutually beneficial
deal whose terms need to be negotiated
and where both sides benefit I think
people have this sort of hang up that if
they ask for more money everybody will
think that they're greedy not just the
people that they're negotiating with
right so right like recruiters are armed
with way to negotiate managers are armed
with a way to negotiate but really those
are kind of the only people that are
really negotiating for the salary like
your co-workers don't know that you're
asking for more money upper management
likely doesn't know that you're asking
for more money and so it really is a
private transaction when you ask for
more ask looking for more money can feel
uncomfortable and a way to make that
feel more comfortable in the
conversation is actually to focus on how
you can create value first so at rora
well we actually have our clients do is
create a document at offerstage which
outlines expectations and outcomes for
the role and you do this with your
manager right so once you basically
create this document and you've aligned
on expectations that totally creates a
space for your manager to then ask like
how can I advocate for your needs right
you clearly outline that you're going to
meet these goals expectations now it's
any good manager is going to recognize
it's their job to support their team and
that's what creates the natural space
for you then to ask for salary in a way
that is win-win and not win lose yeah
absolutely I I really think the concept
of a mutually beneficial agreement is
the winning mindset I think a lot of
times people sort of approach it as in
if I ask for another twenty thousand
dollars that means the company loses out
on twenty thousand dollars and this is
sort of like like mindset of scarcity I
think really holds things back yeah and
what you want to realize if you're
asking for let's say twenty thousand
dollars more in base your manager is
happy to give that to you if he's
confident or she's confident that you're
gonna create twenty percent twenty
thousand more in value right then it's
like yeah it's not my it's not coming
out of my pocket right and I want more
to get done if you follow this
strategy you're just so much more likely
to be successful so like one example is
you know we had a client who had over 10
years of experience and he was a given
an offer as an l62 engineer at Microsoft
and we both believe that he should be
leveled higher the thing we did at offer
stage was we didn't actually negotiate
with the recruiter right because the
recruiter has no understanding of level
we actually focused on aligning
expectations for the role and making a
case for l63 impact with the manager and
offered to do additional interviews
right this process itself took like a
month and a half right but after that
happened he they increased his level
right and that automatically increased
his base case his Equity his bonus and
that is a win-win right because for the
for Microsoft there's now higher
expectations and greater impact from
this candidate and for the client he got
more comp and saved himself probably one
to two years in his career at a lower
level I really like this example as well
because it's not about trying to
advocate for the absolute maximum sort
of like level expectation and
compensation it's really about sort of
right leveling so that you're sort of
set up for Success within your next role
yeah yeah because it's equally important
not to yeah set up expectations too high
and you're just gonna fail in the
company for sure yeah let's move on to
your second tip so the second quick win
is to understand the concept of a batna
so a batna is an acronym for best
alternative to a negotiated agreement
and the smartest negotiators they work
to strengthen their batna when they're
negotiating as well as understand what
is the other side's batna a really
common mistake people make with
negotiating is they get so influenced by
the company that they believe that they
can't say no or that they have no best
alternative right like this is really
where recruiters are actually
negotiating experts is that they're
really Savvy at influencing you and
making you feel like this is like a once
in a lifetime opportunity that you can't
say no to and it's a rocket ship and all
these things that conjure to what you
said earlier this scarcity mindset and
you know part of that is recruiters and
maybe effective negotiating by companies
but it's also fears that we create in
our own head right we get into this
scarcity mindset especially in a job
search it's stressful it's tiring and so
you know in your mind you're telling
yourself the story of like I have to
accept this job offer there's nothing
better in the market out there I'll
never find another company the true
reality is that you can actually have
you know what we call an abundant
mindset which is is saying like I have a
financial plan and I have you know four
more months I have these options I can
do otherwise I'm confident in my ability
to do XYZ he thinks right and you know
the more objective reality really is
that for engineering Talent you know you
have more security and opportunity than
your fear is telling you right even in
this market right now and so we never at
Aurora advocate for anyone to make a
decision that legitimately risks their
basic needs you know food shelter Etc
but that's really actually not often the
case for engineers and Tech workers yeah
absolutely I think that uh you know a
senior engineer is ridiculously hirable
even in today's Marketplace and
macroeconomic climate you know even if
it doesn't feel like it and I feel like
recruiters it's in their best interest
to sort of make you think otherwise you
do have Alternatives and you do have
choices and you would be really
surprised at like what a company will do
if you actually just say no ultimately
your greatest leverage in a negotiation
is walking away from an offer exerting
your batna and I think a lot of
candidates just they kind of don't even
think about the opportunity cost of of
the future opportunities they're
foregoing by accepting maybe an offer
that doesn't feel quite right or is
undervaluing them and they just don't
take into enough account the option of
bidding on themselves yeah the imagery
of I don't know if you've ever gone on
vacation and gone to a market and you're
trying to negotiate on price and when
you say no and walk away how many times
people sort of like flag you down yep
right and then actually give you a
better price now obviously it's you know
higher Stakes than trying to buy a hat
you know when you're on vacation and I
think there's a there's something to it
right there which is
there is an option which is to say no
and to go and find something better and
people are sort of really fixated on not
the Alternatives that are that are in
front of them but on the opportunity or
offer that has been sort of provided to
them by the recruiter or by the company
yeah and I try to tell our clients all
the time too that like no now doesn't
mean that you're like on a black list
that the company will never hire you
again right there's a really good chance
that the manager loved you he's gonna
want you more right if he couldn't get
you this time right and so you know what
one story I'll share too on on this
quick win is that one of our clients was
basically I'm searching for about let's
say four months I think it was and he
was getting pretty down on himself and
he ended up getting an offer at a
startup in Boston for about a hundred
thirty thousand dollars and he had I
think it was like six or seven years of
experience so this was like pretty much
like an entry level type of offer for
kind of his skill set and experience you
know he had the offer and he was it's so
tempting to accept right because you're
like so down on yourself and I told him
like look I totally understand how tired
you are of interviewing but I believe
that if you can continue to search and
bet on yourself a much better offer will
come and you know to his credit he had
to kind of bet on himself and make that
courageous step but when he did and he
declined the offer two months later he
got an offer from Tesla for over three
hundred thousand dollars right and you
know I just checked with the checked in
with him a couple months ago he's gotten
a promotion he's and just the difference
in career trajectory is like completely
you know that's Bonkers that's that's a
hundred percent more than a hundred
percent increase in salary all right
what's your last tip so the last Quick
win is to understand this really common
myth that most employees frankly have
inside companies is that your work will
speak for itself so at Aurora I commonly
say the phrase only the squeaky wheel
gets the oil and it's really true you
know we're a startups of like 10 people
right now and it's true right now and it
only becomes more true the larger your
organization becomes so there is
definitely a strategy to making noise
right you don't want to do it all the
time but just doing good work is a
Surefire way to being invisible inside a
company and never succeeding in
negotiating your compensation
so there are two quick hacks you can do
in your job right now to be to set
yourself up for Success when it comes to
a compensation negotiation later and so
the first quick hack is to negotiate for
feedback you should be directly asking
your manager for feedback on how you're
performing or if your manager is busy
you should bring to him your
understanding of what you think your
manager's feedback might be right make
your manager's life easier and own your
own growth the next thing you want to do
is once you get this feedback is map
this feedback to work that allows you to
develop the skills that close the gap in
terms of the feedback being given and
then you need to execute and once you
execute you want to close the loop by
basically showing your manager you've
closed this Gap right this is like a
feedback loop that should really be
communicating and making noise about as
fast as possible as fast as you're
achieving and excelling the second quick
hack is to over communicate I think that
especially when it comes to like
asynchronous email male communication
it's pretty hard to actually do too much
of it and so you know we recommend to
send your manager and your skip manager
a weekly and a monthly like he calls it
a state of me email right and what that
is is basically what have you
accomplished where are you blocked and
what are your priorities right this is
making your work visible especially in
large organizations like Amazon that
would otherwise be invisible if you
don't do this proactive communication I
think visibility is one of the most
important things that people neglect on
the job there are just so many things
that are going on on a typical
development team that it's essentially
impossible for a manager or anybody else
that's sort of like looking at your
performance over any period of time to
actually know what's going on on the
ground floor there's just too much stuff
a lot of the advice is to us or over
communicate or or to sort of like you
know make sure that you're sending that
out to your manager to others really
over communication is just proper
communication I think in this case right
and so you don't want to be the guy
that's just like hey you know I I
checked in uh I checked in yesterday
checked in today too but you know just
making sure that people sort of
understand you know the type of impact
that you have on a team I think is
really really important I am a big
advocate for a brag document or a brag
book where you catalog your achievements
for the upcoming year and so definitely
for the things that you've achieved you
know make sure that your manager is sort
of aware of all the Kick-Ass stuff that
you're doing on the job I think on that
communication it's there's a subtlety to
it because I I don't think it should be
just summarize your work right what you
need to do is distill what does your
manager care about what does your skip
manager care about what's the like the
simplest most critical piece of
information to share and make sure
you're doing that filter and surfacing
that and that's like communicate as much
as you can absolutely thanks for coming
onto the channel I really appreciate it
if they want to know more about you and
your company what should they do yeah
thanks so much for having me it was it
was really great and I hope it was
informative I really can't emphasize how
important it is to learn how to advocate
for yourself that will pay such
dividends for your career and really
your life to learn more about Aurora you
can go to
www.teamrower.com we have like an
affiliate link with Steve and you can
get 150 off using our service if you
come through a life engineered YouTube
channel and yeah it's great chatting
yeah and I just want to emphasize again
you know their payment model is one
where they don't get anything unless you
actually reap a benefit so it's really
that mutually beneficial thing that
Brian was talking about earlier in the
video so thanks again and we'll see you
next time
foreign
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