When I was working for the franchise company I received many requests from employees for a pay rise.

Many of these requests came from the younger team members who were in their early 20’s.

They hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary to deserve a pay rise. In fact, quite the opposite. They barely met their key performance indicators (KPI’s).

I was challenged. I didn’t know how to respond, that is, until I read a book by Clement Stone, I think it was “Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude”.

Anyhoo, the message I remember is this, “You get a pay rise as a reward for more work not for the promise of more work”.

You see, most people get it backwards. They ask for a pay rise, promising to do more. It doesn’t work that way.

You do more, which gets you noticed and trusted and then you get the pay rise as a thank you and a recognition for going above and beyond.

I was astounded when I read this. Nobody had ever told me this.

I was in my late 30’s at the time. It made complete sense to me and it also helped me understand the difference between having been employed by various government departments, where promotion was by seniority, not merit and private enterprise, where promotion was based on initiative and value to the company.

The message this week is clear, (well at least I hope so). If you want to earn more, do more. Step up. Take on more responsibility, without having to be asked to do so. Find ways to be of even more value to the company.

Those that get paid the big bucks are those that contribute the most value.

What value are you bringing?

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P.S.S. One way you can help yourself step up is to enrol in our next Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience starting in February 2023. 

Finally, after months of renovating, it was moving day.

I’m always a little anxious when it comes to moving.

In the past, and we’ve had many moves, we were often still packing as the removalists arrived.

This time wasn’t any different.

Scrambling to get office stuff put into boxes so the removalists could take the filing cabinets and credenza, we eventually got there and they were able to complete packing the truck.

Always an avid observer of people, I was impressed with how the head guy operated.

Upon arrival he did a walk through with Ross to assess the job. What was going? Where were the exit options? How was it going to fit on the truck?

He created a plan for which items had to be moved first and then executed the plan, all the while giving instructions to his very strong team mate.

When they arrived at the new house he took his time to assess the best place to park the truck.

The house has a very steep driveway and 14 stairs to the upper level.

He had knocked on the neighbour’s door to see if they would mind if he parked over their driveway. The neighbours didn’t answer. I suggested it would be okay, despite having ignored their moving tips of letting the neighbours know to expect the removalists.

He decided to turn the truck around, facing the opposite direction to the traffic to enable him to position a sideways ramp from the truck to halfway up the driveway. This eliminated the steepest part.

Impressive. I mentioned to Ross how much I liked the way he thought about things.

Another walk through of the destination house, another plan, and off they went, efficiently and effectively dispatching the furniture and they were careful too.

Often with removalists, there doesn’t seem to be a great care factor for the walls etc. in their haste to get things done, nor does there seem to be a plan other than, put it in the truck, take it out of the truck.

This guy was refreshingly different.

He was a thinker and thankfully for us, was able to work out a plan to get the lounge over the front railing onto the verandah on the second story. He was tall, but not that tall to lift a 3 seater lounge over his head from the driveway. He asked Ross to drive Harry HiLux up to driveway and he would stand on the back of Harry and lift the lounge. OMG!

Next challenge was the sliding door didn’t want to come out to allow extra room. Once the lounge was on the verandah, it had to go in that way, so it was up to very strong team mate to get the door out. Lounge delivered, no damage to the lounge, door or walls. Thank you so much.

So what’s the point of this week’s thought?

Are you a thinker or a bull at a gate?

Do you take time to work out what you have to do before jumping into doing it?

How about your team?

Are they helping or hindering your company’s reputation?

If I was working with you and your team would I be reflecting that I like the way you think?

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Here’s a perfect example of two different perceptions:

We were running out of time to get the painting done in the house before the carpet was to be laid and we move in.

We asked around and got a recommendation for a painter.

We engaged the painter to paint all the internal walls and ceilings for us.

As we drove up to the house one morning, I realised we also needed to get the “very high and very steep” sides of the external walls painted as well.

As it happened, the painter was just setting up outside when we arrived, so we asked him about the external walls.

“Yes, no problem”, he could do that. We would just need to organise some sort of scaffolding.

As we walked back to the front of the house, he pointed out the garage doors and said, “I’m not trying to get another job out of you but I could paint those garage doors for you, if you were thinking of replacing them.”

Indeed, replacing the garage doors was on my big list of things to fix or replace.

He repeated himself, “I’m not trying to get another job out of you. I don’t know how much it would cost to replace the doors, but it would be a few hours work and the cost of the paint. This would most likely be a lot cheaper than buying new doors. I estimate it would be about $x.”

The $x was about half of what I expected it might cost to replace the doors.

I found it curious that he kept justifying himself with “I’m not trying to get another job out of you”, when I was very appreciative of him letting me know that he could do the job and the bonus was that we wouldn’t have to replace the doors and it would cost substantially less.

It’s fascinating to me to see how we clearly communicate our limiting beliefs to others.

The painter seemed to be embarrassed about letting me know that he could do the extra work. It was as if he was apologising for offering the work that would cost me more money and yet from my point of view, I was extremely grateful to him for telling me what he could do.

Think about yourself for a moment. If someone was listening to you, would they have a different perception of what you are saying?

Are you aware enough to pick up when you verbalise a limiting belief?

That’s your mission this week. Listen to what people are saying to you. Listen to yourself. See if you notice any limiting beliefs.

You might just find that your customers appreciate you letting them know what you can do for them.

P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts