Honestly, Just Say No
Sometimes the most powerful way to engage in Intelligent Disobedience is to say no, especially when a task “opportunity” enters your office.
You are busy, juggling priorities and multiple initiatives, and you have an ambitious manager. At the same time we want to approach our managers, the business, and ourselves with integrity. Does it reflect high integrity when a task opportunity comes your way and you don’t know how you will accomplish it and you neglect to say something like…I can’t do that?
Intelligent Disobedience doesn’t mean we should be needlessly difficult. It does mean we should be true to ourselves and those around us. One of the most effective ways to do that and relieve undue stress, is to stop trying to juggle too much. If a work opportunity comes your way, and you don’t know how you will accomplish it, say no OR ask which of your major projects (or significant to-do items) you can “suspend” in order to accomplish this new task. You owe that brand of truth to your boss, your peers, your own sanity and your family!
The Harvard Business Review published an excellent article with this same theme - in fact it is in the top two best selling reprints in the history of the Harvard Business Review magazine. You can access the article via this link: http://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey/ar/1