If you want something, ask for it

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“Use your words!”

As a parent of a two year old, I find myself saying this a lot. She speaks very well usually, but sometimes she still resorts to grunting, whining, fussing, and crying when she wants something. Adults, fortunately, don’t whine, fuss, grunt, and cry when they want something. Unfortunately, they usually don’t use their words, either.

If you want something, ask for it. As long as it’s reasonable, there’s a fair chance you’ll get it.

Last week, for example, I posted about my desire to take a two week vacation. My manager stalled and delayed on responding, and made a show of acting as if he was only allowing it because it a good scheduling move, but in the end he approved my request without any real question. No one takes two week vacations where I work, so obviously the request shocked him a little. But I asked, and I got it.

A few weeks ago I signed up for an account on LinkedIn, with no intention of actually using it. When I decided to use it, I invited a few friends, family, and the co-workers with whom I am personally close. The network grew very slowly from there, until the sales team started getting invited to the network.

KH, who shares a wall with me, is one of those extroverted, super-nice, ultra-friendly sales types. She started inviting more people, and said something that challenged my ego… that she would have a bigger network than I did. The race was on.

Four days later, I am still maintaining my lead over her. I’m not super-nice, extroverted, or ultra-friendly, but people are joining LinkedIn, and joining my network, because I’m asking them to. I’m pretty sure she’s mostly just inviting the people who have already joined after I invited them.

We made a bet yesterday morning. Two cookies, personally delivered by the loser, would go to the person who got the CEO of the Fortune 500 company that is buying us soon to join their LinkedIn network first. I’m pretty sure she didn’t think it would be possible. About 32 hours after we made that bet, the CEO, who was not already a member of LinkedIn, joined my network.

Why? Because I asked him to.

Sure, it took me almost six minutes to find out the standard convention his company uses for e-mail addresses, but it was a small price to pay for those cookies. Our company’s lunch room makes really good chocolate chip cookies, after all.