I have been very lucky to have great mentors throughout every stage of my career, and with great mentorship always comes with great advice. What was the best advice that I ever received? Well, it's hard to say exactly, but "Don't overcommit yourself - learn to say No" immediately comes to mind. Unfortunately, I didn't really learn to say No until much later in my career. I ended up okay, but I do think that things would have been much easier for me if I had politely said No a little more often.
As it turns out, "learning to say No" is actually an important skill! Camille Preston wrote a fantastic article for Fortune magazine in 2014 called "Why saying no gets you ahead". The key message is that overcommitting yourself will decrease your productivity, prevent you from reaching your actual goals, and increase the risk of professional burn-out. Preston offers seven tips to help you learn to say No:
1. Implement a 24-hour pause period. In other words, wait 24 hours before you say Yes. Think it over carefully - if you still want to accept that invitation to write a textbook chapter or serve as the project leader on that major quality improvement initiative, then go ahead and say Yes. The 24 hours will give you the necessary time to think things over carefully. And just about every decision can afford to wait for 24 hours.
2. Say no with grace and authority. Be polite, but firm. Don't beat around the proverbial bush. If you don't want to do something, kindly thank the individual for the invitation but say no (and mean it).
3. Simplify your commitments. If your commitments don't help you ultimately attain your professional goals, then give them up (see more below). As Preston states, "If you don't enjoy it, aren't fulfilled by it, or it doesn't help you personally or professionally, stop doing it."
4. Create white spaces on your calendar. There are always going to be lunch dates, after hours presentations, or conferences that you don't want to attend. Do yourself a favor - don't go to them.
5. Minimize the meetings. Too many meetings are not helpful. Most meetings are not productive anyway. If it doesn't come with an agenda and pre-work, it probably isn't worth the investment of your time.
6. Notice the "should". Volunteer and service activities are great opportunities - but you should be doing them because you want to do them and NOT because you think it will help your career if you do.
7. Set your boundaries, and stick to them. Don't answer e-mails, text messages, or telephone calls after work or on the weekends. More importantly, don't ask the members of your team to do so either.
Preston's third tip reminds me of a wonderful story about Warren Buffet (Warren Buffet's three-step strategy). Apparently, Warren Buffet was giving some career advice to his personal pilot, Mike Flint. He told Flint to write down his top 25 career goals. Next, he asked Flint to look over his goals and circle the 5 most important ones. At this point, Flint had two separate and distinct lists - the first one listed his top 5 most important career goals, and the second one listed 20 other goals that weren't as important to him. Buffet asked his pilot to explain what the two lists meant to him. Flint replied that the top 5 goals were the ones that he would focus most of his time on achieving, while the next 20 were the ones that he would keep on the backburner and get to them as soon as he could. Buffet emphatically said that he should forget about the next 20 goals and "avoid them at all costs." These goals would only distract him from achieving his top 5 most important ones.
Learning to say No is one of the most important things that a leader can do to "clear the deck." As Steve Jobs once said, "It's only by saying No that you can concentrate on the things that are really important." So, do yourself (and your team) a HUGE favor - clear the deck by learning to say No.
No comments:
Post a Comment