Second Cup: Say yes when you can

How to encourage smart risks and buy goodwill

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to say yes when you can. We say
no to a lot of things. Saying yes when you

(00:27):
can buys a lot of goodwill and creates an environment
where people are willing to take risks and explore. In
any large organization, the default answer to anything new can
quickly become no. Managers become worried about how things will

(00:50):
be perceived or about setting a precedent. Before COVID, for example,
a great many requests to work from home or work flexibly,
we're automatically turned down because, well, what if everyone wanted
to work from home? We now know that that would
most likely be fine In many organizations, everyone worked from

(01:15):
home for a year and things kept chugging along if
folks have some level of self awareness. Hopefully this realization
spawned some hard thinking about those automatic knows, namely, the
catastrophizing doesn't serve anyone. We can say no when we

(01:38):
have to, but yes is an option as well. Indeed,
I once heard the advice that a real leader's job
is to say yes as much as possible. The idea
is that leadership isn't just about what you do. It's
also about what you allow and the environment you create.

(02:01):
When you have staff or volunteers who bring you ideas
about things they want to make happen, and you generally
say yes to these things, then people want to bring
you more ideas. Your organization becomes more innovative. People become
happier with their jobs when they feel like their ideas

(02:21):
are taken seriously and they are given the runway to
try things out. Not everything will work, of course, and
you might know that as a leader, but some things will.
So if something isn't terribly expensive or risky legally, then
there's no real harm in giving it a whirl. So

(02:44):
someone wants to work a different schedule, someone wants to
start an employee volunteering group, someone wants to test a
product in a totally different market. Why not saying yes
when you can. It's not just for leaders, it's good
counsel for parents too. It is painful to think about

(03:05):
how often we as parents say no on a typical
day to having pancakes for breakfast on a rushed morning,
going back upstairs to get different shoes when a child
is running late, or to having a second helping of
noodles before any chicken or peas to reading one more
book when it's already after bedtime. I imagine you have

(03:26):
said no to all sorts of things this morning already,
and to an extent that is appropriate, because part of
parenting is setting boundaries, but part of parenting is also
creating the space for our children to explore life and
become their own people. So if no one is going

(03:49):
to get hurt and it's not going to bust the bank,
why not try flipping the automatic no script? So say
yes when you can. To the bizarre outfit a child
puts together, the weird combination of foods in the lunch bag,
to the request to try archery or acts throwing, to

(04:12):
the suggestion to camp out in your backyard, or even
paint the playroom yellow. Instead of asking why, I think
why not? And if there is no reason to say no,
you could just say yes. You may be amazed at
what people come up with, and you buy a lot
of goodwill so that when you do need to say no,

(04:37):
people are more likely to accept that you have a
good reason as opposed to just generally being a downer
about everything. So this week in your professional and personal life,
try saying yes when you can. I'd love to hear
how it goes. You can reach me at Laura at

(04:58):
Laura Vanderkam. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

(05:19):
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
that's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled

(05:40):
out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I
look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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