Are you overstressed, over-scheduled and under delivering be it at work or home? The reason is not you, but your attitude of saying ‘YES’ to everything that comes your way.

1. 5 Reasons to 'WHY' say ‘NO’
Are you overstressed, over-scheduled and under delivering be it at
work or home? The reason is not you, but your attitude of saying
‘YES’ to everything that comes your way.
There are many read on how to gracefully say positive ‘NO’ but -
‘WHY’ say ‘NO’?
Former British prime minister, Tony Blair put it, “The art of leadership
is not saying Yes, it’s saying No.”
Being an entrepreneur, it is really hard to say ‘NO’ to what comes
your way. Especially if you are self funded and you are looking at
means to earn for yourself or for the organization. While there may
be dearth of qualified resources to delivery or may not be your
competency, many of the opportunities you will feel are a natural
extension of your business and can value add. You tend to get into
unchartered territory (yours) and get boggled in it while your
original business / vision / focus is suffering.

2. No is the key to defining your strategic focus and every important Yes
therefore may require a thousand Nos.
Lets look at 5 good reasons and its impact –
Priorities – By saying Yes, you are taking additional work that may
not be in your realm and tend to put in additional working hours that
may not be productive hence impacting your priorities.
By saying No to what is not your forte, you tend to have more time to
do your work correctly.
Time – Time is a limited resource. It is better spent in sharpening
your existing skills and enhancements. There is plenty to learn in
your sphere of things. There is plenty to do in your own focus areas.
Saying Yes to something, which is in your unchartered territory,
takes away those precious hours that could have been better spent.
Quality – A customer once came to me with a request to help train
their staff on performance testing. At my company, we do
performance testing as a service but not as training. Training as we
all know is a foot in the door into a company. I gracefully said ‘NO’.
The customer came back to me and asked me if this was not a natural
extension to my existing business. I said, it is not a planned extension
and we do not have the competency to deliver training.
Quality matters and if you are not competent in doing something
accept it and say NO. It will not only help you in focusing on your
business but also the other company who otherwise would have got a
substandard training.
This was the reason why customer came back to us for help in
performance testing. It is very important not only for organization
branding but also personal credibility. Accept and move on

3. Career – In my 20+ years in this industry, I have heard more Yes than
No. I keep asking people on why they accepted the task. They say it is
very difficult to say no to BOSS and they think it is a path to their
career enhancement.
I have seen many of them accepting the task and not delivering which
in fact is detrimental to their earlier notion of enhancement. Saying
No to what you are not competent or do not know only will help you
in maintaining the credibility with your peers and is not a defeat. It is
important that for career enhancement, you be really good in what
you are competent and deliver quality and communicating that
effectively with your peers and BOSS. I am sure he hired you for a
reason and he understands your skills. If you have overstated
something in your profile that is not your core area, GOD only save
you.
Work life Balance – We keep hearing about people not having time.
Above 4 points provide you with pointers on what really is
happening due to which you rarely have time to spend in your life.
While work is your livelihood, it is important that you have some
time to spend on yourself. The below points may help you in ensuring
better work life balance
1. Do not accept more work which you cannot deliver on time
2. Do not accept work which does not fall in your realm and
competency
3. Do now showcase that you know something which is not true
4. Be honest, be diligent and deliver on what you have accepted be
at work or at home