#28: Saying "No"
You are always saying "no" to something
Hello Friends! I’m trying something new this week - I tried recording this Petti Thought as well as sharing it in text form. Shoot over any feedback you may have. Enjoy!
The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.
Warren Buffett
Saying no to opportunities and projects seems to be one of the hardest things for leaders to do, including myself. But, why is it so hard? We've all heard about the importance of saying no, and the implications of what happens when we don't say no. Yet, it remains incredibly hard to do.
Whether we are saying no to things on the personal front or within a group, whether it be the professional workplace or any other type of community, two types of no's stand out to me. We'll call them the Alignment No and the Priority No.
Alignment No
The Alignment No is "no" you say to things that are not aligned with the mission either you or your organization are pursuing. There's an unending supply of projects to potentially work on in the world, and you've got to make the decision on whether or not those projects are aligned with the mission. Sometimes it's obvious when a project is not aligned with the mission at hand, but often times it is not. In fact, as leaders, any time we make a decision on what we do and do not choose to work on, we are defining our mission. Yes, oftentimes we have mission statements, but how does that mission statement get translated to the organization? Mission statements are abstract. They are usually 1-3 sentences that govern everything an organization is pushing toward. Your team is going to need more than that to truly understand how to interpret that mission statement. Every time we say "no" to something, we are defining the boundary between what is and is not aligned with our mission.
Priority No
The Priority No is the "no" you exercise on those things that are aligned with your mission but are not the highest priority. There are many, many things that you can do that may have some measure of effectiveness in pushing toward your mission. But, that does not mean you should work on that task or project. Whether it is in your personal life or within an organization, we all have limited resources. As a result of those limited resources, you cannot do everything, and therefore, you must prioritize to maximize your effectiveness.
So, why can saying “no” to certain projects be so hard?
Why is saying no so hard?
Alignment No's are hard because they appear to limit potential. If it is in business, Alignment No's may appear to limit you from pursuing other verticals that, in theory, could make your addressable market larger. Let's say you are currently developing a product for a market with an addressable market size of $100 million, and you think your product could potentially find a product market fit in a different vertical that has an addressable market of $500 million. If you open the door to working on projects in the latter vertical, you just increased the addressable market of your product to $600 million! That's awesome! But, at what cost? You spread your resources out. You blur the lines of what does and does not fall under your mission unless you are very deliberate and clear in explaining the why. Now, obviously, there are times when expanding into other markets is the correct move for an organization, but those decisions have to be made very carefully.
Priority No's are hard because they require the estimation and/or measurement of the effectiveness of a particular project relative to others. Establishing how to measure the effectiveness of something is difficult enough in itself. It requires setting meaningful goals, and setting goals means setting conditions for failure as well. It is tempting to take ownership of a large number of processes or projects so that you can show how many things you work on. But, taking ownership of results and outcomes is much more of a burden and requires more than just working hard and long hours. In many cases, working hard is nowhere near enough to succeed. You have to work smart, prioritize those projects that are effective, and courageously say no to those that are less effective.
Courage
Deciding what to say "yes" and "no" to are some of the hardest decisions we make as leaders, and they often require a great deal of courage. No matter what direction you choose, people will always be able to, and will, point out what could have happened if you had made a different decision. If you said "yes", someone can argue that if you had said "no," you would have been more effective by limiting yourself or the organization to a smaller mission. If you say "no", people can argue that you could have been more effective or made more money had you said "yes" to this, that, or the other thing. People will do that; it is in our nature. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone. The voice inside your own head will do this to you as well.
You might expect me to now say to ignore those people, or that voice in your head, but I don't think you should. They keep us humble. They force us to remain detached and constantly evaluate what the next best step is. Take that feedback and leverage it to make the best next step forward. This doesn't mean we need to dwell on the past or previous mistakes, but we must be wise enough to profit from the mistakes we may make along the way.
Everyone is a leader
No matter what rank you are within a company, you are making decisions on saying "yes" and "no" to things, whether you realize it or not. Priorities are not set by the leaders at the top alone. Every member of the team is responsible for effectively prioritizing their piece of the mission, and for communicating those priorities up, down, and across the chain of command. Prioritize effectiveness and drive results. Hard work alone doesn't win; effectiveness in delivering results wins.