Negotiation November: Why You Need to Tell Before You Ask

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last month Catalyst’s President and CEO Ilene Lang addressed roughly 2,000 women at Deutsche Bank’s Women on Wall Street event, regarding the organization’s latest report “The Myth of the Ideal Worker: Does Doing All the Right Things Really Get Women Ahead?”

The report analyzes the effectiveness of a number of career strategies – and while men seem to come out ahead no matter what career strategies they employ, women did benefit significantly from talking up their accomplishments.

Surprisingly, the report showed that although there is plenty of discussion around women “not asking” or women “waiting to be rewarded” for their work, in fact, women are negotiating.

She said, “Women and men negotiate the same. Women are less likely to negotiate compensation in their first job, but after that they learn from that.”

Why, then, aren’t women getting as far as men when it comes to asking for more? One part of the solution may be a simple as engaging in a little show and tell.

Women Do Ask

The Catalyst study showed that women are negotiating at nearly the same rate as men. According to the report, “47% of women and 52% of men reported they had countered during the hiring process by asking for a higher salary.” Similarly, “14% of women and 15% of men had countered by asking for a position at a higher job level.”

This is similar to recent Accenture research on the same topic.

Accenture’s study, “Reinvent Opportunity: Looking Through a New Lens,” [PDF] consisted of a survey of 3,400 business executives across 29 countries. According to the report, released in March of this year, women are only slightly less likely than men to have asked for pay raises (44% versus 48%). Somewhat similarly, 28% of women had asked for a promotion compared to 39% of men.

In fact, both Accenture’s and Catalyst’s research showed women more engaged in career development work. Accenture’s study showed that 59% of women considered developing knowledge and skill sets a career objective, compared with 57% of men. But, 18% percent of women said they planned to go back to school while only 11% of men said the same.

Catalyst’s research revealed that that women were also more likely than men to ask about other kinds of opportunities too. “Women were more likely than men to ask for a variety of skill-building experiences, to proactively seek training opportunities, and to make achievements visible, including asking for feedback and promotions.”

Why?

Maybe because women have to ask to find out about these opportunities, whereas men are simply told, or ushered into high-growth career tracks without needing to ask.

It’s About Recognition

Why aren’t women getting as far as men in the compensation and promotion game, when they are negotiating at almost the same rate and working harder to advance their careers? The answer may have something to do with expectations.

As Lang pointed out at WOWS, in many ways women are lagging behind men “really because women are paid and rewarded for performance…. while men are paid and rewarded on potential.”

The Catalyst report explains:

“Maybe it’s not that women don’t ask, but that men don’t have to? While it’s undoubtedly helpful for women to know that increasing the visibility of their accomplishments can lead to greater advancement and compensation growth, it begs the question: why don’t men have to do the same? Are men being rewarded without even having to ask? Do women have to raise their hands and seek recognition to an even greater extent than men do to receive the same outcomes?”

While women had to work hard to make sure everyone knew the value of their contributions to get ahead, men didn’t. Lang said, “Men didn’t have to make their accomplishments known. Somehow they were divined or assumed.”

The research shows the importance of making sure everyone knows what you’re worth before you ask for a raise or promotion. While men don’t have to work as hard at this, unfortunately, the research shows that women do. It’s not fair, and we need to find ways to change the status quo whereby men are pre-qualified for top jobs (and salaries) while women have to prove themselves over and over again.

But it does reveal the importance of discussing, with pride, your achievements. Loud and proud – before you ask, make sure to tell everyone what you’ve done for your team and your company lately.