This is I think one of the hardest things to do and yet not being able to say no to your manager can result in job-loading and unnecessary stress, not to mention failure to deliver.
The most common advice on this subject is that you should set up a formal meeting to discuss your workload where you:
- Express your appreciation of your manager's confidence in you
- Show excitement about your work and the work of the organization and department
- Give your reasons why you can't take on the new work
- Offer to take some aspect of the work or make a small contribution to the project
- Thank them for their continued support in your development.
The problem with this approach is that it is premised on the flawed assumption that you currently fill your days with high-priority and high-impact work. Do you?
The best way to say no to your manager is never to let it get to that stage. You need to know your high-priority and high-impact work and so does your manager. Here's a simple technique to do this:
- Write a list of all your deliverables as agreed with your line manager. Make sure at least one is for your own development.
- Mark each deliverable as either high, medium or low importance. Don't fall into the trap of thinking everything is important. A good rule of thumb is a 20/60/20 split. If you are struggling to do this, think about the consequences if something is not done. Your high importance deliverables will have an organizational impact if not done. Medium will affect your team and low importance deliverables have an impact only on you.
- Underneath each deliverable, list all the key activities required for successful delivery.
- Based on this list, mark the deliverables as requiring a high, medium or low amount of your time.
This gives you a good starting point for your discussions with your manager. You next need to agree with your manager that they accept your importance and time commitment estimates. Set a meeting for this and get their agreement to your assessment of the priorities.
When you have this, you need to agree a change control process. This is a fancy name for simply agreeing what you will do when something needs to change. So, speculate with your manager about what happens when a new high-importance activity crops up. Your aim is to get them to say that the low-importance or medium-importance deliverables can be delayed while you focus on the new deliverable.
With this in place, the next time your manager gives you additional work you can simply ask which low importance work should be delayed. You are therefore not saying no. You are asking for them to tell you their priorities. If they resist this, you can suggest that rather than not doing it you dedicate a low amount of time to it. Again use the table so that all your deliverables and time commitments can clearly be seen.
They may still say you have to do it but at least that is with the full knowledge of your contribution to the team's success.
How do you say no to your manager?