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Offense not Defense

I took a break from the series on “Saying no to your boss”. Today we will get back into it and look at the second approach you can make to say no to your boss. Here is the point of my blog. It isn’t to rehash a great article written by Ernie Humphreys. Instead it is designed to look at the approaches and determine what you would do as the leader if someone used these approaches on you.

The second approach is “redefine the request on your terms”. What happens in this approach is that the person who is given yet another project will not necessarily come out and say no but will tell the boss that in order to make this work I will have to readjust but it may take longer than usual because I have some other projects that are due first. What the person has done is to tell the boss that I can do this but because of other priorities I may have to adjust the scope of the project as well as the timeline.
If you are a leader and one of your people uses this approach on you, what should you do? By all means do not get defensive. Far too often leaders will go on the defensive wondering why that person didn’t embrace that project with gusto. Don’t be defensive instead do the following.
  • Evaluate what was just discussed.
  • Talk through the options to make sure there is no alternative.
  • Ask the person to take a few minutes and think about the project and propose a workable solution.
  • Reiterate what your goals are for the project and discuss to see if there is a way to reach those goals.
  • Talk to the team about the project it may be that someone on the team has some time to devote to the project.
Don’t be defensive be offensive minded and if you do it will turn into a win-win situation for everyone.
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