5 Reasons to 'WHY' say ‘NO’

Are you overstressed, over-scheduled and under delivering be it at

work or home? The reason is not you, but your attitude of saying

‘YES’ to everything that comes your way.

There are many read on how to gracefully say positive ‘NO’ but -

‘WHY’ say ‘NO’?

Former British prime minister, Tony Blair put it, “The art of leadership

is not saying Yes, it’s saying No.”

Being an entrepreneur, it is really hard to say ‘NO’ to what comes

your way. Especially if you are self funded and you are looking at

means to earn for yourself or for the organization. While there may

be dearth of qualified resources to delivery or may not be your

competency, many of the opportunities you will feel are a natural

extension of your business and can value add. You tend to get into

unchartered territory (yours) and get boggled in it while your

original business / vision / focus is suffering.

No is the key to defining your strategic focus and every important Yes

therefore may require a thousand Nos.

Lets look at 5 good reasons and its impact –

Priorities – By saying Yes, you are taking additional work that may

not be in your realm and tend to put in additional working hours that

may not be productive hence impacting your priorities.

By saying No to what is not your forte, you tend to have more time to

do your work correctly.

Time – Time is a limited resource. It is better spent in sharpening

your existing skills and enhancements. There is plenty to learn in

your sphere of things. There is plenty to do in your own focus areas.

Saying Yes to something, which is in your unchartered territory,

takes away those precious hours that could have been better spent.

Quality – A customer once came to me with a request to help train

their staff on performance testing. At my company, we do

performance testing as a service but not as training. Training as we

all know is a foot in the door into a company. I gracefully said ‘NO’.

The customer came back to me and asked me if this was not a natural

extension to my existing business. I said, it is not a planned extension

and we do not have the competency to deliver training.

Quality matters and if you are not competent in doing something

accept it and say NO. It will not only help you in focusing on your

business but also the other company who otherwise would have got a

substandard training.

This was the reason why customer came back to us for help in

performance testing. It is very important not only for organization

branding but also personal credibility. Accept and move on

Career – In my 20+ years in this industry, I have heard more Yes than

No. I keep asking people on why they accepted the task. They say it is

very difficult to say no to BOSS and they think it is a path to their

career enhancement.

I have seen many of them accepting the task and not delivering which

in fact is detrimental to their earlier notion of enhancement. Saying

No to what you are not competent or do not know only will help you

in maintaining the credibility with your peers and is not a defeat. It is

important that for career enhancement, you be really good in what

you are competent and deliver quality and communicating that

effectively with your peers and BOSS. I am sure he hired you for a

reason and he understands your skills. If you have overstated

something in your profile that is not your core area, GOD only save

you.

Work life Balance – We keep hearing about people not having time.

Above 4 points provide you with pointers on what really is

happening due to which you rarely have time to spend in your life.

While work is your livelihood, it is important that you have some

time to spend on yourself. The below points may help you in ensuring

better work life balance

1. Do not accept more work which you cannot deliver on time

2. Do not accept work which does not fall in your realm and

competency

3. Do now showcase that you know something which is not true

4. Be honest, be diligent and deliver on what you have accepted be

at work or at home