When To Say No At Work and How To Say No (to the Boss and Others)
Channel: Enhance.training
Date: 2022-08-11

When to say No at work is a critical as how you say no at work. 

You don’t want to offend others, or appear to be unreasonable or difficult. Even more important, you don’t want to let others down, be a walk over or overload yourself.

--- 
Leadership coaching – to increase your impact, your confidence and your team’s results
Bespoke, flexible and confidential personal development for middle managers to board directors. To transition to more senior roles, to improve skills, to increase influence, to get more from those you lead … explore how leadership coaching will help you and your managers https://enhance.coach/

Courses for Managers to Increase Team Performance & Results
The quickest, easiest and cheapest way to improve team results is to improve the management of the team. Learn the management skills and approach that created multiple high performing teams, won “Best Team” prizes and added millions in value. https://enhance.training/msa-usp006/

---- 


Getting good at how to say no is a key skill to develop as early as possible. If you go into the management ranks without being good at saying no, your problems will only multiply. 

So when should we say no in the workplace?

We go through 5 reasons you should say no at work. Then we go through how to say no professionally at work.

Firstly, learn to say no at work when you are maxed out. If you have little or no spare capacity, then you must say no. Letting people down is much worse than saying no up front.

Secondly, say no at work when you are not the right person. Explain you don’t have the right skills, the right experience or enough time or the key reason why you are not the right person. This is key in how to say no without feeling guilty. 

Thirdly, Say no at work when doing the work will prevent you from delivering your own goals or objectives. Your formal objectives should be the most important goals to achieve. Say no when additional work conflicts with these or prevents you achieving them. 

Fourth, say no at work when you can deliver what is required. This might be due to workload, capability, or any number of reasons. If you are not sure you can deliver, say no and suggest someone who can. 

The fifth reason for when to say no at work is when the task or project creates a big conflict with your values. These situations do occur, and you have to balance your personal comfort and happiness with potential negative impacts to your reputation.

How to say no at work is super important. Always provide a reason why you are saying no. Ideally this reason should be one of the five reasons we have covered. 

How to say no to boss at work is exactly the same. Explain why you are saying no and say no. If you can explain that doing this extra task/project with endanger the completion of another task/project your boss has asked you to do – even better.

When planning how to say no, be considerate of the other persons situation and feelings. Be diplomatic and be firm. 


00:00 Intro
02:16 Say No when you are Maxed Out
03:20 Say No when you are Not the Right Person
03:57 Say no when the Work will Stop You Reaching your Goals
04:51 Say No when you Can’t Deliver what is required
05:52 Say No when there is a Big Conflict with your Values
06:31 How To Say No At Work
07:36 5 Examples of How to Say No at Work
08:52 In Summary

More videos that you will find useful:
10 Great Tips to Manage Your Manager     https://youtu.be/flKkeZd4nRY
Setting Objectives With Your Manager       https://youtu.be/ZC3tcVjF0Ss
How to Influence Your Manager & The Leadership Team    https://youtu.be/PUFsbaqcNbY
7 Ways To Handle A Difficult Manager At Work    https://youtu.be/ElZ-WEHd5lY

If you have any question on “When to say no at work and how to say no”, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles
enhance.training