Saying NO: the new STEALTH skill

A few current trends are redefining which skills are going to help you succeed and stand out in 2024.

1. Mental health is deteriorating.
2. Budgets are less.
3. Spending is down.
4. Most businesses are focused on doing more with less.
5. Costs of living and working are exponential.

Consequently:

1. Our working hours are up because we're working everywhere.

2. Expectations of employers are on the rise because we are always online.

3. We have less time.

4. Burnout has skyrocketed. SURPRISE!

Think about it: Priorities and goals are not enough. Agreeing priorities, agreeing boundaries is only your first step to managing your workload and keeping the team productive. 

New stealth skill needed

Saying NO is fast becoming the stealth skill for success at work. Without the skill of saying NO we eventually burnout. YOU are your only guardian of your time and energy, no one is going to safeguard your wellbeing for you.

If we can’t say NO to extra demands, favours, help out on projects and (insert other requests here) then we are certain to miss our goals or worse, fall over. Why? Because we only have so much time, energy or bandwidth. Without constant focus we lose. Learning to say NO is your only real option.

Saying NO is the catalyst to greater FOCUS and success.

BUT my current poll shows that just 7% of us feel we are actually able to say NO. Only 7% of us feel we can say NO with ease. That’s a really worrying stat considering the above trends and impacts.

How about you? And others in your team? Let me know by taking the poll. It takes less than 5 seconds.

I will be running a free workshop in the future and everyone that takes part in the poll will get a free place and a copy of my SAY YES with a NO toolkit.

Here are the current results and the poll. I will share the summary next week.