Knowing yourself really well can be a competitive advantage at work. Articulating your strengths, interests, opportunities for growth and hopes for the future are all ways that you can build the career you really crave, but we know it's also much easier said than done.

Here are some of our favorite conversation openers to use when asking for something you want or need at work. These can be modified and adjusted for nearly any request you have at work, so feel free to adopt and use as you see fit.

Asking for more support / guidance from your manager‍

Script: 
"Hey MANAGER,

As you know, it's really important to me that I'm delivering my best work for COMPANY and I want to have as much impact as possible in my role. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I have a few ideas about how I can be even more effective. In our next live convo, can we spend a few minutes talking through my ideas? I'd love your input." 
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Next steps: 
When you're live, you can articulate what specifically you'd like to get more of from your manager. Wherever possible, tie your request back to your ability to do the job at hand more effectively.

If you're met with pushback:
Try this: "OK, I hear you that we can't make that happen right now. I'll think more about other ways I may be able to get additional support; again, my number 1 goal is doing my job well so I want to make sure we're set in a way for me to be able to do that. Let me know if you have any others ideas, too. I'd love your thoughts!" 
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Asking to work from home / work remotely if it's not "in policy"

Script: 
"Hey HIRING MANAGER/RECRUITER,

I take my responsibilities at work really seriously and I want to make sure that I'm always delivering my best to you and the team. Over the course of my career, I've learned that for me, working from home is where I deliver my best work. I thrive when I can deeply focus on the task at hand, when I'm limiting distractions, and when I'm able to allocate more time to the task at hand vs. commuting in and out of the office.

I know that currently, COMPANY prefers that folks come into the office, but I'm hoping to have a conversation about me potentially working from home 3-4 days a week. I think it would be a win-win for everyone, and I'd love to discuss what would need to be true to be able to make that happen. Can we add it to our next live time agenda?" 

Next steps: 
When you're live, reinforce the fact that you deliver your best work when you're working from your home environment. Avoid making this a "yes or no" conversation; instead, focus the conversation on "what needs to be true" for them to accommodate your work from home request.

If you're met with pushback:
Ask to continue the conversation in the coming days or weeks. Reiterate your message that you want to deliver the highest quality results you can, and that working from home is where you can do this best. Let them know that you'll take the homework of thinking through a few other ideas that might work for both parties. When thinking about these things, be sure address the "things that have to be true" that you learned from the first conversation and bake those into your proposed solutions.