Can Your Future Professional Development Be Part of your Salary Package?

I don’t know who needs to hear this right now…but when you get an offer of a promotion or a stretch role, negotiate a personal professional development budget into your compensation package!

Here’s a little secret about how salary negotiations work.

• The manager who hired you wants to agree to as much as possible to get you to say yes to the role.  They want YOU!

• Buuuuutttt…. parity on a team for commensurate roles is a big deal.

• Many organizations have strict rules about how far a manager can push on compensation.

• Additionally, great managers are thoughtful about self-regulating their own equal treatment of the team even if no one else is forcing them.

So where does that leave you?

If you get creative, there are likely many things you want that both of you can agree to.

An easy one to agree to is professional development.  You get to pick the training program or 1:1 coach of your dreams.  Your manager gets a stronger leader.  Your peers get the message that people who pursue learning earn promotions.

Everyone wins.

Next time you’re presented with this moment, what do you want to ask for?