Say No, Meet Expectations #

At work, the demand for our time will always surpass the amount of time we have available. A colleague with an idea, a prospect wants to meet for lunch, a client has an internal emergency, a boss asking questions, your monitoring system alerting of a server going over capacity, a partner notifying you of changes to an already agreed plan, among many other common things that happen daily, are all requests for our time an interruption of the what we are focusing on.

The actual problem doesn’t come from the amount of requests because eventually, on a long enough timeline, we can work through every single request. But, actually the problem comes from the need to solve requests in a timely manner.

In order to do so, at the quality others expect from us, we have to communicate with them that we are or aren’t able to handle their requests in a timely manner that would satisfy their needs. Providing an alternative or redirecting to someone who can help is always welcomed. Having a list of priorities makes this process easier to do on the spot.

Placing boundaries will upset people, even more if people are accustomed to you always jumping, always saying yes. The downside of this is that we have to rush through implementing solutions therefore not delivering quality which in turn will upset the other person even more. Imagine that you say yes to the lunch with your prospect but you spend half the time on your phone answering other requests. Or leaving for lunch in the middle of a server crash.

The upside for the long run is the credibility you gain and the trust others place in what you say. Don’t drop the ball as this reputation changes with every decision you make. And remember, it’s not other’s people responsibility to think about how many plates are you spinning but yours to handle yours in a way that none of the plates drop.title