Commanda and Chief

No doesn’t necessarily mean no. Think of it as an opening negotiation position then get curious.

While there are definitely times when no means no, we often miss opportunities by accepting a ‘no’ too quickly. When you frame it as a negotiating position and start asking the why behind it, you will often find that there is a win, win solution not too far under the surface.

Real life example:

I asked to work on a project that was of interest to me and aligned with my career growth and was told no.

When I asked why I was told that it was because my boss wanted me focused on a task that was very important to him but of little interest to me.

I knew developing other team members was important to him so I devised the solution that I would supervise a team member who wanted to do the task as a growth opportunity, ensuring the success of the task, while giving my colleague an opportunity which made her happy and freeing up my time to work on another project. win-win-win