Q: I'm a midlevel manager in a highly specialized department. One of my employees, Susan, has been asking for a promotion. Yesterday she told me that she received an attractive offer from another company, and I think she is hoping we'll counter the offer. My VP thinks that Susan can be easily replaced. I don't think the VP realizes how much knowledge she has and how difficult it will be to fill Susan's position. What can I do to try to change his mind about making a counter offer?
Terese, 50, senior director, strategy group
A: The key is tying her contributions to the things your VP cares about most.
This may not be as easy as it sounds. Sometimes highly specialized tasks can sound mundane and are only linked indirectly to higher level outcomes. Nonetheless, they are essential and it's up to you to tell the story of Susan's value.
Make a list of the top tasks she performs along with the skills and knowledge needed to get the work done. Be detailed so you have a supply of information to draw on to make your case.
Then tie each of these to your company's key strategic objectives, focusing most closely on those that are aligned with your VP's objectives.
For example, perhaps Susan monitors macroeconomic trends. The work she does may include determining what information to gather, where to find it, aggregating the information and delivering it in a useful format.
To the uninformed, this may sound like something anyone just out of college could do. In fact, it requires in-depth industry knowledge, company knowledge, data savvy and storytelling, among other skills.