What do you do when one of your team members is feeling undercompensated but giving them a pay increase is out of your hands? Can you give someone a promotion without a raise and how should you do that? Welcome to the 9th edition of “Ask Lighthouse”, our weekly format that answers your questions about leadership and management
This Week’s Ask Lighthouse: What to do when someone feels undercompensated
When someone on your team asks for a raise, knowing how to react can be a big challenge.
- You have only a small amount of time to respond, but what you say can seriously affect their morale or get them to consider leaving.
Grow them and give them new projects to work on
Focus on providing them with every form of career growth you can
- Introduce them to a mentor further along in a similar career
- Buy them a book or course to learn a new skill that applies to their current job
- Empower them to take on a project to fix an issue important to them
Be more transparent
When an organization is transparent with their employees, they tend to be more successful in several areas
- There’s a deeper level of trust between employers and employees
- They have less work-related stress in their lives
- A lack of transparency often leads to a toxic culture that causes people to leave.
What should I do if a team member shares that they are feeling under-appreciated from a compensation perspective?
As their manager, you don’t have the direct power to provide a raise
- Instead, redirect the conversation toward what’s really bothering them
- Money only goes so far when motivating people
- There’s likely something else bothering your team member you need to address
What are your biggest leadership challenges right now?
Submit your biggest challenge to leadership@lighthouse.com
Get to the root cause and find out what’s really bothering them
Ask them: What’s your least favorite part about your job right now? What’s one thing we could do to improve how our team works?
- Are there any aspects of our culture you wish you could change? Is there a situation you’d like my help with?
