222 Put Y0ur Best Self Forward with PowerPhrases
to see procedures and policies to enhance our task. When he
was finished and asked me for my input, I found he had opened
a door for me.
I asked,
What duties do you see as having priority over these I
currently have?I let him list off the tasks he knew were the most impor-
tant. When he completed his list, I asked,
Which duty could I delegate to have the appropriate
time to make this new project successful?He stared at me dumbfounded for almost an entire minute
(47 seconds as I watched the clock above his head) before he
answered “None.”
I then told him that in light of making this project have a
smooth conversion to our area I did not feel I could give it the
time and attention with my current duties. I asked how we
might be able to split the duties between some of our person-
nel who are always asking for projects to do to pass the time
better. We talked for another 15 minutes before we had a plan
written out on what needed to be done, when the tasks needed
to happen, and who could do the tasks. We have made the con-
version and things are running fairly smooth.
My supervisor mentioned the other day that he now sees
why I resisted to take on this task because he spends a mini-
mum of 10 hours a week with his portion of the tasks and sees
that I could not have done this without giving up 2 to 3 tasks
I currently have.
I am quite proud that I was able to tell him NO without