Have you ever experienced this? Whenever you wanted to approach someone asking for something, you would always say "No" on the person's behalf? I bet many of you did that. I do that too. Whenever I wanted to ask for help, I would think of a million things that would have that person to say "No" to me.
Now, what I want to tell you is to stop doing that. You have already defeated yourself before you even start. The rights of saying "No" belongs to the other person. It has nothing to do with you. If you already know that the person would reject your approach, you have think further on the true reason behind the rejection. This helps you to plan and make your approach.
This is especially relevant to many things in life from closing the sales to getting a date. There was a time that I worked in a project that requires a whole new set of equipment for a short term training. However, the company was under going a series of cost cutting initiative. Asking for new expenditure is like asking for the moon. Worst, a career suicide move. I have no choice, and I was worried that the financial controller would tear me into pieces. I prepared my case carefully and consider all possible options. I spend 10 minutes explaining it to him. When I finish, all I heard was a grunt. The controller broke into a smile and tell me that he will approve the expenditure. The reason is that many of the existing machines are reaching the end of its life cycle. No matter what it has to be changed. With the training around the corner, there are more reasons to buy the equipment. Once the training is over, the machines will be transferred for other use.
Honestly, I never thought that the request would be approved so easily. Why? I was too busy thinking about how I will get rejected. If I have done my homework more carefully, I would have found out about the soon to-be expire machines.
Your take away? Never say no other behalf of the other person.
No comments:
Post a Comment