Generally, there are two types of people in the world- the ones who always say YES to everything. In this case doesn’t matter how busy they are or how they actually feel about doing this or that thing, those people are the ones who are unable to refuse people in something. Whenever the questions is heard with possible answers of YES or NO, they would always choose the first one.
And there are the second type of people who would always say no to the life and to its opportunities. Whatever it is, they are used to say NO.
However, today, we are going to discuss the first types of people and understand how people can develop this skill of saying NO. We don’t actually require you to say No to everything. However, if you think that being a leader you are required to do whatever the society wants from you, you are mistaken. By developing this skill of saying NO you will both be able to do what you actually want to and will stay a leader, the one who is always caring and supporting others.
The actual NO word
And starting from the actual word-NO, we should say that you don’t really need to pronounce it as it is to have the idea. Saying that negative word immediately would somehow make the situation very negative as well. If you are having a business offer, or a project presentation, you don’t have to say YES to it if you don’t like it. However, NO is not the only other alternative as well. Try to find another way of asking a question about the offer, finding some common things and opening up the conversation. Imagine someone offers you a cup of tea and you don’t like it, so, the conversation would be:
-Would you like a cup of tea?
-No
Kind of rude, right? Now imagine you are opening up this conversation and asking which tea they actually suggest, do they suggest it right now or are they inviting you somewhere? So many answers there are: “Thank you, but I actually don’t drink a green tea at all” or “I would like to have a tea with you but I just had one, maybe next time?” or “If I knew that you would invite me to a cup of tea I wouldn’t have planned a meeting at this hour, I am so sorry”.
This example seems to be a very simple one, however if you try to replace it with your example you will surely find the appropriate answers and ways of opening up the conversation. This will help you escape the word “NO” at the same time being polite and doing what you want to.
Time to know how helpful those NO-s are
As a leader you may have a lot of meetings and you may want to manage everything. However, it is natural to realize and admit that you won’t get to everyone at once and always. Sometimes you will need rest for being able to continue with the same energy and motivation. And saying NO helps here a lot. You just need to make some list of things which are priority and which came into the list just because of your non-ability of saying “NO”. When the list is prepared you are starting doing the first parts of the things, which are priorities. The ones which are not should not be just left there and called and said: “I don’t want to have a meeting today” or “No: I don’t agree to this…”. Go back to the previous point, remember how you should open up the conversation and be as polite as you can while canceling this or that event.
Don’t feel bad from refusing people: being a leader doesn’t mean you are not a person. You, as everyone else, also needs time for rest and relax. So, good luck!
