Christopher V. Flett

There is a common misconception that there isn’t the opportunity to get a raise/bonus/promotion in today’s economy. This is FALSE. If you have increasing value as a professional, you should and will get a raise/bonus/promotion. You have to prove that you are worth it and it is up to you to ASK FOR IT and not assume that it will be given to you if it’s available. You have to be your own cheerleader and be able to back it up with measurable evidence on why you should get what you deserve. The one topic in What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business that comes up the most is the point that women as for ‘what they think they can get‘ rather than ‘what they really want‘.

Here is a tool that I used with a NY Post piece I was asked to comment on. Click on the picture to get the download.  You should put as much time into the preparation of your review as you would anything else. This is your time to shine. Ask for what you want and you’ll likely get it!

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There was a time in my career when I was drowning. I had got a company I was involved in into serious trouble. I had chosen a bad path, with the wrong people, and with a product that was 2 years ahead of the market. The company hemmoraged money month after month and it was all I could do to keep my head above water. My pride got in the way of my asking for help to the point that I almost lost everything. One morning I got up and realized that I needed to do something different. I needed to find a way to get back on track, stop the bleeding, and get the business profitable. I dug down deep and started calling in help. I found help in a stranger who agreed to work with me, mentor me, and point me in the right direction.  Read more

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Time and time again, I hear stories from women about bullies in the workplace. Most of the times it is a man, but often enough, it is a woman. They live with fear that they will be the target of the bully’s wrath and do whatever they can do avoid any situation that might set the bully off.

A bully in the workplace is no different than the bully back in elementary school. They are driven by insecurity, looking to suck the power out of you by trying to intimidate you, scare you, or have you submit to their power. They can’t take your power unless you give it to them, but when you are in fear, it can be nearly impossible to stand up for yourself. To manage the bully, you need to understand what is going on. Here are the steps I suggest to clients:

Step 1 – Figure out why the bully has the need to dominate others. Is he/she stress driven, mean spirited, insecure, trying to protect their turf, or some other reason? If you know what drives them, you can better understand what sets them off.

Step 2 – Don’t make excuses for their bad behaviour. Women will try to justify Read more

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The reason why women get paid less then their male counterparts is because the accept less pay. I spent the better part of six year working with women in the not-for-profit markets as well as those in traditional business models. Time and time again, I would see that they made anywhere from 10%- 30% less than their male counterparts. They would be paid less and do at least 1.5 – 2x more work then those same male counterparts. This always confused me and after inquiring, I asked both women and men why women made less. Here were their responses:

Women:

• They didn’t have the same experience (of 43 women polled, 39 had more experience than a male colleagues they worked with).
• They needed to prove themselves (noted by women with at least 5 years experience).
• They didn’t have a degree (nor did their male counterparts).
• The board/boss would never go for it (they didn’t know for sure as none had asked for a raise).
• They believed the organization would give a raise if there was more money (again, they never asked for a raise during reviews).
• Their organization could find someone who would work for that wage (likely another woman).
• It wasn’t all about the money for them (most struggled to make ends meet).
• Men were considered the breadwinners so they made more (majority of women I asked with single mothers).
• They were worried that if they got paid more, there would be less money for programming (putting others before themselves).
• They felt they were paid fairly (but not at the same level of a male colleague doing less).

Men:

• Women got paid less because they likely had a boyfriend/husband covering the major living costs (of 43 women, 31 weren’t in a relationship).
• Women need to spend more time with family and can’t focus on the job as much (on average, the women worked 47 hours a week to the men’s 39 hours a week).
• Women didn’t have as much experience (as above, 39 had more experience than their counterparts).
• Women don’t understand how to show their value (men brag about what they bring to the table; women wait to be noticed).
• Women don’t ask for what they want (they ask for what they think they can get).
• Women don’t want to make their bosses/boards uncomfortable by asking for more money.
• Women don’t want to be rejected so they don’t ask in case the boss says ‘no’.
• Women won’t quit if they don’t get what they want (of the 28 men asked, every one of them said they would quit and find something else if they weren’t paid enough).

With capable workforces dwindling, now is the time for the female workforce to get clear on what fair pay is for their position. The gender gap in pay will continue as long as women choose to work for less. If women start selecting employers who pay for the contribution, rather than by gender, they will start to bridge the gap of their male counterparts. Why would an employer pay more if he or she doesn’t have to?

A negotiations coach in Vancouver shared a story of working for a government agency. This agency was in place to ensure that men and women were paid fairly. She, another woman and a man were all hired at the same time. Over a period of time, it came out that the man was making the top of the pay scale whereas the women were at the bottom of the pay-scale. The employer had stated to all three that the starting wage for the job was “X”. The two women gratefully accepted their positions while the man said that “he couldn’t possibly work for that wage.” He had a family to support after all. The employer started him at the top of the scale ( a difference, if I remember correctly, of about $10,000 a year).

Why did the women accept less? Because they felt they had to prove themselves, where the man was focused on the bottom line and would have happily declined the job to find something that paid better. Consider what you are being paid and if it is what you should be making, or what you are willing to make. If you are making $40,000 a year and your male colleague is making $50,000 a year, ask yourself if you are 20% less valuable then him. If you aren’t then ask for more; if you are less valuable, increase your professional value so that you can ask for more. Anyone who says money doesn’t matter, likely doesn’t have any.

Earn what you are worth and bridge the gap for you and every other woman in business. When you stop settling for second best, you’ll start getting paid what you deserve, but it is up for you to ask.

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As a die hard fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, I found myself in a difficult position of cheering for the Canucks (as the last Canadian Hockey Team) in the playoffs. Their series pitted veterans (Canucks) versus fresh blood (Blackhawks) in the contest to make the final four.

Long story short, in Game 6, Vancouver blew up and like the games throughout this series, were out manned, out played, and out worked by a younger, hungrier team. Pissed off after watching the game, I decided to look at the lessons we can take, as business owners, from how the series played out. Here is what the Canucks can teach us:

1. You can’t lead from the back.

Vancouver in their questionable wisdom, decided to choose their goaltender, Luongo, as the team captain. Chicago had Toews, their 21-year old dynamic captain, who happens to play centre. During the plays, Luongo’s team was figuring out things without the benefit of their captain being right there with them. Chicago has their captain leading from the ice beside them. Choosing a goaltender as a captain is ego driven and ridiculous.

“With the departure of Naslund to free agency, Gillis announced on September 30, 2008, that Roberto Luongo had been named team captain, marking the first time since Bill Durnan of the Montreal Canadiens in 1947 that a goaltender has been named the captain of their NHL team.”

Lesson: In hockey, as in business, you need a captain who works along side their team. A leader removed from their team who sits back in the corner office and waits for people to ask for advice will have a wonky team who doesn’t win big.

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2. Just because someone was a star on one team doesn’t mean they will be a star on every team.
Mats Sundin, a star and the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, accomplished almost nothing as a Vancouver Canuck. There was a lot of hype about him coming to play in Vancouver, but he performed at his worst that I had seen since I first started watching him years ago. He scored the odd goal, but he could not lead like he had in Toronto and it was painful to watch him try. (Note: Mats entered the NHL when the Blackhawks’ captain was one year old.)

Lesson: Just because someone is good in one job doesn’t mean that those abilities will transfer with the next job, position, or location. I see this time and time again with sales people. They rock in one job and when selling a different product, service, or themselves, they perform at a sub-standard rate. Every day you have to work like it’s your first day at work. You don’t get to ride on your reputation. If you do, you are likely to disappoint yourself and others.

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3. Everyone can start, but not everyone can finish
The game of hockey is 60 minutes over three periods. The Canucks played well in the first periods, okay in the second periods, and completely lost it in the third periods. They blew more leads in this series than I have ever seen before. As soon as the third period would start and they would be leading, I’d be waiting to see how long it would take for them to give up their lead and have to fight to stay in the game.

Lesson: Every day, week, month is a money day, week, month. Don’t work hard in the first part of the month and once you have earned your nut, start to coast. It doesn’t take much to throw you off cash flow so you need to work each and every minute of your schedule. Can you take a break? Yes, when your market is breaking. Don’t take time off when there is money to be made. If you market wants to buy from you Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM, then that’s when you are on. If they want to buy from you every other night from 6PM to Midnight, then that’s when you are on. When the game is on, you are on.

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4. You only stop playing when the game is over.
When Vancouver would blow their leads, you could see in their faces the frustration, anger, and disappointment. More times then not, they gave up. They didn’t bring their best selves. Instead, they went on the defensive so they didn’t get beaten too bad. If you focus on failure, you get failure. Chicago on the other hand was spurred on when things were bad for them. The players got bigger, more driven, finished their checks, and got it done. When the time came to step up, they did.

Lesson: In business, the only thing you can count on is problems. You will get sideswiped when you least expect it. The question isn’t if it will happen; it is what you will do when it happens. Will you shrink, count your pennies, and heal up. Or, will you put on a smile, wipe off the dirt, pick yourself back up, and get it done. The measure of character is what you do and how you handle adversity. For the Canucks, as well as many business owners in this economy, the way they handled the situation determined their failure.

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5. In hockey as in business, you need to play the body, not the puck.
Chicago is a physical team. In hockey, a player on his ass is not likely to score a goal. When a player has the puck, he can be hit by another player legally. Chicago finished their checks, hit the hell out of the Canucks, and opened up scoring opportunities because of it. Vancouver slipped their checks (didn’t go full in), were man-handled, and in my opinion, physically dominated by a team they should have been able to war with. The Canucks didn’t focus on the fundamentals, knowing that by doing so, they would get the chance to score. Instead, they focused entirely on scoring and forgot the game they were playing.

Lesson: In business, you need to focus on building your business model, not the money. If you only focus on the money, you’ll never have a model that create money. You’ll keep on looking for the golden ring and get disappointed when you don’t get it. Focus on the model, not the money!

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6. Age means nothing. Experience means little. It is about the hunger to be the best.
The big lines for the Blackhawks are in their early 20’s. The Canucks have proven veterans on their team that have a lot of winning experience. The young guys played like the veterans should and the veterans played like you would expect the young guys to. The Blackhawks were disciplined, focused on fundamentals, and played in unison. The Canucks played like rookies, made fundamental mistakes, and didn’t play like the team they once were.

Lesson: Just because someone is older, done business longer, or has more experience doesn’t mean they are going to be the best performer. In my experience, the young business professionals are hungry for success and have the ability to ‘lap’ their older counterparts. The old guys (and gals) try to give advice to the younger ones, but they themselves can’t follow their own advice. In business, what you know is less important than what you can get done. I see the ‘veterans of business’ trying to give advice to younger professionals who are doing more, billing more, and building more than their senior counterparts.  Money and cash flow is the ultimate measurement for your effectiveness in business.

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7. Everyone wins or everyone loses.
The blame game is on high output right now. Players either contributed directly to losing the game for their team or they didn’t play up to their potential, hence didn’t produce for their team. There are a lot of Canucks who should be ashamed of their performance, or lack there of. The ‘team’ didn’t do what it was intending to do. The ‘team’ didn’t play as well as they could have. At the end of the team, the win or loss for any team in the NHL is based on the collective efforts, not the efforts of a handful of people.

Lesson: In business, everyone plays a role. The mail clerk enables the CEO to do her job. The janitor enables the sales team to hold meetings in clean boardrooms. Losing and winning is shared by everyone. When a company (or team) starts blaming one person over another, the ‘team’ part of the picture dissolves.

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