One of the weightiest leadership challenges facing all leaders today is trying to do more with less in a world that both sets higher expectations and is changing dramatically.  Unfortunately, too many leaders think it’s a heroic duty to say yes to everything and then set an organizational challenge to all employees to get everything done at all costs.  The hero leader thinks that by overpromising and fighting the gallant fight against all the odds builds stature, power, and career.  While it may be an effective approach in the short-term, it simply won’t work in the long term and will ultimately detract from key long term metrics such as increasing total shareholder return (TSR).

It is imperative that organizations and leaders build the skills to say no effectively so they can execute the strategy of the business and meet their long-term goals and objectives.  Of course, it must go without saying that learning the skills to say no is not a manipulation to get out of work or become less accountable; it’s about doing the best quality work, being accountable, and achieving long-term goals and objectives in the most effective ways possible.

Based on research of academic readings and my own experiences conducting leadership training development workshops, I present 5 tips to help develop the skill of saying no.  All of these tips are based on a context that you already have enough to do and the additional work is additional to what you already have on your plate.

If you are asked to do something new, big, and important, what are you going to take away?

This is a classic first-step.  Assuming you are already filled to capacity and a request to do something additional comes to you, you can certainly add it to your to-do list, when you take something else off.  Strategically, this makes sense and hopefully, the thing you are adding should be much more important than the thing you are taking off.

Use Logic Not Excuses or Emotion

Saying no with emotion and a bunch of half-hearted excuses to a someone asking you to do something can only create more emotion.  It’s usually and instant trigger for accelerated negative behaviors for all involved. So be smart; use logic when saying no.  “I’m sorry, we are already at capacity and quality is going to suffer if we add more.  If this is more important, let’s do it and let’s decide what else we are going to not do…”

Don’t Ever Instantly Say Yes

The hero leader is built to say yes; especially when there is a crisis.  “Thanks for asking me about this. I’d love to help, but let me see what our capacity looks like and I will get back to you shortly” could be the most important leadership statement you ever make.  There is nothing wrong with assessing the situation, figuring things out, and then getting back to the person making the request.  Developing and practicing this skill is important because it will also stop repeat offenders from asking you to do things without consideration.

Try Not to Commit to Someone Asking for Someone Else

One of the most difficult leadership challenges is when you are asked to do something second hand.  “Hey, how are you? Listen, I was just in a meeting with Jill and she asked me to get in touch with you about getting involved with the XYZ project.  You should get started on that ASAP.”  In this scenario, Jill, even if she is your boss or your boss’s boss, needs to at some point provide you with the information so that you can do your best work and manage your workflow.

Eliminate Guilt as an Emotion at Work

At the end of the day, you are accountable for your work, results, and yourself.  The people you work with may be well-intentioned but they don’t live in your shoes.  If you say no to someone at work, they will usually make you feel guilty and perhaps even shame you into saying yes.  It’s really important to try to eliminate the emotion of guilt and again focus on the logic of the situation and what’s best for the business.

In summary, saying no is very hard; but that’s what leaders do.  Especially when you know it’s not going to work, you know you don’t have the capabilities, or if you simply don’t have the time to do a quality job.  If what you are being asked to do is a good idea and good for the company, then use a simple technique of removing something else and finding the right balance.

Today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous business world demands that effective business leaders have strong and fine-tuned change leadership skills as the foundation to their leadership approach.  Developing and cascading these leadership skills requires today’s leaders to embrace change, teach change, support change, and take significant risks.

If you aren’t ready to lead, take real risks, and support real change then don’t even bother; you will only make it all worse.

I was recently conducting a leadership development session utilizing a series of our new computer-based business micro-simulations called Leading Strategic Business Change and the topic of risk and change leadership became the most talked about scenarios.  One of the participants used a quote from Mark Zuckerberg that was very appropriate and summarizes the challenge of the day; “In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

In our workshop, we went through a portfolio of different change leadership scenarios in the business simulation and learners practiced their new skills by simulating different behaviors and conversations within the complete change cycle.  It was clear from the group of learners – which supports a lot of the most current research - that the most successful leaders in the world lead the execution of strategy and are willing to navigate through the risks of change simultaneously.

At the conclusion of the simulation workshop, I summarized all of the key learning points to develop the next set of work and skill development.  I was so excited by the results I am happy to share four of the top findings with readers of Advantexe’s blog. 

Here are the first four elements of a roadmap for successfully Leading Change:

Develop a Strategic Business Change Plan

Every business needs a strategy and every business needs to change to survive.  If your value proposition isn’t evolving and changing to the needs of your selected customers, you will be out of business. Period. Your role as a leader is to develop a detailed Strategic Business Change Plan and identify all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business and then lead your team to adapt to the needed changes.

Choose the Key Metrics of Success

Change will never end, but nonetheless, you and your people need a scoreboard and metrics of success.  One of the biggest reasons change efforts fail is that leaders don’t choose the right metrics of success that support your business strategy and your strategic change efforts.  For example, if you are trying to become more innovative, then you need to develop and launch new successful products/services that provide innovative solutions to the needs of your customers.

Communicate Clearly and Lead to Realistic Expectations

Change leadership is brutally hard. There are no easy answers and no easy steps.  The most effective leaders in the world understand that effective communication and leading to realistic expectations is the only recipe for success.  As part of your communications plan, understand the needs and styles of different stakeholders and adapt your delivery to their style as communicating change is not a one style fits all endeavor.

Identify, Nurture, and Grow the Change Ambassadors

In the early stages of strategic business change – after you’ve started the communication process – the next most critical step is to identify, nurture, and grow the change agents.  The change agents are easily identifiable because they are willing to take risks and willing to fail fast and move forward quickly in the process.  Your job is to identify who they are and do everything possible to make them and delegate to them (they will gladly accept the role) the job of being a change ambassador within your company.

During a recent leadership roundtable, I was facilitating a group dialogue for research with a group of middle-level leaders who all had a minimum of 10 years’ management experience.  During the session, I explored some of the current challenges and opportunities they are facing as part of the process to build the Business Leadership learning, skills, and tools they need to be more effective.

During the discussion, one of the of the leaders shared an interesting statement and question that we explored for more than an hour.  The highlights and key learnings are summarized in this blog.

What are the Business Acumen Skills Needed?

Nelson Peltz, Bill Ackman, Daniel Loeb, Ralph V. Whitworth, Clifton Robbins, Scott Ferguson, Carl Icahn, Christer Gardell, and Jeff Ubben are a few of the most predominant names that continue to emerge and disrupt successful companies by taking on the role of an “Activist Investor.”