The Surpisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

be done with it. There is nothing wrong with this at all. In fact, this
should be your first choice every time. But if you feel there are times
you need to say no in a helpful way, there are many ways to say it that
can still lead people forward toward their goals.
You can ask them a question that leads them to find the help they
need elsewhere. You might suggest another approach that doesn’t
require any help at all. You might not know what else they could do,
so you could help them by gently prompting them to get creative. You
can politely redirect their request to others who might be better able
to assist them.
Now, if you do end up saying yes, there are a variety of creative
ways you can deliver it. In other words, you can leverage your yeses.
Help desks, support centers, and information resources couldn’t exist
without this kind of strategic thinking. Preprinted scripts, frequently
asked question pages or files, written explanations, recorded
instructions, posted information, checklists, catalogs, directories, and
prescheduled training classes can all be used to effectively say yes
while still preserving your time block. I started doing this in my first
job as sales manager. I leveraged training sessions to cut frequently
asked questions off at the pass, and then by either printing or
recording them, created a library of answers my team could access
whenever I wasn’t personally available.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that it helps to have a
philosophy and an approach to managing my space. Over time I
developed what I refer to as the “Three-Foot Rule.” When I hold one
of my arms out as widely as possible, from my neck to my fingertips
is three feet. I’ve made it my time-managing mission to limit who
and what can get within three feet of me. The rule is simple: A
request must be connected to my ONE Thing for me to consider it. If
it’s not, then I either say no to it or use any one of the approaches I
shared above to deflect it elsewhere.
Learning to say no isn’t a recipe for being a recluse. Just the