To become a great leader you will have to learn to say no. You will have to say no to a myriad of things in order to do the things that only you can do. Saying no is an art form, it takes practice and finesse. You can’t say no to everyone all the time but you have to learn to say it in cases where you will be pulled away from the more important things.
To say no to something you have to know what the more important things are. What are your core competencies and values? Do you know what the things are that only you can do? Can you quickly determine if something violates your core values? If these two things are fuzzy you will have a hard time saying no to something because literally anything could masquerade as a priority task. So first work on your list of core values and then work on the list of things that only you can do. These two lists should be fairly short, three to five items for each. Make it as clear as you can, then get ready to say NO.
If something violates your core values, say no. If it’s not in your list of “things that only you can do”, say no. When you say no like this it allows you to focus your limited time and energy on the jobs of highest importance and priority. To succeed you need to be able to finish these top list jobs on time and finish them well. This process destroys distraction and promotes productivity.
Saying no to a task also gives others the chance to rise to the occasion. You have to become a delegation pro or your team’s growth will be stunted. Saying no means giving away tasks that you wouldn’t normally trust others with. That can be scary at first but the reward will be great. You will have to take some risks in order to grow your team. Take your hands off things and watch people grow and thrive as they take on challenges, this is especially true in an environment where people are allowed to make mistakes(see my blog post on this). And don’t just delegate tasks, delegate authority. Give your people the permission to make the decisions not just complete the task. The more authority people are given to make decisions the more buy-in you get. Once you have a high level of buy-in you will see your people coming to work early and staying late, performing at high levels without complaining.
Finally, your people have to be able to say no to you(unless you are a cult leader). Remember you are creating a culture where people are encouraged to do the things that they are good at, the tasks that only they can do. This is a culture where people perform at high levels of productivity and to achieve this your people have to be allowed to say no, even to you. This might take a bit of back and forth conversation to find a good balance and it will definitely take a bit of getting used to for both parties but it is vital for your team’s growth.
Don’t take my word for it, go out there and say NO to someone!
Extra – Check out this book for help on saying NO – Essentialism, Greg McKeown
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