Career Advancement Strategies: What to Say When They Tell You There's No Budget

In the summer of 2009 I was running for the Colorado State House, and my job was to call old friends and ask for money.

I'd say hello. I'd say, "It's so good to hear your voice." Make some small talk and figure out a way to eloquently lead into: "Can I have your money?"

It was the hardest thing I had ever done.

I had spent years telling candidates to make these calls. I was very good at it. Turns out that advice is MUCH easier to give from the passenger seat. Sometimes the answer was yes. Sometimes it wasn't. And I finally understood why the people I'd pushed had looked at the phone like it was a snake.

I thought about that campaign last week when a client told me about a follow up meeting with her boss.

She walked into her manager's office and he exhaled like a man who had rehearsed his lines over and over again in the car. "I fought for this. I really did. There's just no budget this year."

“He looked so pained,” she told me. “So I just said, I totally understand.”

She thanked him for his time. She may have even thanked the ficus in the corner. 

But by four o'clock she had volunteered for a new initiative, unpaid, hoping to prove that she was worth the raise.  

“Maybe your worth was never in question,” I told her. 

The career advancement strategy women don't often use.

Another client of mine was asked to lead a new team. No new title. No new salary. Just the team.

She had a better idea. She told them no, not unless the role came with the title and the pay. Then she did the part most of us skip. She went to find out who had the authority to say yes.

When I told this story to a room of women, I said what I'll say to you. A man in that seat would have said, "Happy to. What's the new title and the increase for the added responsibility?" Without blinking. 

It would not have felt like an event. It would have felt like Tuesday.

We don't ask because we've decided the answer in advance. We're afraid of being the woman who asked.

Budget is the Bigfoot of the org chart. Everybody’s heard of it. Nobody has actually seen it. People say “there’s no budget” like they’re reporting the weather, as if it just happened and nobody can do anything about it.

But a budget isn't a force of nature like the weather. A person built it, on a certain date, in a certain meeting, and made choices about where the money goes. That means a person can change it.

So here's what to say.

1. Ask the question he'd ask.

"What is the title and compensation that go with this scope?" Say it flat, like you're asking for the syrup for your french toast. If they say, ‘There’s no budget for either one,’ you’ve just learned something important. This new work is unpaid. It costs you your time and energy, and you get no title and no raise for it. That’s the real price.

Now you get to choose. You can say yes and do it for free, knowing exactly what you’re giving. Or you can say no, or ask for something else in return. Either way, it’s your decision, not an automatic yes.

2. Skip "I understand." Instead say, "Walk me through how that gets decided."

Now you're not someone who got turned down. You're someone collecting information. Same room, different job. Ask when the number gets set again and who sits in that room. If the answer is "I'm not sure," congratulations. You've just found out the guy with the ficus doesn't decide.

3. Hand back what isn't funded.

"I don't have capacity for that. Here's what I do have capacity for." Then stop talking. I teach this in my workshops and it gets the same reaction every time: a small gasp, then a laugh, then someone writes it on a sticky note. If the money isn't there, the extra scope isn't either. You are not a charity with an email address.

Say it out loud once and notice how your body objects. That objection is the over-proving talking. It kept you safe once. It's costing you now.

Say it before you need it

If you've never said any of this to another human, don't debut it in your review. Say it in the car. Say it to the dashboard. The dashboard has heard worse.

Or say it to me. On Tuesday, November 10, I'm running a free live workshop called Don't Shrink in the Room. It's the best career advancment strategy I can offer right now. You'll practice your ask out loud, with another woman, until it stops sounding like an apology. You can register here.

And if you got a "no budget" this year, send me an email to jen@jencoken.com. I want to hear what the ficus said.