It takes courage

It takes courage to be a leader.  Being a leader doesn't come without a price.  It seems that too often, people in leadership positions want to take the status and money, but not the responsibility.

Being a leader doesn't mean saying "yes" to your leader, or his or her leader.  Being a leader means evaluating the organization's goals, figuring out how your work group or team can make the biggest contribution to those goals, providing your employees the framework and resources to make the team's contribution, and escalating when you have needs beyond the resources you have to commit.

I hear over and over stories of employees who are in impossible situations, because their leader has said "yes" to an impossible request.  Why do leaders do this?  Fear.

It is incredibly difficult to say "no" to people in authority.  Most of us were conditioned from a very young age to please authority figures.  Learning how to say "no" as an adult is a very difficult undertaking.

In order to be successful at saying "no",  you need to build your case.  Data is your friend.  "We can't load 600 tank cars of product in 24 hours, because that leaves no time for anything to go less than perfectly.  600 tank cars is 25 per hour.  We have 5 loading stations.  That is 12 minutes per car plus the hook up and disconnect.  It takes 10 minutes just for the pumps to transfer the product.  The very best we can commit to with the current equipment installation is 480 tank cars."

By over committing, your people will look like they have failed, but the real failure belongs to the leader.  It is necessary to set your people up for success.  This means you will be the face of disappointment when unreasonable demands are made.

As you build a reputation for saying "no" when necessary, and delivering on the commitments you make, your value to both your employees and your leaders goes up.

A side benefit is that your employees will also know that saying "no" is OK, because you have modeled the behavior.  I have never met a human being that likes failing, or feeling like a disappointment.  If you can't find the courage to say "no" when you have to, your people will get demoralized.

The more you practice saying "no", the easier it gets.   Gather your data, build your case, don't cave in to impossible demands.  Everyone will be better for it.