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When Managers Can’t Hear No

Posted by: Johanna Rothman on 09/10/2009

I recently wrote an article on how to say No, and a twitter follower wanted to know what to do when your manager can’t hear no.

First, understand why your manager can’t hear no.

Is it because the business pressures are so great that the cost of saying no seems insurmountable? Managers are people too, and if the cost seems overwhelming, it may be that your manager can’t see how to make small steps that ease the problem.
Is it because your manager only thinks you and he/she are working when emergencies exist? If your work is invisible, use the project portfolio to make it visible.
Is it because no one else says no? Other people may not know how. You might be the first.
Is it because he/she does not believe you? Oh boy.

Once you understand why a manager can’t hear no, you can choose how to act. For the first three reasons, your manager may not know about how to or is not willing to manage the project portfolio. In that case, you can manage your project portfolio.

Gather all your work into your project portfolio. Break your tasks into small chunks, so you can complete something in a morning or an afternoon. If you finish some task, can you get to a wait state on that project, waiting for others to get back to you?

If so, you can repeat, ranking and reranking as you proceed. It’s better to have a one-on-one with your manager and make sure you are working on the most important work. If your manager cannot help you rank, don’t worry. Show your manager that it’s possible to make a decision, make some progress, and then re-evaluate that decision based on more data.

If your manager doesn’t believe you, you may have a different problem. Is it a case of Queen of Denial, or is it something more basic, such as lack of trust? If it’s the schedule game, eventually your manager will encounter reality. If it’s lack of trust, that’s another whole problem and another blog post.

Most managers can’t hear no if they literally cannot imagine how to work themselves out from under the pile of work. Show them.

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Johanna Rothman's complete blog can be found at: http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd

About Johanna Rothman

Johanna Rothman helps managers and leaders solve problems and seize opportunities.

She consults, speaks, and writes on managing high-technology product development. She enables managers, teams, and organizations to become more effective by applying her pragmatic approaches to the issues of project management, risk management, and people management.

Johanna writes two blogs: Managing Product Development and Hiring Technical People. She is the author of:

- Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects.

- 2008 Jolt Productivity award winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management

- Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (with Esther Derby)

- Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People

Find more of Johanna's articles and her blogs at www.jrothman.com.

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