How to Smartly Say NO to Another Request from Your Boss
And get a win from that
It happened to me, last Monday, to have a full agenda. The company software we use to track tasks and activities was flooded under my name. I had tasks for 3-day's worth of work… to be performed before 6 pm.
When, out of the blue, my boss calls me.
He asks to perform an additional heavy-duty task, underlying its importance.
Now, every worker would:
- try to impress his/her boss
- try to not fail
- try to not complain (I simply don’t do it as a habit)
- try to not be rude.
Fortunately, I’m working from home 99% of the time, so I can have more (easily) confidence than in face to face meetings. So I gathered some courage and took a couple of minutes to think of the best possible answer. And I found a precious one!
I told him very clearly that my task list was endless but, on the other hand, I was aware of the importance of the new task. So I asked him to
help me rethink the prioritization of the tasks.
In this way, if I couldn’t finish some they would have been the less important ones. In one move, I managed:
- to show respect for the boss’ requests
- to be helpful and a valuable worker
- to be smart and work smartly, trying to figure out priorities
- to show appreciation for the boss’ opinion and help
Needless to say that he appreciated a lot my approach and helped me reformulate the priorities list, resulting in easier work and a better relationship with the “command chain”.
Get access to my stories and those of other Medium writers for just $5 a month. With no additional cost to you, I will receive half of your payments as a commission: it’s a great way to support me!
Join my newsletter and receive regular notifications when I post.