Hi friends, I'm talking with job doctor Tessa today. Tessa is a former HR executive from a fortune 50, from a fortune 50 company who now helps Professionals understand careers, companies, how organizations promote, hire as well as increase pay. So I have been following Tessa for a long time on TikTok and I've seen her incredible advice help a lot of people. I'm really excited to have her today on the show talking about how to get promoted at work quickly. Let's dive in.
Securing a big salary should be as easy as asking for more, right? Turns out it's a little bit more than that. First, let me ask you, which of these apply to you? Reading org announcements with envy as other people get promoted? Working long hours with little to show for it. Getting more degrees hoping to be seen. Don't feel bad. I made the same mistake myself, without even realizing. And it's not your fault.
In this podcast, I'm going to help you master the strategy and techniques on how to get promoted, how to double your paycheck, And how to secure more flexibility without adding more work or more degrees. You are listening to Salary Negotiations Made Simple. The show that builds your confidence and inspires you to negotiate for the career you deserve. Do you want to double your salary, secure an ideal career, and increase your confidence to powerfully negotiate every career move?
Then you are in exactly the right place. Hi Tessa, so happy to have you in the studio today. How are you doing? Doing great. Thank you so much for having me. This conversation topic I think is going to be very interesting for people. Absolutely. And all the work that you do in empowerment, would you please start us out with a little bit of introduction, who you are and how do you help? If people don't already know you it'll be, it'll be magical for them to hear all the work that you do.
I think most people know me as the job doctor. Our job, Dr. Tessa on Tik TOK, Instagram, and various social platforms. And what I do is I really try to help people navigate their careers. I used to work on the other side of the equation and help companies as the head of HR, and I realized I see what's going on behind closed doors and I see what's working and not working. So I went to the other end and now I help people navigate. Try and figure out how to make it all work for them.
The thing I wish that had existed when I was building my own career. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, anybody who follows you on Tik TOK or, or all the other avenues that you're accessible at, you speak a lot about. Mid career executives, especially women feeling stuck or kind of stuck in that mid career level, trying to get to director or vice president. What is your advice to someone who is in that position and wants to get promoted?
Well, it's, it's hard to say exactly because I talk about the five stages of growth in my book, the unspoken truths for career success. There's lots of chapters on this and depending on the level that you're at in your career depends on the skillset that you need to practice. But I would say. If I have to just generalize, getting comfortable with conflict is probably the one thing that women often struggle with that acts as a fatal flaw in their career if they can't do it.
Sometimes I think there's a belief that if you get along with everybody and you never ruffle feathers and you don't push back, then somehow that's going to help you. And it actually does. It hurts your career and you need to learn how to have conflict that's positive and resolve problems rather than think that conflict's a bad thing. Mm hmm.
Yeah. I mean, we have to speak generally here because of course, everybody's situation is slightly unique and new on the thing on that general note if you are. Accepting of conflict. What is what is a healthy way to do it? Could you share an example? Of course, you've had years of experience with this.
Yes Any examples that come to mind that this was a don't and this is a do like this is the type of conflict You should accept and embrace but not this one I think about any kind of conflict that you have can end up being positive, but the key is assuming good intent in the other person.
And when I sit and listen to a manager, for example, and a team member having conflict and have done this, you know, decades, it almost always goes south because they're assuming bad intent in the other, like you're trying to take advantage of me, manager. That would be, you know, a belief that shows up in our language. And so. I tell people, assuming good intent is really hard to do if you're not paying attention to your language.
And there's three magic sentences that I recommend you use, even if you don't know how to have the greatest conversation and don't know all the tricks. Saying, is that what you intended? Do you see it differently? Or is there something missing or a piece of information missing that would help me understand? All of those are assuming good intent and assuming that, that the other person's on your side, not against you. And I think it helps the conversation continue where it could get shut down.
Yeah, no, but that also helps you put yourself by asking those questions in the other person's shoes. Maybe there is a very good reason that you are not privy to, that once you ask those questions, it's going to get clear to you. Yes, I had, I had a client the other day call and say, you know, we had a plan, me and my manager, we had built this budget and we were going to do things a certain way.
And she got out of this executive meeting and comes over and she slashes the budget and changes everything. And it just blew me away. Like, how can there be a good explanation for that? I said, you've got to assume good intent and go into the conversation and say, I know that we had planned to do it this way. Is there some, you know, what happened? And is there something missing that would help me understand why you made a new decision?
And once she had the conversation, she realized, Oh, there are some things I'm not privy to, and it allowed them to have a really productive conversation instead of a, conversation where she was going to walk away feeling taken advantage of or like her manager didn't listen to her or care about her feedback. Yeah. That's a good point. To, to even when it's a manager employee relationship to just have, have that open communication to say, Hey, what happened?
Yeah. Kind of kind of along those lines. How do you, the one thing is getting good with conflict or getting yourself ready for promotion. What about the other side? Like, how do you make sure that your managers see you as ready for promotion or your leaders or stakeholders? It's such a great question. I think there's a couple of things. One, it sounds really simple, but.
When I work with people on resumes, for example, and I say, tell me about your value proposition or tell me what your secret sauce or what makes you so good. They have a very hard time answering it. And I promise if you don't know what it is, your manager doesn't know what it is. Like you have to be able to articulate. Here's the thing I do really well, or here's my secret sauce. That will help you get promotions when you, when you are able to tell the story that then gets repeated.
So that's one important thing. A lot of times people don't measure the things that they're doing either. And the language of business is numbers. So if you can't articulate and share with your manager regular updates that say, Hey, here's one of the things I'm working on. We moved it from here to here, or we were able to save this much money or bring in additional revenue or fix these many steps in the process and consolidate in this way.
If you can't articulate how you're making a difference, that also hurts you in a very big way. And I think a lot of people think they, they shouldn't have to write the script. I should be able to do my work and, and my work should be evident to other people and I should therefore get a promotion. But it simply doesn't work that way. You know, you have to be somebody that toot your own horn to a degree, and it's not self.
Women often think it's self promotion and it's like a very distasteful trait, but, but when you are able to share what you're getting done and the outcomes that you're getting, I would say that is not distasteful. That is, that is most helpful to the business and to you in your career. Yeah. I hear that quite a bit from my clients that, and I'm not in it for the money. So those are the sort of them, like those waiting to be tapped on the shoulder.
Yes. And then saying, I'm not in it for the money, and then getting disappointed when you find out that you're not making as much as some of the colleagues in your workplace. Right. I, I read a really interesting report and it's a little bit old, but it says women are not particularly good at asking for raises or promotions. They're getting better at it, but the commonality and the reason that women historically haven't Right. Right.
Boiled down to one factor and that factor was, I don't think I have permission to talk about a raise. I, and, and so I hate this idea that somebody has to give us permission to say good things or to share what we're getting done or to ask for a raise. And when you're behind closed doors and kind of seeing the whole company. You start to go, Oh, there's a reason that person makes more money. They advocate for themselves.
And I don't like, I don't like when women in particular or men for that matter, think that because they do a good job, someone else is supposed to notice and reward them. I really think you should be first and foremost, your biggest advocate followed by your manager. If you can, if you can do that. And the other thing is, you know, I've sat in on all these promotion meetings, these secret promotion meetings that companies have a couple of times a year.
And about nine out of 10 times, I'm not even exaggerating on this. The reason somebody does not get a promotion is because they'll the other people in the room will say, well, they sound really great, but I don't know them. Like they need to work with me. And so understanding that you need to work across boundaries and not stay in your silo and you need to establish relationships with other people.
Knowing that that is the number one reason somebody doesn't get the promotion in those meetings, it's really important that you, that you nurture those relationships. Yeah, I resonate with that so much. And this is why I'm such a fan of yours, Tessa, because I have been in those meetings where I've tried to promote a person that who has worked for me and other leaders. As you know, there are only so many promotions you can give away in a function or a company or organization.
It's a very hard process for a manager to stand up for their person. If that person has not done the work of getting to know another leaders, like the related functions, don't know them, then I don't even have enough clout to push that person up as, as a leader in the organization. It's very important for them to do that publicity for themselves. Yeah. The higher you go in an organization, as your career grows into a stage three and a four and a five, your.
Success is largely measured by the relationships you have across a company, not just within your department. And I think, I think it's within a lot of people's, most people's control to do something to fix that. You can pick mentors in other departments and say, Hey, I'm watching the way you give presentations or the way you lead people. You know, I, I love that you do this and this, will you help me before I go into this meeting and just hear this out? That's one way to do it.
You can ask to be on a cross functional initiative and that's another way to do it. But certainly you can job shadow, ask your manager to job shadow another department. But there are lots of ways to help promote that kind of interaction without waiting for it to naturally happen. Yeah, it does happen, but very few and far between, I think, right? Like that, somebody picking you for a job or a project.
Yeah. And, and, and as you know, I'm such a big fan of, you have more control than you think you have to make the things happen to help your career advance. It really isn't that you just have to sit there and wait for something to happen. You can put certain things in motion and make things happen for yourself.
That's a great segue for my next question is once you have made your wishes known and, and say you've asked for a high visibility project, you've made your wishes known and nothing is happening. How do you judge whether this is the place. This is the time you part ways with that organization and say, this is not going to work for me. I'm not going to be promotable considered promotable here. Ah, so you brought up conflict again. There's a conflict.
Yeah. So in conflicts like that, that are really common. I think it's interesting. I asked my followers. I said, how many of you would speak up in a situation like this? 94 percent said they wouldn't, they would leave the company before they would speak up. And I was like, what are you kidding me? And I said, tell me more. And they're like, I shouldn't have to write the script for the company. Like, wow.
That's like, You know, in a relationship with a spouse, like you can't just assume they know what you want, you have to talk through things. And so the first conversation I would have is with my manager and I would say something like, I, you know, I had asked to do these things so that I could grow my career, but I noticed that you know, you haven't assigned me to a cross functional team yet. Is there something going on?
I don't understand, or is there a reason you don't want to move forward on that? You've got to be able to have the hard conversation and you might even say, if that doesn't look like it's something that's doable right now, would you mind if I sit in on an executive meeting or help you make part of a presentation in this cross functional group so they get to know me? You know, your directive and say, would that be a possibility?
And if your manager continues to say no, I would ask the hard question. I would say, I feel like I could be reading more into this than there is. But I feel like as I'm trying to suggest things that will help me grow and get exposure and help me be better for the company those things aren't happening and I'm not sure how to interpret them. Now, notice I didn't blame the manager and say, you're a, you know, you're not doing this, you're bad.
And then say, Is that what you intended, or is there something that I'm missing that would help me understand why that's the case? And sometimes it's just that a manager is managing a lot of people, and they need an extra nudge. And sometimes there is something going on, but to ask the hard question before you leave a company is incredibly important because they'll give you clues. They'll give you clues as to how you're perceived and how you're seen.
And at that point you choose, do I fix the perception? Do I push or do I go, but you've got to have more information. Yeah, or reinvent yourself at a brand new company, right? Those are the two options. So it sounds like the two things that I took away from from what you just advised, one was come up, come with with curiosity, like what is the reason? And then also back to your original point of having, seeing good intent, like not blame the manager that they're not doing their part to help you.
Yeah. I, I, I give people the benefit of the doubt. I found that that helps because sometimes as managers who are also juggling a lot of different things, not just your career and what you need. Yeah. Sometimes you need to give an extra nudge or have that conversation. And more times than not, they'll say, I am so sorry. I did promise I would do that. Let me, let me follow through with it.
Very few times does the manager say, yeah, there's some problems, but if they do, I would be so excited to know, because then you can say, okay, I'm I want to know what they are because I am interested in growing and I want to understand what I need to do to make these micro adjustments during the year to make me better so that I can grow. I would run at it rather than run away from it. Yeah, that aligns so well with negotiation.
What we say in negotiation is negotiation starts at no. So when you hear no, you can then ask for what is the reason behind the no or why is it a no? When is it going to be a yes? Yeah. I love that. Say that one more time. I haven't heard that, but I love that. The negotiation begins at no. So when, when you hear a no, you can start asking those curiosity based questions and that allows you to solve the problem before guessing.
Now you have concrete, they give you the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. Well, so many people think a no. That all is lost when they get a no, and I'm like, no, a no is great because if I have a no, then especially if it's pay related, if you're negotiating pay and you get a no, then understanding what it would take to get to a yes is important, but also there's a psychological component. If a manager has had to say no to your raise or promotion this time, I promise you.
They're thinking in the back of their head the next time those come available. I don't have many more chances with this person to say no. And so, you know, it does have a psychological effect. There's an expectation that you've set and that alone, there's benefit in setting the expectation. That is such a good point. Yeah, they will remember it and they will either pay you in in different ways.
If they can't pay you in like base salary, they'll find other ways if they like you and want you and want to keep you happy, they'll find ways to give you back something and that works your benefit. It does. It does. That is a good point. Yeah. Okay, so let's say with this person, like they've asked, they've been told not yet then they've asked again, they've gotten high visibility project, they've performed, and they still don't see a promotion. So how long is too long to stay in that same job?
Good question. It's a complicated answer. I would say there's a few more things you need to know, you know, besides did I ask and get a no? That's kind of a one dimensional approach. The other thing I would want to understand in corporate America is, hey, can you tell me where I sit in the pay range? Where do I sit in the pay range or the pay band? And is there, you know a level two in this pay band that I can move up to and what would be required.
That is the language that a manager or HR is going to understand. And if they can't answer that question, it gives you some clues as to whether you want to be there or not. Let's say that you're low in the pay band and they say, I'm not exactly sure what you need to do to get more. Well, then it's time to get curious and try and put together a plan. I call it an if then proposal and say and if I do X, you know what would be the win? What would be the thing that would help?
Us look good as a department, and that is really important. And if I do that thing, then can we work a raisin because companies love two things they love free. And they'll go for free all day long and give you the title without the pay and companies love to put off now what they can pay later. They like to pay after the performance and so knowing that about companies doesn't mean you have to take a promotion and not get a raise. But let's say that they.
They want to give you an added responsibility without the raise, which frequently happens. Then it gives you this wonderful opportunity to A, get the title, which is worth 10, on your resume when you leave the company. I promise that that raise in responsibility has currency. And it also allows you to create an agreement of a raise, three months down the road, for example. And that's better than no raise at all. So part of your negotiation has to be.
Moving into an if then if they say no, the first time. I love that. That is that, that number is powerful too. That if you get that, because a lot of times we are programmed or conditioned to think that titles are not important. In fact, people tell you titles are not important. Titles are really important.
If I see a resume, especially in today's world, where people are jumping every two years to a new job I get wary of a person who has jumped multiple times and not gotten promoted within the company that they exist in. And it tells me that they jump when things get hard, or that's the assumption I make. And if somebody has a promotion on their resume in that company, it tells me a, they made it through a really, you know, the honeymoon period of a company.
They did hard things and did them well, and they got the promotion. And so the title does mean something. The title means a heck of a lot, even if it's a delayed advantage to you and it doesn't show up until your next job and the next pay. Offer that you get in a company outside of that one. It still has value.
Wow It's good to get that perspective from you because there's so much talk about like just jump job to get more Pay, but you also have to think about it from the recruiter or hiring manager's perspective if they see you jumping They will make those assumptions that maybe you never got promoted at this job, so you just got a higher title by moving to a new role. But my question now is, are you able to stick through the hard time, turbulent times? That's right. Yeah. And you know what?
I, I, I teach people. You do get more money when you jump roles. You do. That's one of the main ways that you can increase your compensation package. But people forget that the other way to do it is to get, show that you have increased responsibilities in a company and the company had faith in you. To give you more and more so you had success. It says more about this person can be successful than any other thing is an internal promotion.
And so I love them and I love seeing them on resumes and I am seeing a really interesting trend right now. And that is people who either have internal promotions or show that they can, they played in different roles in a company, even if it's a cross and if it's a lateral move, say they did something in operations and HR and finance. So they understand the ecosystem of a company and how it works. That is also worth a lot of money on your resume to show that you can play in the whole ecosystem.
And again, is something that a lot of people will say, well, I would never take a lateral move. Well, you should consider a lateral move. Yeah. Because it makes for a very robust resume. It sure does, you know, and that's a lot of times people talk about the climbing wall versus a ladder, right? Like do it as a jungle gym, like you prepare your career like a jungle gym. Yeah. Yeah. Just go up and down the PNL, right?
Like revenue profit centers, efficiency, like see where you can add value and go after that in the same, same organization. And you're going to be a much better leader and a much sought after candidate in, if you go out into the gym world. Well, remember what I said earlier about the people that get promotions have good relationships in other departments. People who get paid more understand other departments as well. They understand how it works.
And so a company that sees that on a resume goes, Oh, that person's going to work well with sales because they understand sales world and they understand operations and efficiency. So they're more likely to be able to come up with solutions and work well across all of those different functions. And, you know, that's the thought process that goes on. Great, great perspective. I so love that.
In your experience, how much leverage, so if you're, if you're this person who wants to get promoted, it's almost at the cost, it's not happening. Do you go get an alternate job offer? And does that give you enough of a leverage to negotiate a promotion or a pay raise? And what is the risk of doing that? That is the second big way to get increases in a company is and to have leverage is to have a competing job offer.
It's a lot like when you list a house, you know, a realtor will come by and say, well, this is what I think the house is worth, but you really don't know till you get offers. And the same is true. Compensation is not it's science as much as it's a little bit of art. And so having that other offer does tell an employer that at least one other company feels like you're worth this in the market. And it becomes a really powerful factor to get an increase, but.
You have to be very careful about the way that you position it with your company if you want to stay where you're at. And, and I would say something like, and, and you can listen for the good intent. I was not necessarily looking for a job, but I got a call and I, you know, took the call and I, In short, was given this, this really great job offer. Quite honestly, I really like this company. I like what I like being here.
I like working with you, but it doesn't make sense for me to stay unless I understand, and I have a career path. That makes sense and that I know that I can continue to grow with this company as well. I'd really like to stay here. Is there a possibility that the company here would be able to, to give me the same compensation and or what would a career path look like if I stay? And so asking your manager to be your partner in that rather than say, or else, or else statements are horrible.
If you can't match this, I'm leaving. That's a horrible message and you're not gonna, you're just not gonna get what you want, but when you say I want to stay here But I also have to do what's best for me, but is there a way we can create a path so that I can stay here? That is so much different of a tone and tenor, and you're so much more likely to get what you want if you pitch it that way. Yeah, I want to stay with that script for a second. So thank you for sharing that. That is. So powerful.
Hopefully people are taking notes or listen to the replay. One of the things that you said was when you're talking to your manager, when you said, can the company help us get there? You've sort of allied yourself with your manager and now you're solving the problem together. That's right. And you're not saying, can you help me? But then you immediately jumped to, can the company help us?
Get there, which I think is solid goal because that's how you create an ally and solve this problem of keeping you in this company and giving you a pay raise or a promotion. Partnered language when we're partnering well is about we. And so how can we craft this? How could we do this is so much better than me versus you. And so it's a really, again, a very subtle change, but. I like to craft conversations where it does feel like you're partners and partners solve problems together.
Partners are on the same page. Partners both win. And I think it's really important that you, before you go in for a really difficult conversation, write down what you're going to say and read it to somebody. And say, does this feel collaborative? Does it feel like we're partners? Or does it feel like, I'm assuming bad intent, or it's us, me versus them. Don't, don't fear having the conversation, but just prep for it. Like, just practice it.
Yeah, and small words can make just the biggest difference in the world. Just very small words. Yeah. So true. One more question that people are going to have as soon as we say that, like, go get a second job offer is, well, the job market is so tough right now. It's so turbulent. No one's taking calls or I'm getting ghosted. What do you think of that? Is this, is this real?
Is this job market really hard right now or is it always been like this and we just need to do something different to go get another job? Oh, I think the job market's hard right now. I really do think it's difficult right now. I think that employers are revisiting pay and trying to get people pay, pay less for the role so that their costs go down so that they can be profitable as a company. And I think that's hurting people, especially mid career and higher.
And I think there's a lot of competition for the jobs right now, because remember, we've just come off of a time where everybody was, it was like a game of. What's that game we played as kids where, you know, everybody would walk around the chairs and then there was one chair missing and somebody would get pushed out musical chairs, musical chairs. Can I think of that? It's like a game of musical chairs. You know, we just came from that and, and now there's all these layoffs.
And so I think, I think it's a really difficult time. I also think the job hosting and the, the whole job board and how we get jobs is incredibly broken and due for a massive overhaul. Yeah. Well, what should you do then? Is there, is there some advice on the best way to handle it? If I want a job, and I find a job posting that I'm very interested in, the first thing I'm going to do is research. I'm going to find out who works in that company.
I'm going to go to LinkedIn probably and find out who are the people in that role or above that role, or somehow surrounded to that role, I'm going to try and, and create a compelling message in front of them. So number one, you've got to start networking. You need to use AI and people think maybe AI isn't for them yet, but it is for you. You really should get, write your resume, the best resume you can, and then put the job description in and your resume and say.
Tweak my resume to make sure that it's a good fit for this job. And I've had a number of clients do that. And even though they need to still look it over and make adjustments and tweaks, typically the people that have done that get calls immediately because the way that the ATS works, the applicant tracking system that you are putting it into, it's reading your resume and creating matches for a recruiter.
And a recruiter will only look at the desktop and it says, here's your top five matches for this job. And so if you're using the wrong word, To describe yourself for that job, you may miss the opportunity just because you use the wrong word. And that's how AI, I think, can help people. Yeah. And to your earlier point, if you network, you're almost bypassing the gate robot gatekeepers, right? Cause you're now maybe potentially a decision maker. Oh yeah.
I mean, I was a recruiter for quite a few years and I did the craziest stuff to try and get to decision makers. I mean, I would call into companies that were ironclad lockdown and just pick a common name, like Steven sales. You know, if I needed to get into sales. Hey, I need to speak with Steve. I can't remember his last name, but he's one of your VPs in sales. And I would just get patched into some total stranger and try and reach the decision makers. So I know you can do it.
You didn't have to be creative. But LinkedIn is a, is a pretty good place to start to at least get those names and start making calls and see if you have any colleagues that are connected with those people. So that you can have someone make an introduction. Old fashioned networking is still incredibly effective. Absolutely. You know, do, do a quote and put Steve in there and then look for your, look for your quote. Isn't that terrible?
I would just call in and just try to, I would go to the front desk and ask for Steve and yeah, I did all kinds of things. It's not terrible. You're, you're, you're a salesperson, you're a hustler, right? Like. Yeah, I had to hustle. Mad respect. Okay, so that's great. So we're coming towards the end of our conversation. Of course, I can pick your brain forever and ever, but we we only I only you know, booked a little bit of your time. Very precious as it is.
Let's ask you some easy questions now. So Rapid fire favorite book that you're reading right now. Well, I will tell you my favorite business book is atomic habits of all time. Like I reread that over and over again. I think it is just filled with nuggets of wisdom. So I absolutely love that. And I have a really hard time. I've got ADHD truly. And I have a very hard time reading anymore. So it has to be short spurts. So I probably I'm reading 10 books at any given time, but I'm reading.
Like this page or this chapter and then this chapter over here. So there's one called Generations I'm reading right now, which is about the difference between Boomers and X and Millennials and Gen Z in the workplace. It's fascinating. Yeah, we're so many generations now in the same same workspace. It's crazy. Yeah, just trying, you know, trying to understand each group and what, why they need and think the way they do is really interesting to me. Yeah. Generations. Okay. Okay. Good one.
And of course your book. Yeah. Of course. Oh my gosh. My publisher would be so mad. I haven't said much. Yeah. My book, the unspoken truths for career success. It's about how to navigate pay promotions and power work. And it's still doing, it's doing really well. It's my first book. It was my dream to write a book. And then I got Harper Collins to publish it, which was my dream.
And I've got both audible version and And the hard copy itself, and it's been a really fun project to do, and it's so practical. It's the book I wanted and needed in my career that nobody had written yet. I could not find any book written that has practical scripts, tips, say this, not that, do this, not that, about all of the things at work that just trip you up all of the time.
Yeah. The practicality is what I think people really crave, you know, because we have a lot of theory and a lot of knowledge we get from our college days and classes we take, but that is the key. So thank you for writing it and we'll of course link it in the show notes. And then favorite quote. Favorite quote, I'm going to pull one from a topic habits because I'm always saying it, which is that every action we take is a vote for the person we want to be. And I love that.
So whenever I get stuck during the day and I'm not getting things done, I'm thinking, what kind of votes am I casting today for the kind of person I want to be and try and get back to center of the things that are important to me, whatever they may be. Wow. And that one's also a big one, you know, for my son, Zach, you know, as you know, my son, Zach is trying to learn to walk again and use his hands and arms and Come from a very dark time in his life.
And so and, and he's a recovering alcoholic and we say it all the time. What kind of votes have you cast today for the person that you want to be? Because every action you take is just that little one more vote. It gets stacked. You stack habits. And so we talk about that a lot at our house. Yeah, that is that is wonderful. Powerful. Yes, of course, like this is we are all striving to be that version of ourselves.
And so if we whatever, like you said, whatever we choose to do or not do is either vote for or against that. Yeah, very strong. One thing our audience should do after listening to this podcast. One thing they should do. Oh, I would say if there's something that is bothering you at work, a conversation that is overdue, that you should have had to sit down and draft a conversation, preferably with the tips in the book on how you craft that conversation, that conflict conversation and go have it.
Typically it's going to be with a manager, but have the conversation because it's. It's been tested and data tells us that people that speak up at work are happier at work. And I don't mean people who speak up like they go all ham and you know, they're rude and they just lose their cool. And I'm talking about people who have thoughtful conversations at work about the things that are bothering them are in the high nineties.
If they speak up 13 or more times at work in a given year, it drops 30 points. If. You go to six times a year that you're bringing something up and it goes just drops like a rock beyond that. So think about what's the conversation I'm not having that I need to have. We often think we're having it and we're not.
We're having a halfway conversation and we are saying halfway that's the truth and hoping that the other person understands a hundred percent of what we're trying to say and it doesn't work. Yeah. Yeah, well, that's powerful research. We should definitely link that in the notes. If you have access or at least can point us. Yeah, it's Elizabeth McCune did the research at Microsoft. Huh. Okay, cool. Yeah. So even so 13, then then is a great number.
So if you think you're speaking up and you're not, then just kind of remember, have you spoken 13 times this year? And Yeah. Yeah. That's once a month. I think that's doable. Once a month. You can do it. Yeah, we can do it. Yeah. Well, what is the best way for people to connect with you, Tessa? I would say Job Doctor Tessa on any social platform. You should be able to find me just about everywhere.
And I have a podcast as well called The Job Doctor and they can find it on Apple or Spotify and what it is, is a deep dive. I have real people call with real problems and we sort it out on air. And I think that it's really useful. You could see us negotiate pay or an offer letter or a hard conversation with a manager and I would invite people to take a listen. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and advice.
And of course you have a million followers and counting, so people can find you in a lot of different ways. So thank you for coming to our podcast and sharing your wisdom with our audience. Thank you again so much. Thank you so much for having me. There you have it, my friends, some great advice and tips from a professional. Who knows exactly what happens behind those closed doors in talent management reviews or talking about promotions, who's going to get promoted next.
I hope you took some great tips and advice that will help you accelerate your career. Thank you for listening and bye for now.