Author, speaker, business coach and podcast host Christy Wright covers the importance of only disappointing the RIGHT people, and choosing between being popular, or being effective as a leader (but you can't be both).Hear Christy's full interview in Episode 60 of The Action Catalyst.
We have a tendency to believe that, you know, somehow we can please everyone. And I know that we intellectually understand that we can't, but we still try to. And that's where that guilt comes from, wanting to say yes and please that person versus do the right thing and say no when it's not the right fit for you.
But the reality is that we can understand that you will always disappoint people because your time, your money, and your energy are finite. You're always going to have to make choices. And so leadership is really about making the right choices. And when you realize that you're going to disappoint people, in leadership you will disappoint people. That is a fact.
But the key is just disappointing the right people. And if you have to discern it to understand, I'm going to say yes to this situation because this is the right decision for me and for my business and what I'm doing, my goals. then you have a little bit more confidence in order to say no to that person because you're focused more on your yes.
This is so that I can say yes to this thing versus just feeling the guilt of saying no to this other person. But really, I mean, all leaders and everyone in general, we want to make people happy. We don't want to disappoint people. But I think if we realize that we're saying no in order to say yes, to something better and something more right for us and get focused on our guests.
And that makes it a little bit easier to do that. You need to decide in leadership, do you want to be popular or do you want to be effective? Because you can see both. And you can be popular and try to make everyone happy and say yes to everyone and try to be everyone's friend, but you're not going to be effective.
And if you're going to be effective, sometimes that involves saying no and doing the right thing for the greater good of the business and the goals and the proper and yourself personally. But that leads to a more effective leader, possibly less popular at times, which is hard, but in the long run, everyone will benefit when you're more effective.