Learning to Say "No" to Be Productive

Dear Aykan, I recentlyheard you speak about people who take on too many obligations. In your talk you suggested some waysto manage the"to do" list. I think these were really useful ideas. Butwhat about us managers on the other side of the relationship?I'm a manager in charge of the technology department and I workwith a great team of creative and smart people. We already have a lot of operational work due to the nature of the technology department. However , some of the people in my team can't say no to spontaneous requests from other departments.

There are also many projects that we have to carry outin parallel with the strategic goals that the company wants to achieve . Some people in our department give blue beads to everyone in the company and agree to do whatever they are asked to do in order to stay on good terms with them . As a result, others in the team , myself included, have to either wait forthese people for the projects at hand orcover their gaps. This situation not only affects my colleagues in the department, but it also negatively affects our external suppliers because we cannot act according to deadlines in the projects we outsource. When this topic comes up, tension arises at the beginning of the conversation because these people take on a victim role that they are too busy, they are working too hard, but things are not getting done, and on top of that they are not appreciated. In such a situation, do you have any strategies to helpmy team work more efficiently and productively ?

Signature,
The Faceless Manager

Dear Faceless Executive,

With"Crucial Conversations " skills, youcan changeproductivity habits in your team by establishing the right dialog. "You can do anything, but you can't do everything, " says David Allen, author ofGet Things Done. Productivity depends on a person's ability to say yes and no. Even if you as a manager can demonstrate these skills, it can be difficultif your teammates can't . In this case,you may need to have some critical conversations to address your team'shabitsaround productivity. Here are some suggestions that I think may be useful to you;

If this person works as your subordinate ;

1. I suggest that you focusfirst on the skills that this person needs to develop to ensure that their performance and career successare both lasting and sustained. Don't wait until the "official" performance review meeting in six months or so to discussany concerns you may have . Master managers regularly talk to their people about the issues they notice, and often, as soon as they see a problem, they do it right away! If you wait without taking action, you can make things worse instead of better. Some managers, in order not to be bad with their employees, either don't have the conversations at all or keep putting them off. This makes the situation worse and puts themselves at risk. You should remind employees who exhibit behaviors that will negatively affect their career and the company's business results in the medium and long term that they are accountable to the company, their manager and their colleagues for these behaviors. When these points are not reminded by the manager, the person who will be responsible for the negative consequences of these behaviors will also be the manager of the person, because during this period, the manager will also be responsible for the small and large damages caused by the employee to the company, his/her colleagues, department, suppliers and perhaps indirectly to customers, because he/she has allowed it.
2. Relateyour employee's behavior to the things that matter most to HIM. To do this you need to know whathe/she actually values , what motivates him/her, whatgetshim/her out of bed in the morning. If you don't know, find out as soon as possible. (Discover his/her top three or four goals and visions for career developmentthat he/she finds meaningful. Once you have done this, help them see potential disconnects between their day-to-day approach(such as saying yes to everyone and everything to get approval, so they can't get their priority work done and blame others for the gap) and their long-term career goals. Help them see how trying to do too much in half results in less precision, low productivity and poor focus, and how it distracts them from their original vision and career goals.

The point is that we often say yes because we lose sight of our long-term goals and get caught up in responding to immediate demands. Learning to say no appropriately can bring much better results for our career, our family and our organization. In short,help your employeesee the connection between their current behaviors and their long-term consequences.

If this person is a colleague or superior in a parallel position

Showhim/her the victims who are affected but not visibleat first glance . They may not realizehow their habit of saying "yes to everything" negatively affects you andthe rest of the team. Instead of trying to silently absorb their behaviorortalking about it with others (essentially gossiping) , help them see the natural consequences of their behavior in relation to other team members' work processes and responsibilities.

You can also discuss these ideas in a team meeting to help the whole team adopt expectations around saying yes and no. " I see situations where we say yes to requests that are notrelated to ourmain priorities. Sometimes I'm guilty of this too.As a result, sometimes we miss important deadlinesor sometimes we risk our trust in each other. I'm worried about that, what do you think?"

Love
Aykan

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