Deep Dive Series: The Power of No for a Trial Period
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
As I’ve said in the past, no can be scary to say. Especially in corporate environments where you want to continue to be seen as a team player, saying no in a way that still keeps relationships strong is a necessary skill. One of the ways to say no but keep a solid relationship is saying no for a trial period.
It’s possible to take a task off your list for a little while to see if you want to let it go for good or if you really want to pick it back up again in the future. If you have regular weekly meetings with a colleague and feel that both of your time is more often wasted than not, you can change that weekly meeting to a monthly meeting. Move it back to weekly or every other week if more time is truly needed after testing with less.
As another example, let’s pretend you are the leader of a group project at work, but a higher priority project has also become your responsibility. You could designate a deputy to take over the original group project status meeting for the next month while you deal with your higher workload. If the deputy is doing well at the end of that month and wants to continue being the group leader, then that responsibility could possibly be something you don’t need to pick up again.
Try less with the knowledge that the changes you make don’t need to be permanent. You can revert back to what you previously did. However, trying something new may give evidence that you don’t need to spend as much time on some tasks or meetings, and you wouldn’t have known if you didn’t have your trial period with no.
If you or your team would like to sign up for our 2 hour Balance and Productivity training to instantly double your meaningful output and find the feeling of lasting flow and optimized work life balance, please click here and say hello!
Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team