Don't Say No to YourselF

by Raj Suppiah | May 21, 2022 | time management

I once heard at a Ted Talk, "WHEN YOU SAY YES TO SOMETHING, YOU ARE SAYING NO TO SOMETHING or SOMEONE ELSE"

And there's a good chance that someone you are saying no to, is yourself; your mental health, your wellness time, your rest or your family.

I used to get caught up in 'busy work.' You know where you feel like you're running on a hamster wheel. When you get off for a few minutes, someone calls or something happens that pulls your right back in.

Questions To Ask Yourself

If you can relate to the above, then I have some questions for you:

"Why are YOU always the person getting on that wheel?"

"Can someone else say yes?"

"Can the person asking, do it themselves or find their own solution?"

Promote independent and critical thinking on your team FROM DAY ONE. Make that a part of the job description and a performance metric. If a person cannot handle that mindset, they won't last in your company. Do not be the go-to person. Build a robust organizational structure.

And I hear you, "but I don't have enough people or the resources to hire the people at the moment." That is fine. You can do it at the moment, always remembering that it is temporary. Some tips:

- look at all the jobs you are doing, every single one, even simple ones like 'responding to Google reviews' or 'responding to an email'

- start bunching the jobs together based on relevancy. It can be based on a tool (ie Google reviews, EMR, email) or around an experience (ie client facing, non client facing)

- create 'future job descriptions' for future hires who will OWN these categories.

- when the resources are there, hire for these jobs

Much like customer service, this is a forever evolving process in your business. Companies with a growth mindset are constantly re-evaluating their job descriptions, the people in those jobs, creating new positions, eliminating or combining redundancy. This process will ensure that someone who isn't you will say yes.