How Smart Employees Negotiate Higher Pays in Their Jobs

1/ Know what game you're in.

Companies aren’t charities.

They’re built to pay you less than you create.

Don’t tie your worth to your wage.
Bankers get rich. Teachers don’t.

The market doesn’t pay based on “goodness.”

If you want outsized rewards—start your own thing.
If not, learn to play the game better than most.

Your market value =
(rare, useful skills) × (demand in your environment)

2/ Master skills that are hard to replace.

Show up where those skills are in short supply.

Build a reputation that moves with you.

3/ Detach your identity from the company brand.

Stop building your life under someone else’s flag.

Invest in your brand, build options and stay ready to walk out without panic.

One hard rule:
Build options before you negotiate.

The right time to negotiate is when you can afford to say “no.”

Don’t ask “how can I make more?”

Ask:
“What can I become that gets paid more—by default?”

4/ Exercise 1: Write your resume every quarter.

Even when you’re not job hunting.
It will force you to ask:

If the answer’s no—upskill.

When a recruiter slides in, you won’t be scrambling.
You’ll be loaded with case studies, metrics, and receipts.

5/ Exercise 2: Log wins weekly.

If every week, you spend 20mins to write down:

What you shipped

What you solved

What you improved

What results it created

By year’s end, you have 52 concrete data points.

Not just “worked hard.”

But:

“Cut onboarding time by 37% by revamping the doc stack.”

2 takeaways for leaders.

#1. Listening isn’t nodding. It’s reflecting.

I used to think I was a good listener because I stayed quiet.

Turns out, that’s just not interrupting.

Real listening means I can repeat their view back so well, they say:

That’s when they soften. That’s when we start moving because trust is built.

#2. Stop leading with answers. Start earning the right to speak.

I used to enter rooms armed with solutions.

Say something sharp. Make the case. Seal the deal.

Sound familiar?

But logic without trust is noise.

Even great ideas fall flat when people don’t feel included.

And people reject your ideas.

So I asked myself:

Because no one wants to be talked over on something they care about.

They want to feel part of it. Responsible for it.

These days, I do my best to hold my point back.

Lead with curiosity, not conviction.

Don’t try to win the room.

Try to make space for the room to win with me.

“Beware: learning more is a smart person’s favourite form of procrastination.” - Mark Manson

Best,

Maxi | The Warrior’s Newsletter