By Chief Maker Executive Development Academy

While it might sound counterintuitive, learning to say no at work is one of the most important skills that leaders can learn.

The problem is, we’ve all been conditioned to say yes - particularly early in our careers when we wanted to make an impression. Yes to taking on an extra project, yes to pleasing others, yes to creating more career opportunities. 

One of the biggest culprits is when we say yes to meetings. We do this out of habit. The calendar note comes in via email and without thinking, we simply accept.

In a recent Harvard Business Review study of 182 senior managers, 65% said that meetings prevent them from completing their own work and 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient.

So how do you determine if a meeting is worth attending or not?

Here are 4 tips to help you decide.

 

1. IS THE MEETING ACTUALLY NECESSARY?

Could the reason for this meeting be solved with a quick conversation rather than a 45 minute meeting involving several people from the business. In many cases, the answer is yes. Alternatively, could the topic be folded into your daily WIP or weekly operations meeting? A quick review of this before automatically accepting the calendar note could buy you back hours of time.


2. IS THE MEETING WELL PREPARED?

What’s the purpose and desired outcome of this meeting? Are the right people going to be in the room? Is there a decent agenda? And does the meeting owner have all the right reports and data to ensure a productive and successful meeting? If not, perhaps it’s a matter of saying ‘no, not right now’ - this meeting needs to be better prepared.


3. PRIORITISE YOUR OWN TIME

Your time is precious and it’s a limited resource. Imagine for a moment if you were to cancel five meetings in the next fortnight. That’s five hours of time you’ll buy back. Five hours of time you can spend working on the business, developing your people, building relationships with stakeholders and actually moving the needle on your business goals and company strategy. Prioritise your own time and demonstrate the importance of this to others.


4. MANAGE YOUR PRIORITIES

You want to do a great job and you’re very willing to take on the extra work to help the business succeed. But does this meeting have the potential to take you away from your other responsibilities? If you’re unsure how to prioritise, this is a great opportunity to seek counsel from your boss. Speak their language and emphasise how you want to produce high quality work, but seek their guidance around priorities and work with them to determine whether this is something you should say yes to or no.

 

Saying no to meetings isn’t about dodging work and responsibility. 

Saying no is actually about creating time for more meaningful work. It’s about managing overwhelm and stress. It’s about respecting yourself and your time. And it’s about demonstrating productive use of time to everyone else within your team. Listen to Episode 247 of The Inner Chief Podcast to learn more.