At the start of this year, I want to share some advice I received from Prof David Maister many years ago. David Maister was an early podcaster in the 2000s and I loved listening to his podcast.
Maister argued that many leaders are trained to say “yes” and then they get stretched so thin that they can no longer be effective. This is probably made worse by a wrong understanding of what servant leadership is about, but that is another story for another day.
Maister’s advice was to say “no”. You do not have to justify your decision unless it is really important. It means that you will have more energy and attention span for the things that remain. Of course, knowing more or less what you are striving for helps to know what to turn down.
If leaders struggle to say no, we can be assured that everybody following the leaders will also be confused, or possibly stretched. In organisations, like a company, this may result in many employees also overcommitting themselves.
Does everybody that depends on your leadership know what to say “no” to? Do they clearly understand what you do not want, or what you think should not receive priority attention? Maybe it is more important to clearly signal what is undesirable than to constantly explain to everyone what your intent is.
I want to challenge my friends, my clients and my fellow innovators. Say “no” first. Be clear about what is off-limits, and about what is a low priority (or not your priority). Then it is easier for everybody else to try and figure out what is desirable, or what is possible with the resources we all have.
If you are too polite to say NO, then say, “I don’t think this commitment would be possible, but I will come back to you in 24 hours with a firm answer”. Then keep your promise to give an answer the next day. Sometimes creating a little space to think will help you figure out whether you really need to agree, or whether you can stick with your “no”!
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