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Manager Tools’ Feedback Model

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Preamble

The last two articles discussed the popular ‘sandwich technique‘ for giving interpersonal feedback. The first article introduced the sandwich feedback technique. The second article critiqued this method and discussed three common mistakes that render the sandwich technique ineffective.

This follow-up article will introduce an effective feedback technique and list links for further information.

This article focuses on manager-to-employee feedback. However this feedback model can be the foundation for giving feedback in other interpersonal contexts as well—between peers or between spouses, for instance.

The Manager Tools Feedback Model

Manager Tools is a widely-admired suite of management techniques to help shape effective managers and leaders. The weekly podcasts on this site feature Manager Tools’ principals, Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne, discussing their tools and tips to help audiences advance their managerial and leadership skills. The discussion forums are useful as well.

Perhaps the most popular and most effective of the Manager Tools ideas is the effective feedback model. Here is a summary of the four steps in this feedback technique.

  1. Ask an employee whether they are open to some feedback. Example: “Jack, may I give you some feedback?”
  2. Describe specific behavior you saw, heard, or read about. Example: “Jack, when you roll your eyes in meetings when others talk; when you say “you guys don’t get it”; when you come late to meetings and leave in the middle…”
  3. Describe the impact of the behavior. Once you have described what you observed, tell them what you felt or what impact it had on the company, project, or team. Example: “Jack, when you roll your eyes and tell others they “don’t get it”, here’s what happens. We lose good people. You lose opportunities you want, like that last move that you didn’t get.”
  4. Discuss next steps. Even with affirmative (positive) feedback, state “Good work. Keep it up.” For corrective (negative) feedback, ask open-ended or leading questions to encourage the employee to suggest change. Example: “What can you do about this? How can I help you?”

Further Information

Here are links to podcasts and references for further information on the Manager Tools effective feedback model.

Call for Action

Feedback is a central component of the manager-employee relationship. Employees get better at their jobs only when their managers give them timely, relevant and forthright feedback—both affirmative and corrective feedback.

Use the Manager Tools feedback model to enhance your feedback skills and communicate effectively with employees.

Broaden Your Thinking and Grow on Your Job

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Jeffrey Immelt on Keys to Great Leadership

In an interview in the Fast Company Magazine, General Electric’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt reveals his checklist of leadership skills. Perhaps the most significant of these skills is the understanding perspective on one’s job.

“Understand breadth, depth, and context. The most important thing I’ve learned since becoming CEO is context. It’s how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.”

The Problem: A Narrow Outlook of our Work

As I elaborated in a previous blog article, we get busy doing and fail to devote time for deep thinking. We concentrate on the minutiae of our work. We forget that these tasks are a part of a larger canvas–an element of a large value-addition process. If you are a metallurgy scientist, your work may be a part of the large value-addition process of converting raw material into turbine blades for jet engines that power large aircrafts. If you are computer programmer working on a small software module, your work may be a small component of software that enables customers to trade stocks directly from their cell phones.

Call for Action: Understand the Big-Picture

The key to understanding the broader aspects of your work is to make a special effort to learn more than what is in front of your face. In addition to understanding the boss’s description of your task or a work-procedure, you need to ask why you need to do what you have been asked to do. Begin by asking the following questions.

  • How does your organisation make money from what you do? How does your company make money to pay you?
  • How do you fit into the value-addition chain? What are the steps involved? What is the flow of information, money and materials?
  • Who is the end customer? Why does he/she need the product or service your organisation is building? What is the fundamental problem the customer is trying to solve? How does you work solve this problem?
  • How will the customer use with the particular product or service your organisation is developing? What other features can your organisation add to your product or service to help the customer? What else can you do to help the customer?

Employees who understand the broader context of their jobs and embrace the big-picture perspective of the value-addition process are more inclined to grow quickly because, in addition to technical skills, their repertoire includes the wide-ranging commercial viewpoint of the fundamental problems at hand.

Judging People: Talent is more than Skin-Deep

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Perception and Reality are Often Poles Apart

At a non-profit organization, I work with two members of the support staff. Sally and Diane (names and context changed for anonymity) joined the organization five months ago and report to the branch manager.

Sally is young, energetic and talks loudly; however, she lacks initiative, has difficulty following-up on assignments and needs constant reminders. Diane is experienced, thorough at work and gets her assignments done promptly; she is quiet and has an introverted personality.

Sally recently had an opportunity to coordinate the visit of the Executive Director of the non-profit organization. The executive was impressed with Sally’s abilities and asked the branch manager to give Sally a raise with a promotion. The branch manager, who had not spent a lot of time with Sally, shared this initial assessment on Sally and agreed.

Having interacted with Sally and Diane extensively, I considered Sally’s promotion unfortunate. Diane was more deserving of promotion for her hard work, initiative and promise for advancement.

Learn to Look Beyond the Surface

Our first impressions are usually deceptive and incomplete. We tend to judge people based on their appearance, their mannerisms (smile, handshake, liveliness, etc.) and their tone. However, reality runs deeper than what is visible at the surface.

  • Know what you are looking for. Develop evaluation criteria and write them down. For instance, assume you are looking for a project manager to lead a new product development. Write down what skills and attributes a good project manager should possess. What should be the ideal background? Would you like the candidate to have had experience leading projects of similar size and scope? Did the projects complete on-time and within assigned budgets?
  • Do not judge people because you share common characteristics. An example: A hiring manager I worked with sometime ago brought a candidate onsite just because the candidate’s resume listed membership in the manager’s favorite charitable group. None of the other interviewers was impressed with the candidate’s leadership skills (among other attributes). The hiring manager realized his mistake and remarked, “I thought everybody that participated in [activity] with [charitable group’s name] was a natural leader.”
  • Check the opinions of others who may have had different perspectives in other contexts. For instance, in job interviewing, talk to all the references that a candidate provided and ask specific questions about the candidate. Talk to independent references wherever available. In particular, seek objective people who have long experience working with the candidate.

Conclusion

As professionals, we are often required to judge job candidates based on an hour of interviewing or induct team members based on minimal acquaintances. Hence, judging people for their talent and personality is a vital skill for managers. To discover others, we need to go beyond perceptions and learn more about their experiences, thoughts and actions to understand them better.

Question: Do you have interesting stories about judging people from perceptions? Please share them in the comments section.

How to Stay Relevant When Your Job Keeps Changing

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How to Stay Relevant When Your Job Keeps Changing

The current era is widely recognized as the age of artificial intelligence. According to McKinsey & Company, artificial intelligence is now part of the workplace landscape. It is fundamentally transforming how people approach jobs. Looking ahead, 92 percent of companies are set to increase their AI investments over the next three years.

Staying relevant in the age of AI can feel challenging, especially when your role keeps changing. New technologies, shifting expectations, and evolving workplace trends can make it hard to know which skills to focus on next. You may also feel like you are losing your direction as familiar responsibilities change or disappear.

Staying relevant does not mean constantly reinventing yourself or chasing every new trend. It means understanding how your role is evolving and finding practical ways to grow alongside it. This article explores ways to keep yourself relevant as your job continues to change.

Understand How Your Role Is Evolving

According to Indeed, a company’s strategic positioning and goals can shift to adapt to new customer demands. As market trends evolve and technology advances, businesses reassess their current strategies. This can lead to alterations in the employees’ job roles. More often than not, this is a positive change, as a growing company can open up exciting opportunities for your career.

Your job description may give you a clear starting point, but it is rarely a permanent guide anymore. Technology, customer expectations, business priorities, and workplace practices can change what your role requires over time. Instead of focusing only on what you are expected to do today, pay attention to how your role is changing around you. Notice which tasks are becoming less important and which skills are gaining value.

It also helps to look beyond your individual responsibilities and understand the bigger picture. Consider learning how your team supports wider business goals and how your industry is developing. Talk with colleagues, follow relevant trends, and stay curious about upcoming changes. When you understand where your role is heading, you can prepare for future expectations instead of reacting to them at the last minute.

Keep Learning Beyond Your Current Job Description

Continuous learning can become an important part of your career strategy, especially when your responsibilities keep changing. Identify skills that are becoming more valuable or widely expected. You have several options to deepen your understanding.

Consider taking online courses, joining professional groups, and working on hands-on projects to solidify your knowledge. Rather than waiting for your employer to offer training, take responsibility for developing skills that support your long-term goals. Even small, consistent learning efforts can help you stay confident and prepared as your role evolves.

Self-directed learning can also help you explore new career directions when your interests change. For instance, an HR manager with a bachelor’s degree in psychology can look to broaden their career horizons. They may consider enrolling in an online counseling psychology master’s degree . This program develops advanced knowledge and prepares them for greater responsibilities and leadership roles.

Felician University notes that the program combines theory with real-world application. It empowers a person to become a true champion for mental health. So, investing in your education builds skills that remain useful even when your current job description changes.

Continuing to expand your knowledge beyond your current role can help you become more versatile. It can also better prepare you for changes that might impact your career as you move forward.

Build Transferable Skills, Not Just Technical Expertise

A Forbes feature states that the rise of AI in job roles is reshaping responsibilities and highlighting the need for new skills. For executives who want to keep up with the times, the best practice is to evaluate their core skills. Every executive should have a solid set of six foundational and transferable skills . These include collaboration, communication, creativity, teamwork, technical expertise, and leadership.

Technical skills are vital, but they shouldn’t be the only ones as your job changes. So, consider building a variety of skills and focus on transferable abilities. These skills can support you across different roles, teams, and industries. When a specific tool, platform, or process becomes outdated, your ability to think clearly, communicate effectively, and solve problems can still provide value.

You can become even more versatile by combining technical expertise with broader business knowledge. This bigger perspective can help you make better decisions and work more effectively with people outside your immediate role. When you develop both specialized knowledge and adaptable skills, you become better prepared for changing workplace demands.

Make Adaptability a Career Skill

As CNBC points out, AI’s rapid advancement is transforming industries and reshaping job roles. This makes adaptability crucial for workers. The key question isn’t whether it will affect your career, but how you can prepare yourself to thrive in this shifting environment. Change is becoming a regular part of professional life, so adaptability is a skill worth developing intentionally.

Instead of viewing every change as a disruption, try to see it as an opportunity to learn, adjust, and grow. Stay open to feedback, experiment with new approaches, and be willing to take on assignments that feel unfamiliar. You might feel a bit unprepared, but leaping beyond your regular duties can boost your confidence. It helps you uncover talents you never realized you had.

You must also reassess your skills regularly rather than waiting until a change exposes a weakness. Identify gaps early and take practical steps to address them. When you make adaptability part of your career strategy, you can respond to new expectations more comfortably. You also remain prepared for opportunities as your workplace continues to evolve.

FAQs

How can I stay relevant if my industry is changing rapidly?

Keep learning and stay aware of industry trends that could affect your role. Strengthen transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, and adaptability. Look for chances to apply your new knowledge by taking on different projects or shifting your responsibilities. Regularly review your skills and identify gaps so you can address them before they limit your career opportunities.

Should I focus on new technology or transferable skills?

Both matter. Focus on learning new technology to keep pace with changes in your role and industry. At the same time, develop transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, collaboration, and adaptability. Technical knowledge helps you handle today’s demands, while transferable skills help you remain effective when tools, processes, and responsibilities change.

How often should I reassess my career skills?

It’s a good idea to step back and evaluate your career skills at least once or twice a year to ensure you’re on the right path. It is also helpful to review them whenever your responsibilities, industry, or technology changes significantly. Regular check-ins can help you spot skill gaps early, update your learning goals, and stay prepared for new opportunities.

Key Takeaways

Staying relevant is not about having every answer or knowing exactly what comes next. It is about staying connected to your purpose and being willing to rethink what success means as your career develops.

Give yourself room to make mistakes, explore different directions, and learn from experiences that do not go as planned. A changing job can feel uncertain, but it can also create opportunities you may not have expected. Keep moving forward with patience, confidence, and a mindset that welcomes growth.

How to Build a Career That Can Survive an Industry Downturn

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How to Build a Career That Can Survive an Industry Downturn

The job market in the US has not been thriving for a long time, and things do not look great right now. A CNBC article cites a survey indicating alarming data. The number of Americans facing unemployment for at least 27 weeks has increased above 1.8 million on average in 2026. The long-term unemployed account for nearly 1 out of every 4 jobless workers, based on the latest available government data.

Clearly, the industry and the economy are headed for a downturn. As an aspiring professional or a seasoned employee, you have a valid reason to worry about your career. What if no offers come? What if you get laid off? How long is this instability expected to last? These questions make complete sense, but a downturn does not indicate the end of the road.

Economic cycles are inevitable, but your career doesn’t have to be fragile. With the right approach, you can build a career that withstands industry downturns and even thrives during uncertainty.

In this article, we will share some actionable advice to build a career that survives and thrives even in a challenging environment.

Build Skills That Transfer Across Industries

The most recession-resilient professionals aren’t tied to one company or sector. Rather, they’re tied to capabilities that matter everywhere. Fast Company explains that soft skills, better referred to as power skills, are proven success indicators. Skills such as communication, listening, collaboration, feedback, and teamwork are harder to teach but can drive success in most organizational roles.

Employers consistently value these core skills regardless of the economic climate. To future-proof your career, you must identify your transferable assets. List what you’ve built over your career that isn’t task-specific. This could be specialized knowledge, a track record of always delivering under pressure, or the ability to communicate.

The next step is to prioritize high-demand skill buckets, such as sales, customer retention, operations optimization, financial planning, compliance, data analysis, AI/automation, and cybersecurity. Also, dedicate 6—12 hours per week to structured upskilling.

Become Comfortable with Change and New Technology

AI and automation are reshaping more jobs than they’re replacing. Boston Consulting Group states that 50—55% of U.S. roles are expected to be materially changed by AI within the next 2-3 years. Workers will need significant upskilling to align with these changes, since their day-to-day responsibilities will be altered.

Rather than viewing technology as a threat, focus on using it to improve your productivity and decision-making. Learn how AI is affecting your role and industry. Assess which responsibilities could be handled by AI agents and consider those requiring human judgment informed by deep domain knowledge.

Developing AI literacy is non-negotiable. While you don’t need to be a machine learning engineer, understanding prompt engineering, workflow automation, and AI-augmented analysis makes you valuable. Career resilience now depends on combining AI expertise with domain-specific knowledge, not just technical skills alone.

Similarly, technology has reshaped career upskilling through online education. For example, it is much easier to pursue a Master of Social Work online for someone looking for leadership roles in the social work field. They can gain this advanced credential to add to a basic bachelor’s degree.

University of the Pacific explains that even someone without a background in social work can enroll in this program. This is a great opportunity for people considering a career switch to a meaningful role.

Create a Professional Network Before You Need It

A strong network is your early-warning system and opportunity pipeline during downturns. Many job openings are never publicly advertised, but filled through referrals and trusted connections. According to an Indeed article, a professional network can connect you to strong leads during a job search. Further, these connections can support you with career advancement.

All you need to do is build relationships proactively and be consistent, not intense. Aim for 2—3 meaningful interactions per week. A comment on someone’s LinkedIn post, a short catch-up call, or sharing a useful article can be good strategies. Industry conferences, Slack groups, LinkedIn communities, and local professional chapters keep you visible beyond job boards.

Ex-colleagues are among your strongest referral sources. A simple “Hey, how are things going?” message can reopen doors. Also, maintain a running list of 15—20 professionals you’d reach out to if you needed a new opportunity, and update it quarterly. Share introductions, insights, and job leads freely. People remember who helped them and reciprocate.

Maintain Financial and Career Flexibility

Financial resilience gives you the breathing room to make thoughtful career decisions rather than desperate ones during a downturn. Similarly, career flexibility ensures you have options when your primary path narrows. Both can be your saviors when the job market is slow and opportunities trickle down.

Start by building emergency funds to carry you through rough times. If you’re the sole earner, lean toward 6 months. Cut non-essential subscriptions and recurring costs. Ensure your health insurance adequately covers your family instead of relying solely on employer-provided coverage.

Diversify income where practical, such as with side projects, freelance work, or consulting. Be willing to consider contract work, remote opportunities, or roles in adjacent industries that leverage your transferable skills. Identify potential backup paths before an economic downturn affects your position. Map out skills in demand and keep a “skill pantry” of market-ready competencies you can showcase.

FAQs

Should I change my career before my industry faces a downturn?

Not necessarily. Instead, monitor industry trends and develop transferable skills to give yourself options if your sector contracts. Focus on becoming irreplaceable within your domain by combining AI expertise with deep domain knowledge.

How much time should I set aside for upskilling?

Dedicate 6—12 hours per week to structured learning that combines your domain expertise with AI implementation or adjacent competencies. Focus on 3—5 priority AI-related skills per role per year to avoid cognitive overload.

What is the best way to start building career resilience?

Start by auditing your transferable assets, documenting your wins in a brag file, and scheduling regular check-ins with your professional network. Build a portable skill set in demand across industries so you can pivot quickly if needed.

Key Takeaways

Building a downturn-resistant career isn’t about predicting the future, but about preparing for whatever comes next. By following these practical strategies, you can create a career that can weather uncertainty and emerge stronger. Build a career resilience audit checklist to get a winning advantage, no matter how competitive or slow your industry becomes.

How to Ask for a Raise—and Negotiate in a Way That Commands Respect

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How to Ask for a Raise---and Negotiate in a Way That Commands Respect Asking for a raise is a professional negotiation, not a personal plea.

The moment you frame it as “I need more money” rather than “Here is why I’m worth more to this organization,” you’ve already lost ground. Leave your mortgage, your tuition bills, and your cost of living out of it entirely. They’re irrelevant to what the market pays for your skills and what value you deliver. Keep the conversation squarely there.

Before you request a meeting, do real research. Use the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook and cross-reference with Glassdoor, Payscale, Salary.com, and LinkedIn Salary Insights, filtered to your specific role, industry, and region. National averages can be misleading. Then build a written record of your contributions since your last review. Be specific: revenue increased, clients won, costs reduced, people developed.”I increased regional sales by 17%” carries weight.”I’ve taken on a lot more responsibility” carries almost none. Quantify everything you can.

Understand your total compensation picture before you walk in. Salary, bonus, equity, and flexibility all factor into whether you’re genuinely underpaid or simply underpaid on one dimension. Know the difference before you make an argument based on the wrong one.

Timing matters more than most people realize. Ask after a visible win, not before one. Ask during your company’s budget planning season, not after budgets are locked. Don’t ask when your manager is firefighting or when the company just closed a difficult quarter. The same request lands very differently depending on when it arrives, and arriving at the wrong moment can set your case back by months.

Request a dedicated meeting. Don’t ambush your manager at the end of a performance review or raise it casually in the hallway. Say: “I’d like to schedule some time to discuss my compensation and where I’m headed here. Could we find 30 minutes in the next couple of weeks?” This gives them time to prepare and signals that you’re approaching it seriously.

One thing most employees don’t account for: your manager is often not the final decision-maker. Raises frequently require approval from HR or a director, meaning your manager may genuinely want to help you but needs material to make the case in a room you won’t be in. Make it easy for them. Bring a one-page written summary of your market research and key contributions that they can circulate. You’re not just persuading your manager; you’re equipping them to persuade others.

Lead with Evidence, Not Feeling

In the meeting, open by anchoring on contribution, not need: “I’ve really valued the work I’ve been doing here, and I want to make sure my compensation reflects what I’ve been contributing. I’ve put together some notes on the market data and on what I’ve delivered, and I’d like to walk you through them.” Present your numbers, then let them respond first if you can. If they name a figure first, that sets the floor. If you name 6% first and they had planned 8%, you’ve cost yourself 2% with no way to recover it. If pressed to go first, anchor high. If your target is $72,000, open at $77,000. Negotiation tends to move toward the middle, so where you start matters.

If the answer is no, stay calm. A composed response carries more weight than an emotional one. Say: “I understand. Can I ask what would need to be true, in my performance or in the company’s situation, for us to revisit this?” Then stop talking. What they say next tells you whether a raise is genuinely possible here or whether you’re being managed toward complacency. If they give you specific, measurable criteria, write them down and confirm them in a follow-up email. A commitment that lives only in conversation is easy to forget, or to reinterpret later.

If they stall, give it one week. Then come back with: “I wanted to follow up. It seemed like you may have felt my request was off base, and I’d like to understand if there’s something I’m missing about how this gets decided.” That’s not confrontational, but it signals you’re not going to let it disappear quietly.

If the answer is “not now due to budget,” lock in a specific date to revisit. A commitment to “come back to this later” without a date attached isn’t a commitment. If salary is genuinely off the table for now, shift to non-cash compensation and think carefully about what actually has lasting value. A title change compounds over time: it raises your market rate in every future negotiation, at this company and elsewhere. A professional development budget benefits your employer as much as it benefits you, and framing it that way makes it an easier yes. An accelerated review cycle, moving your next formal review from twelve months to three, is an underused option that most employees never think to ask for.

More Than a Number: Recognition and What It Signals

If you get a raise but it’s smaller than you hoped, accept it graciously in the moment. Thank your manager, then establish the next milestone: “I really appreciate this. I’d like to make sure I’m on track to get to where I’m aiming. Can we agree on what that path looks like and check in at my next review?” You’re not conceding; you’re keeping the conversation alive with a specific next step attached.

It’s worth naming something that doesn’t get said enough. Many people, particularly women and those from cultures where direct self-advocacy is less normalized, feel genuine anxiety about these conversations, not just discomfort but a real fear of being seen as ungrateful or overreaching. That fear is understandable. Research also shows that women who negotiate assertively are penalized more often than men for identical behavior, while those who don’t negotiate leave significant money on the table over the course of a career. Knowing this doesn’t make the conversation easy, but it does reframe the stakes. The risk of asking is real but manageable. The cost of never asking compounds quietly for years.

If you have reason to believe a colleague in the same role is being paid significantly more, especially along gender or racial lines, that’s a different conversation with different stakes and potentially different legal protections. It warrants a separate discussion, and possibly a direct conversation with HR, rather than folding it into a general raise negotiation.

My most durable piece of advice here isn’t about what to say in the room. It’s about what you do in the months and years before you ever sit down. Managers who are easiest to persuade are the ones who already know, in specific detail, what you contribute. Build that record continuously. Send a brief monthly note to your manager summarizing your wins, not a formal document, just a few sentences in an email. Have conversations, well before you need a raise, about what raise-worthy performance looks like in their eyes. Invest in relationships with people beyond your direct manager who influence how compensation decisions get made. When you finally make the ask, it should feel like the natural conclusion of a story that’s already been told.

How to Handle an Employee’s Request for a Raise

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How to Handle an Employee's Raise Request: Evidence, Honesty, and Authority That Retain Talent When an employee comes to you asking for more money, how you handle the conversation will shape your reputation as a manager and determine whether you keep your best people. Resist the impulse to feel put on the spot. A direct, well-prepared employee who advocates for their own compensation is doing exactly what confident, high-performing people do. Treat it accordingly.

That said, if these requests consistently catch you off guard, that’s a signal worth taking seriously. Managers who audit market salaries and review team compensation regularly, ideally once every year or two, don’t get ambushed. Their employees don’t need to initiate the conversation because the manager has already had it. If you’re reactive rather than proactive on compensation, the problem didn’t start with this employee walking into your office.

When the request comes, don’t respond in the moment. Say: “I appreciate you bringing this to me directly. I want to give it the serious consideration it deserves. Can we meet again in the next week or two after I’ve had a chance to look at where things stand?” Then do the actual work.

Evidence First, Instinct Second

Start by separating the person from the position. Write down what this role actually entails, its scope, key deliverables, and decision-making authority, before you look at any numbers. This keeps the evaluation honest and prevents personal feelings about the individual, positive or negative, from distorting the analysis.

Then research the market. Use Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, and Salary.com, and check your industry’s trade association salary surveys, pulling both national and regional data. Make sure what you’re looking at is current. The labor market shifts faster than most managers track, and fields in high demand can move significantly within 12 to 18 months. Cross-reference with what you’ve seen in your own recent recruiting. You have real-time data on what candidates are asking for. Use it.

Assess the employee’s contributions using documented performance rather than general impressions. Then ask yourself the question most managers avoid: if this person left tomorrow, what would it realistically cost to replace them? Recruiting fees, lost productivity during the gap, onboarding time, and institutional knowledge walk out the door with them. The total typically runs 50 to 200 percent of annual salary. That number should inform how hard you’re willing to work to retain them, and it changes the calculus considerably.

Know What the Role Is Worth, Then Offer a Real Path Forward

When you reconvene, open by acknowledging the employee’s initiative: “I appreciate that you brought this to me directly.” Then be honest about what your research found.

If the market data and their performance support a raise, say so and act on it. Don’t make them fight for what the evidence already justifies. Managers who delay on a deserved raise, or who grant less than warranted out of inertia, tend to lose their best people within 12 to 18 months. Those employees leave having concluded the organization isn’t fair, and they’re usually right.

If the data shows their current pay is fair but there’s room to grow, be honest and specific: “The market range for a project manager at this level in the Tampa Bay area runs from $78,000 to $95,000. You’re currently at $74,000, which puts you just below that range. That said, I hear you, and I want to work with you on a path to the higher end.” Then build a plan together, with specific measurable goals the employee helps define and a committed date to revisit. Put it in writing. A verbal commitment with no documentation is easy for either party to quietly walk away from.

If the employee is leveraging a competing offer and you’re genuinely open to letting them go, be straightforward: “I’ve looked carefully at what I can offer, and I’m not in a position to match what you’ve described. I’d rather be honest with you than make commitments I can’t keep. I genuinely wish you well and I’m happy to be a strong reference.” Competing offers are frequently inflated by one-time signing bonuses that don’t reflect actual base compensation. An employee who is actively shopping and using an outside offer as leverage may have loyalty that’s already conditional, and a bidding war tends to delay rather than resolve that.

When budget is the genuine obstacle, say so plainly: “Our salary budget is locked until October. What I can commit to is making sure you’re first in line when that window opens, and I want to document that. In the meantime, let me talk about what else I can do.” Non-cash compensation deserves a serious conversation, not a consolation-prize presentation. A title change that reflects expanded scope raises the employee’s market rate permanently and compounds in their favor at every future negotiation. A professional development budget benefits the organization as much as the individual. An accelerated review cycle, moving the next formal review from twelve months to three, signals genuine seriousness and gives both parties an early accountability checkpoint.

Honesty Builds the Kind of Authority That Lasts

There are things managers say in these conversations that damage trust even when well-intentioned:

  • “I think you’re already paid well” sounds dismissive even when it’s factually accurate
  • “Everyone is struggling right now” deflects rather than addresses the specific request
  • “I’ll see what I can do” breeds quiet resentment when nothing follows
  • “Don’t tell anyone about this raise” creates a culture of secrecy that tends to backfire
  • “You should be grateful you have a job” ends the conversation and, effectively, the relationship

Also worth naming: some managers instinctively penalize employees who ask for raises, assigning lower performance ratings afterward, passing them over for projects, or treating them as a flight risk. The employees most likely to advocate for their compensation are often your strongest performers. Penalizing that initiative trains your best people to stop engaging and start planning their exit instead.

Pay attention to gender dynamics in these conversations. Research consistently shows that women who negotiate assertively are penalized more often than men for identical behavior. You have a specific responsibility as a manager to notice whether your reaction to a raise request shifts based on who’s sitting across from you, and to correct for it honestly.

A single employee asking for a raise is a normal part of managing people. Multiple employees asking within a short window is a signal about your compensation structure or your culture, and usually both. Word travels despite your best efforts at confidentiality. If you grant raises reactively, only to those who push hardest, you build a culture that rewards volume over performance and invites a chain reaction. The answer isn’t to be uniformly conservative. It’s to build a compensation structure that’s coherent and reviewed regularly, so that no one has to guess whether they’re being paid fairly.

How you handle these conversations defines your reputation, not just with the employee in front of you but with the team watching from outside and the candidates you’ll try to recruit down the road. A raise conversation handled well is a retention conversation. It’s also a signal, to everyone paying attention, of what kind of manager you are.

Five Questions to Keep Your Job from Driving You Nuts

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Five Questions to Keep Your Job from Driving You Nuts When work is actually decent, everything else starts to click. A good job challenges you just enough, pays the bills, surrounds you with coworkers who aren’t jerks, includes a boss who gets you, and offers a commute that doesn’t crush your soul. If you’ve got one, hold onto it. But if your job feels more “meh” than meaningful, it might be time to rethink how you’re showing up to it.

You don’t need a promotion or some life-changing pivot. Sometimes, a small mindset tweak is enough. Instead of chasing the ideal job or measuring your current one against outdated standards, ask better questions. You may find the spark isn’t gone—it’s just buried under routine and autopilot. Start with these:

  1. What parts of your day actually feel good—and how can you create more of them? Significance: Small joys matter. They keep you grounded.
  2. Who around you genuinely seems to like their job—and what are they doing differently? Significance: Pay attention. Borrow smart habits. Experiment.
  3. What small responsibilities can you quietly take on—even if no one notices yet? Significance: Leadership doesn’t wait for permission. It starts with initiative.
  4. What skill could you start building today that nudges you toward the next role? Significance: Make your potential visible. Show your growth in action.
  5. Does your calendar reflect your values—or just what others expect of you? Significance: Time speaks louder than intentions. Spend it wisely.

Bonus: What tough issue are you avoiding that needs a name before it grows teeth Significance: Ignoring problems doesn’t shrink them. It sharpens them.

Idea for Impact: Careers don’t reset in a day. But your rhythm can—one step at a time, starting now.

Being Situational

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Situational Leadership: Effective Leaders Adjust Their Approach When someone asks, “What’s your leadership or managerial style?” the best response often comes down to, “It depends.”

Leadership doesn’t mean sticking to a fixed style—it requires adapting to what the situation demands. While leadership models like authentic, transformational, and servant leadership offer useful insights, taking a situational approach works best. You need to assess the moment and respond with the right style.

Evaluate what the situation calls for. When you need to set firm boundaries, showing frustration sends a clear message. If your team lacks the necessary skills, getting hands-on and micromanaging the tasks drives results. On the other hand, when your team knows what they’re doing, stepping back and offering periodic guidance keeps things on track. Using the same style everywhere rarely delivers the right results.

Idea for Impact: Right style, right time. That’s effective leadership.

The Likeability Factor: Whose “Do Not Pair” List Includes You?

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Southwest Airlines Employs Southwest Airlines employs an “Avoidance Bid System,” similar to the “Do Not Pair” systems found at other airlines. This system allows first officers to select up to three captains they prefer not to fly with when scheduling their monthly rosters. The process is straightforward; it involves entering the captain’s employee number without the need to provide a reason for the preference.

If Southwest’s crew scheduling system pairs a first officer with one of their “avoided” captains, the first officer will be reassigned to a different trip. Notably, captains do not have the same privilege to designate first officers they prefer not to fly with.

The Avoidance Bid System gained significant attention after the Southwest Airlines Flight 345 incident in July 2013. This incident involved a Boeing 737-700 aircraft experiencing a nose gear collapse during a hard landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Despite receiving warnings from the first officer to abort the landing, the captain ignored the alerts. Subsequent investigations uncovered that the captain had received numerous grievances from many first officers she had flown with before; in fact, she was on many first officers’ “Do Not Pair” lists.

In professions such as aviation, which depend heavily on standardization and routine procedures, the impact of workplace likability is intriguing to ponder. When management overlooks individuals who struggle to collaborate and adhere to standard procedures, it poses a considerable risk to safe operations. Errant behavior, particularly from those in positions of power, can disrupt team dynamics, sow tension among colleagues, and weaken the efficacy of established protocols.

Idea for Impact: Ever stop and think if your coworkers would slap your name on their “Do Not Pair” list if our company had a system like that? Maybe your skills, experience, or even just your attitude could land you there. Likability is the glue that fortifies professional relationships and unlocks pathways to opportunities.