Answer extracted from the Ordinary To Badass podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How should professionals structure their asks for promotions, raises, or additional responsibilities to increase likelihood of approval?
Connect your ask to business value by explaining exactly where you'll own new responsibility and what problems you'll solve at the next level. For resources, articulate what outcomes those resources will help your team produce. Reduce uncertainty by providing concrete evidence of your capability to handle responsibility, make decisions, and lead people.
Build a Business Case, Not Just a Request
The foundation of any successful ask is reframing it as a business conversation, not a personal plea. When you want a promotion, don't ask for the title—describe the specific problems you can solve at the next level that your current role doesn't allow you to address. This shifts the conversation from "I deserve this" to "here's what the organization gains."
For additional responsibility, clearly define where you're prepared to own the work. Leaders hesitate to expand someone's scope because they fear oversight gaps or unclear accountability. When you specify which decisions you'll make, which stakeholders you'll manage, and what you'll deliver, you eliminate that uncertainty. As discussed in this leadership episode, the fear isn't about your ambition—it's about operational risk.
Provide Evidence Before You Ask
Leadership decisions, whether promotions, raises, or expanded authority, involve uncertainty. Your job is to reduce that uncertainty with data. Build a track record that demonstrates you can handle the responsibility you're requesting before the conversation even happens.
This means documenting outcomes: successful projects led, decisions made independently, conflicts resolved, teams influenced. When you walk into that conversation, you're not asking someone to take a leap of faith—you're asking them to recognize a pattern of capability that's already visible. This applies equally to raises: connect the compensation request to measurable impact, expanded scope, or market-rate research that justifies the number.
The specificity matters enormously. A vague request for "more responsibility" gets a vague response. But an ask backed by concrete examples from your track record activates decision-making.
"Leadership isn't a personality type. It's a strategy. It's understanding people, understanding the room, knowing what you can control, building relationships, creating evidence, communicating your impact, preparing before the moment comes, asking for what you want, and then moving when it's time to move."
Marie Sonneman — Leadership Coach & Law Enforcement Lieutenant. Sonneman draws her framework from years coaching leaders and law enforcement personnel through high-stakes career decisions, combining tactical preparation with authentic communication.
One detail worth exploring further: the episode unpacks why even highly accomplished executives sometimes fail to advocate for themselves in negotiations—and the psychological patterns that undermine that advocacy.
Key takeaways
- Frame every ask as a business case tied to organizational outcomes, not personal desire or deservingness.
- For promotions or expanded scope, specify exactly which responsibilities you'll own and which decisions you'll make independently.
- Gather evidence of your capability in advance—completed projects, proven judgment, stakeholder influence—so the ask confirms an existing pattern rather than betting on potential.
- For resource requests, articulate the measurable outcomes those resources will enable for the team or organization.
See also
Why did a highly accomplished senior executive at a major tech company hesitate to negotiate a chief operating officer offer in 2008?
Sheryl Sandberg was afraid that negotiating might make Mark Zuckerberg reconsider his offer because she worried that asking for more might change how he perceived her willingness to accept the role.
What strategy should professionals use when they cannot control an important career decision made by someone else?
When you cannot control whether your boss promotes you, you absolutely have control over whether you develop. You may not control how one person sees your capability, but you can ensure that multiple people recognize your value and potential.
How should leaders approach developing talent once women are already in the room?
Leaders should ask who gets developed, who gets encouraged, who gets the high-profile assignment, who gets forgiven for mistakes, and who gets excluded from key opportunities—and ensure equitable distribution of these advantages.