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Three Game-Changing Asks to Accelerate Your Goals (And None of Them Are About Money)
Author, ask strategist, and leadership communications coach Dia Bondi shares insights on what kinds of asks you can design that close the gap between where you are and where you want to be in your career, business, and life.
Before you negotiate, design a better ask.
The word “negotiation” conjures images of tough talk over a mahogany table, suggests career pivot points like raises and promotions and pulls up that gut-twisting feeling you get when you’re negotiating with yourself on your next move — as you negotiate with whoever is on the other side of the conversation.
When we hear the word negotiate, it drops us right in the middle of the experience. The back and forth, the hand wringing, the drama.
Stop.
Before you go there, let’s take a step back and design a better, more strategic ask. So whatever you end up with, after those dreaded negotiations is the exact thing that can help close the gap between where you are and where you want to be for yourself, your team, and your business.
In my 20 years of helping leaders secure decisions and resources that have the power to change everything, I’ve seen that there are four types of asks that can do just that. Yes, money is one of them. Investment, raises and comp packages, budgets, contracts, sponsorships. Yet, there are three other types of asks that can have a big impact but get little attention.
So if you’re ready to start at the beginning, and design a better ask, consider these three game-changing asks you can make that will accelerate you toward your goal.
The Authority Ask
You can’t do your job, fulfill your role, or put your hands on the steering wheel of your goal, initiative, business, or career without the right amount of decision-making power. Consider designing an ask that secures you more authority in your domain. This can come in the form of an explicit agreement that you own creative approval on a significant project, all the way up to a promotion with the title that gives you the authority to sign checks, approve initiatives, or decide what’s next. One early stage COO shared “I realize that it was time for me to ask my Founder to give me the decisions he’d been holding on to. Without that decision-making power, without that authority, I’m only operating in second gear.”
Could your goals use a little more authority? Design an ask that gets you that.
The Influence Ask
If we can’t see you, we can’t be influenced by you. Raise your visibility and influence by making strategic asks that put you on stages, in rooms, and give you access to networks that grow your influence in a market, a domain, or within your organization. This kind of ask doesn’t care about money. But it will impact the money-asks you might make later by growing your influence and being seen by more of the right people in the right markets. One executive I worked with said to me “It was critical that I took that stage because I knew it would have a huge impact on how I’m seen and positioned as a leader”. This is influence.
Could your goals use a little more influence from you? Design an ask that will get you there.
The Balance Ask
Not work life balance. The kind of balance that brings into alignment who you are and the work you’re doing. Maybe your work is great, but you’re doing it with the wrong client. Maybe you’re a great sales leader, but you’ve been dreaming of moving into Brand Marketing. Maybe you love your job, but have always wanted to live abroad. What asks might you make that begin to bring into balance who you are and the life, career, or industry you’re living in now?
Make those asks, and you could see yourself accelerate toward that goal. Setting yourself up for later asks that grow influence, authority, and…maybe even money.
One audience member in a speaking engagement I did reached out to me with her follow up story. It’s small, and personal, and says everything about how a balance ask can change everything. “I’d been in my role for 18 years. I’d outgrown the work and it was time for me to start something new. On my own. It was time to be an entrepreneur. I had to bring into balance who I am now, with the kind of work I want to do. So I did it, I made the ask. And now I’m part time with my old firm and starting my new venture. That one ask changed everything.”
Could your goals use a little more balance? Design an ask to find it..
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, executive, small business owner, or early career professional, you can use asks as a success strategy, if you know what to ask for and you design the kinds of asks that can change everything.
So, before you negotiate, design a better ask.
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