How to Position Yourself for a Raise: Balance Past Performance and Future Potential

As a career coach, I often remind people that raises serve two purposes. In my experience, many people only focus on one or the other, and that can be detrimental.

A raise is both a reward for the value you’ve created in the past and an investment in your future potential—the value your employer expects you to bring to the organization moving forward.

Too often, people want a raise because they’ve done something great in the past, but they fail to clearly demonstrate their desire and ability to continue delivering even more great things in the future. Consequently, that past achievement starts to look more like a random stroke of good fortune. Other folks want a raise because they plan to do great things in the future, but their track record only shows mediocre work. They want the money first, and then they’ll be properly incentivized to deliver greatness.

You can see the problems, right?

Focusing on one side of the equation or the other is a tough sell. Considering both will help align your efforts with what really matters to your employer and increase your chances of financial success in the future.

Rewarding Past Performance

First and foremost, a raise is an acknowledgment of the results you’ve already delivered. And it really is about results—not just effort or time. Loyalty and hard work are nice but expected. The purpose of a raise is to recognize an outstanding outcome and the measurable value of the work you’ve accomplished. Even more compelling is a consistent pattern of outstanding outcomes, as opposed to a minimal or sporadic history.

If you’re not sure how your work produces value, check out this article: 6 Ways to Add Value to Your Organization & Advance Your Career

Recognizing Future Potential

While successful past performance is essential, leaders are also looking at your ability to continue growing, developing new skills, and contributing in even more significant and valuable ways. Potential is about the promise of future contributions—your proven ability and willingness to learn and adapt.

Actively participating in professional development activities, obtaining professional certifications, and engaging in on-the-job learning opportunities are all good ways to demonstrate and facilitate continuously expanding potential.

Remember that leaders are most inclined keep their people happy when they bring value to the company now and are likely to for years to come. These two factors combined will give you the most leverage.

In career conversations, be sure to highlight not only the organizational value of what you’ve already accomplished, but also what you aim to achieve moving forward. Discuss your professional development activities and aspirations and how you are aligning these with the company’s future needs. This shows that you are reflecting on your past successes, but not resting on your laurels. You are ambitious and committed to continuing that success in even bigger ways in the future.

I believe that taking this dual approach will help ensure you are seen as a valuable organizational asset, and it will maximize your chances of earning a pay raise. That being said, it’s worth noting that competitive analysis also plays a role in financial decisions within organizations. Leaders are always considering how easy it would be for you to leave and earn more elsewhere, and balancing that risk against the cost of keeping you.

This strategy also presumes the decision maker has the authority to grant a “merit based” raise. In some organizations, this ability has been limited, as it introduces a certain amount of subjectivity to the process which can be abused. Recently, more organizations are leveraging strict models that dictate how and when a raise is given, and the standards that must be met. The strategies discussed in this article are likely to align with any such model, but you’ll want to take note of your organization’s unique requirements as well.

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