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Its no secret: Landing a job in todays economy can feel overwhelmingly difficult. Qualified candidates regularly apply to hundredssometimes even thousandsof positions before receiving that one coveted offer. In fact, over half of unemployed job seekers have been searching for four months or longer, highlighting how competitive the market has become. And its not just the job market itself thats challenging. Were living through one of the most turbulent periods in modern history: The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.1%, the highest in over two years. 23,000+ tech layoffs occurred in the first three months of 2025 alone. Nearly 50% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Consumer debt hit an all-time high of $18.04 trillion, with credit card delinquencies increasing sharply. University degrees are no longer a guarantee of success. Even government jobs, once considered safe, are under threat. Its no wonder many job seekers feel anxious or fearful about asking for more. Negotiation expert and career coach Ted Leonhardt notes that the fear of asking for higher pay has always been an obstacle. And in todays volatile environment, that fear can feel even more paralyzing. But he emphasizes: Workers at any level are more vulnerable today than any time in memory, perhaps since the Great Depression. This makes knowing your worth and advocating for yourself all the more essential. Here are six essential tips for confidently negotiating your salary in todays tough economy. 1.Hide your desperation A Pew Research Center survey found that most U.S. workers did not ask for higher pay the last time they were hired, with men slightly more likely than women to negotiate (32% vs. 28%). Even if youre surviving on ramen and desperately need the job, dont let it show. Employers often interpret eagerness as desperation, leading to lower initial offers. Take your time to respondusually 24 to 48 hoursand subtly indicate youre considering multiple opportunities. This helps maintain your negotiating power.Leonhard further advises: Always be developing a new opportunity for yourself. A side gig. A better job elsewhere. Having other options in progress or appearing to can drastically reduce that sense of desperation. 2. Know your worth and back it up with data Before negotiating, gather salary benchmarks from sites like Glassdoor, Payscale, and LinkedIn Salary. Present clear, data-backed reasons for your requested salary based on your experience, skills, and current market rates. Leonhardt succinctly puts it: Know your value and use it as leverage. Leverage is always your superpower. Staying true to your worth can provide dividends. Annie Papp, executive vice president at Career Group Companies, advises that: In any job market, applicants should be prepared to come right out and ask for a raise or negotiate higher compensation. While it may seem obvious, most people dont do this, assuming their employer will offer a raise without promptingwhich is rarely the case. 3. Quantify your value Make a detailed list of your accomplishments and quantify your impact whenever possible. For example: Increased sales by 300% within one year or Managed projects that increased revenue by $X amount. Even before the negotiation, review this to remind yourself of your accomplishments and the value you bring, boosting your confidence. 4. Bet on yourself and plan for the future If the job offer isnt quite where you want it to be, focus on creating a clear path to get there over the next year. Jason Giagrande, CEO of Hospitality Farm, suggests: Bet on yourself. Propose a lucrative bonus structure with aggressive milestones or KPIs that your boss would be happy to pay if accomplished. Everyone wins, and it will motivate your growth individually as well as help your company grow. Not only does this show initiative, but it also aligns your compensation with company goals, making it easier for employers to say yes. 5. Be willing to walk away (if you truly are) One key to negotiation success is the willingness to walk away. Listen carefully, remain composed, and always take time to consider the offer before responding. 6. Consider negotiating benefits, not just salary If salary negotiations stall, consider other forms of compensation. Diversify your requests to reach a deal that satisfies both sides. Signing bonuses, professional development funds, flexible work arrangements, or extra vacation days can all hold significant value.This market is different because employers are being more cautious when it comes to hiring and budgeting. A few years ago, on the heels of the pandemic, applicants could negotiate higher salaries much more easily because every employer was in a desperate race to retain talent. Now, thats not the case. The frenzy has slowed, and employers are taking their time. While inflated salary increases may no longer be the norm, advocating for growth is still crucial. Losing strong talent can ultimately have a far greater cost than providing a reasonable raise, Papp says. If higher compensation isnt immediately feasible, ask for a timeline to revisit the conversation. Finally, Leonhardt offers a lasting piece of advice: Always be developing your connections and community both online and off. Connections with those you help are always the best opportunity for your continuously evolving future. Negotiation can feel intimidating, especially in a fragile, uncertain world. But by advocating for yourself thoughtfully and strategically, youre not just setting yourself up for immediate successyoure safeguarding your long-term career stability.
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E-Commerce
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Interim leadership is on the rise in the U.S. Nearly a quarter of new CEOs named in the first two months of 2025 were hired on an interim basis, versus 8% in the same period last year, according to a recent report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The surge in interim leadership coincides with significant tumult in the C-suite. The Challenger report shows that 247 U.S. companies named new CEOs in February, the second-highest total for any month since the firm started tracking CEO changes in 2002. A lot of times when a company brings in an interim CEO its when theyve been caught off guard by the CEOs departure, says Andy Challenger, senior vice president of the outplacement firm. Its not part of a structured succession plan. An interim CEO can buy a board time to conduct a thoughtful search for the right executive, especially if it feels the company needs skills that the existing leadership team lacks. Management experts say theyre also seeing companiesparticularly mid-market and investor-backed businesseshire temporary CEOs during changes such as restructuring, merger integration, or executing a new strategy. Their expertise can be crucial to navigating complex changes that require seasoned leadershipeven temporary solutions can be transformative for an organization, says Sunny Ackerman, global managing partner of on-demand talent at Heidrick & Struggles, the executive search firm. The Temp-to-perm CEO Interim roles also can serve as a tryout for prospective CEO candidates. And companies can engage an interim executive while they figure out what they need in a leader. Ackerman recalls working with her team on an early-stage medical technology company that sought to replace its founder with a full-time CEO. Heidrick & Struggles brought in a life sciences consultant who had been a CEO to create a plan for market entry. The board then hired that consultant as interim CEO to execute the plan. Once they saw his operational skills and market expertise in practice, the board eventually decided to convert him to permanent CEO. Other temp-to-perm CEOs include Chipotles Scott Boatwright, who went from interim in August 2024 to permanent status three months later, and Lance Tucker, who last month was named CEO of Jack in the Box after a 36-day stint as interim CEO of the restaurant company. Avoid leadership limbo Companies need to be careful not to let interim leadership linger. If [an] interim is in place too long, it may communicate the wrong message to the market and employees and create uncertainty about the future leadership of the organization and its strategy, says Janice Ellig, CEO of executive search firm Ellig Group. Employees and the market like certainty. They want to know who is at the helm and what direction they are headed. And in the absence of clear guidance from the board, some interim chiefs may act like caretakers instead of leaders, causing the company to lose ground during the search for a permanent CEO. One things for sure: Interim CEOs arent going away. Ackerman notes that many of the CEOs exiting business right now are baby boomer and Gen X retirees who are eager to remain active by taking on interim roles, generating a larger pool of independent talent than weve ever seen before, she says. Are you a temp-to-perm leader? Are you a CEO or leader who turned a temporary or interim role into a permanent one? How did you win your role? Send your stories to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Id love to share your experiences in a future newsletter. Read more: temps in the C-suite The great fractionalization may be coming to your leadership team How to step in as an interim manager Interim CEO posts: intense and eye-opening
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E-Commerce
According to the latest Gallup State of the Workplace report, employees are seeking new jobs at thehighest levelsince 2015. This trend has been coined The Great Detachment. A key reason for this is increasing employee dissatisfaction with management. For instance, Gallups research shows that those who work in companies withbad management practicesare nearly 60% more likely to be stressed, and stress is the second most-cited factor influencing employees’ decisions to quit. Peoples values have also changed post-COVID-19. Employees prioritize well-being. They expect their contribution to be recognized, and if they arent valued or supported, they arent prepared to tolerate it. The rise of Gen Z in the workplace also needs to be considered. They now make up 27% of the workforce across the 38 high-income countries that make up the OECD. This generation wants to be coached, not directed, and if they dont feel that theyre progressing or that their employer wants to cultivate them, theyll simply leave. Yet, management practice has remained unchanged, with managers still using outdated and clunky methods unsuited to todays workplace. Managers are ill-equipped to give feedback and handle challenging conversations in this rapidly changing work environment and consequently default to directing employees rather than enabling them. Companies need to upskill their middle managers urgently to keep employees engaged and stop hemorrhaging talent. After all, talent is critical for successcompanies in the top quartile of employee engagement achieve23% higher profitabilitythan those in the bottom quartile. If youre losing your top talent to your competitors and suspect poor management may be a cause, here are three things to do: 1. Shift the prevailing management mindset from managing to enabling Managers are often high-performing employees promoted for their technical strengths rather than their people skills. Their management style is typically command and controlsimply directing and providing solutions for employees’ problems without engaging their capabilities. This can be incredibly demotivating for employees, signalling their ideas arent valued or welcomed. Over time, they lose autonomy over their work and wait for direction from their managers before following their instructions, leading to increased disengagement. Managers urgently need to change their mindset from perceiving themselves as the manager and solver of all problems to becoming the enabler of other people’s talents and capabilities. Affording team members the space to contribute creates opportunities for them to grow and advance. To do this, managers need to adopt an enquiry-led approach by learning to ask powerful and insightful questions that encourage reflection at the point that would be most helpful to someones thinking. Instead of asking why questions such as Why did this happen? shift to asking what questions. For instance, What are the reasons behind this outcome? or What could have gone better? What questions remove the personal sting from a why question and promote reflection without triggering defensiveness. This simple change signals a shift from being the all-knowing manager to being a supportive enabler, which is beneficial not only for employee growth but also for building an inclusive and collaborative team culture. 2. Give better feedback to stimulate high performance Giving feedback is often associated with challenging conversations, as managers try to share something they want people to change or improve upon. Moving to more intentional, appreciative and developmental feedback can support employee development. Instead of constantly identifying problems or behaviors that need fixing, managers should seek out moments when someone has excelled in a particular situation. Visibly pointing out the skills or behaviors that made a positive difference to outcomes is a great way to build trust and an openness to constructive feedback. It also creates an environment where employees look forward to coming to work and are motivated to build on their strengths and contribute at their best, increasing job satisfaction. 3. Encourage more collaboration within teams Rather than defaulting to a command and control style of fixing everyones problems, managers must develop their awareness and tune in to coachable moments throughout the day. For example, instead of stepping in to solve every issue brought to them, managers learn to recognise the potential for a better outcome by engaging team members to explore their problem-solving capabilities, giving them the space to suggest ideas and talk them through. They might ask what ideas theyve thought of themselves that could offer a way forward and explore the steps they would need to take to progress those options. Using a more purposeful approach to asking questions intended to stimulate other peoples thinking in the flow of work has been recognised as an advance in management practice known as Operational Coaching. Practitioners learning this new approach stop firefighting and instead adapt their management style to engage their team, acknowledge their capabilities, and invite greater collaboration. This demonstrates that employees thinking and contributions are valued, increasing employee satisfaction, and managers win back valuable time from not stepping in to every problem. Why these strategies help retain top talent As a result of the behavioral work we were engaged in, we developed the STAR model to help managers apply these skills in their daily lives. STAR consists of four steps: STOP Step back and change state THINK Is this a coachable moment? ASK Powerful questions and actively listen RESULT Agree on next steps and an outcome from the conversation By applying this model, managers can learn to adopt new coaching-style “behaviors” in the moment, enabling them to challenge, support, and grow the capabilities of their team members in ways that measurably benefit both the individual and the organization. When employees feel valued for their contributions, have autonomy in their work, and sense their managers care for their development and advancement, their relationship with work improves. As workplaces evolve, businesses must recognize the need to shift managers from their task-focused mindset to a people-focused mindset. This simple but vital step will help foster an environment that values every employee and ensures that top talent is appeciated, nurtured, and retained.
Category:
E-Commerce
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