Article - 98 Week 24 | THE POWER OF A “NO’’

Article - 98  Week 24 | 

THE POWER OF  A "NO''

We are born and brought up in a culture of saying "yes". We are supposed to say yes to any one and sundry, who remotely happens to be senior to us in age, kinship, relation, gender, social status or rank. Saying "no" is perceived as disrespect, naivety, rebellion, or even heresy! Under such a tremendous social and cultural conditioning, the body language, spoken language, the intonations, & the intents of the speaker point in conflicting directions while conveying a message of negation. The listener needs to average them out, after discounting the noises, to understand what he wants to understand in his own version. The process is complex, blurry, and at times eats up productivity.

Recently I had this deal with the owner of a very large business. The deal was negotiated to all its important points and closed verbally. The only caveat being, the agreed points would be emailed to me before sealing the MOU. Days passed. The mail never came. The phone was never picked. After days when we could manage to get him, he would politely say things like - he was busy on a second call and would call back later or similar such things. Days dragged. He could not muster up enough courage to say "no". The process wasted a whole lot of time, man hours, other resources, and indecision. 

Even within organizations, we come across such peculiarities. Bobbing the head up and down or side ways, looking down at the floor and saying "yes",  wearing a smile with a muted 'yes', a dazed look with a famished "OK" cringing through the teeth, or even an aggressive & high pitched staccato of many "yeses" are some of the examples! People just refuse to say "no", even at the risk of being at the receiving end of the consequences. A simple "no" would be a simple and effective weapon on our way to excellence.

Brgds

Capt Rath