Repeat after me, “It is okay to say no!”

It’s pretty amazing how easily we can become distracted by requests from the outside.  Soon, these requests pile on each other until suddenly we are being pulled in a multitude of different directions.  Ultimately, we can’t even remember which way we were going in the first place or how we got into this mess.  We end up unhappy with our situation and we don’t know how to change it.  This nearly happened to me this week and I want to share how I managed to stop it.

It started with a simple phone call.  Someone had heard of me and had a small job opportunity that I might be a good fit for.  I listened with interest but my instinct was that the opportunity wasn’t in a direction that I wanted to go in.  Actually, it wasn’t a good opportunity at all and it would have been a bad fit for my strengths!  Since it was a referral, I felt obligated to ask for more information.  A subsequent email confirmed my suspicions that the role was of no interest and of extremely limited monetary value.  It would be a major distraction to my own future plans but yet, I was still a little hesitant.  The hesitancy came not from turning the role down, but from disappointing the person who referred me.

How often does that happen?  We take on assignments, projects or roles because we feel obligated to someone else.  Is it easier to say yes then to say no?  I think it can be, which is the most frustrating of all.  In this instance I should not have been referred for that position in the first place.  Yet, I didn’t dismiss it out of hand and even asked two of my personal advisors about it.  One of these advisors was slightly annoyed that I was feeling guilty about the situation.  I am sure the person who referred me wasn’t feeling guilty.  I fabricated the guilt out of a sense of obligation.  My advisor’s message was clear; there was no guilt in saying no. He helped me see something that should have been of no consequence took a fair amount of my precious time.  Of course there is only one person to blame for that – myself. 

To obtain business acumen, we have to be clear about our direction and stay true to it.  Don’t spend too much time considering items that are outside of that direction.  Sound harsh?  Not as harsh as it would have been for me if I allowed myself to be sucked into that role.  It really is ok to say no.  Honest.  No guilt involved.  When we say yes out of obligation to the requests that plague us, we lose our momentum.  Once our momentum is lost, we become lost.  It is better to say “no” upfront, than to become resentful at these outside forces.  Don’t let your fabricated guilt be your guide.  Remember, you have the power to determine your own success. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in 

accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The goal post is near…

For the past few posts, I have been really focused on goals and I think it is time to wrap up those thoughts so we can move on. To do that, here are some final observations:


Going back to my last post, in which an executive was resisting the pressure to put goals in to place, I want to share the rest of the story. A few of us from the outside worked diligently at putting fair and reasonable numbers into place. These numbers were based on the previous year’s actual data. Unfortunately, the executive worked with one of the employees to come up with their own numbers. Their numbers actually result in substantial negative growth and their excuse was they didn't want to be "set up to fail." Our influence only went so far in this situation and the lower numbers were adopted by the overall organization. It is a classic example of why an employee should not be responsible for solely determining their own goals. Instead the process should be a collaborative effort based on actual data. Politics must be put aside for the betterment of the business entity. If someone cannot meet reasonable expectations, then change of some sort must be enacted. Am I surprised this happened – absolutely not! It just was another example of why I am usually hesitant to work with them.

In the example above, the executive never had goals before and really used the situation to avoid reasonable benchmarks for success. What the executive failed to realize is that setting goals doesn’t mean that the business is setting their employees up to fail. There is nothing wrong with reasonable expectations that hold people accountable for their job responsibilities. Regardless of their career level, employees shouldn’t look at goals as a form of punishment. Instead they are a pathway to ensure personal success. Even more importantly, goals are a key element in building trust between the business entity and its employees.

Of course, it takes more than goals. A collaborative effort of setting priorities and reviewing accomplishments are also vital to the process. Priorities need to be set, and even altered as needed, so the employee and the subsequent chain of command are in sync with the urgency that may or may not be needed. Don’t ever assume that a list of goals will be prioritized the way you want think they should be - engage the process so that everyone is together on what the order items need to be done and the reasons why.

Finally, when the goals are accomplished, acknowledge and perhaps even celebrate the success.  Show that the employees that there are benefits to success. If people fall short of the targets, don’t immediately assess blame. Take the time to find out what when wrong. There could be many influencing factors and speculation won’t prevent it from happening again in the future.

Remember, the goal of most sports players and their teams is to celebrate a win. Why should it be any different for anyone else – individuals, businesses and families alike? Embrace the opportunities that arise in having goals as the keys to empowering your future!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Yes really, your business MUST have organizational goals!!!

I find it somewhat amazing the resistance you can encounter by just mentioning “goals” in a business setting. Are they really that bad? Ok, I’ll admit they can be. If the overall approach to goal setting process is reactionary then it will be a painful process for everyone involved. The situation can become worse if the business itself and its executives don’t have goals. If this happens, a chaos of conflicting expectations and misinformation can occur. This is actually something I encountered last week.

A business that I work with has been pressuring me to take on a project for them. Something about the project made me very resistant but I didn’t examine my reasons too closely. When the pressure continued, I gave in and looked at the project. What I found disturbing was that the only reason the business had to put this major change in place was that the business’s larger competitors used it. When I probed deeper and asked questions such as, “what is the expected ROI” and “what proof do we have that the customers want this,” I was met with this classic response “I just KNOW it will work.” HAH! How many times have we heard that! A business cannot implement changes on what they think their customers want – they need to be proactive in obtaining proof. How does this fit into setting goals? If you have goals, then you will use research to know what projects you need to meet those goals! In this situation, the questions I had opened an even bigger can of worms.

As I was asking these questions the executive I was working with, he diverted my attention to another issue he was having. He was being pressured to set goals and needed help with the numbers. Looking at the budgeted numbers, it became clear that annual revenue number was set without any real thought to how it can be obtained. It was merely a calculation off of last year’s number. Saying that a business will reach X amount of revenue dollars is fine but a complete plan on how will the business get there also needs to be in place. One of the basic questions in this process is: will the revenue number be obtained through existing customers or will new customer acquisition have to be stepped up? In this situation no one could answer that question for me! When I probed deeper, I found that most of the business’s efforts went towards obtaining new customers but these new customers only accounted for less than 10% of the annual revenue! If goals for advancing the business had been put into place, if the budget had been built with a thought of how it was going to be accomplished – if, if, if – the list of what should have been done goes on and on.

The executive didn’t, and probably still doesn’t, see the correlation between organizational goals and organizational projects. Don’t let your business have the same disconnect. Look at the big picture. Ask yourself where you want your business to go and what steps are going to be needed to get there. From there, you can determine realistic revenue targets, project initiatives, new hires and so on. It must start with goals and it must begin at the organizational level. Without them, the employees are on a rudderless ship just trying to take on every wave as it hits. Clearly that’s a business just waiting to be sunk.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”