Two simple letters, but they are rarely used by leaders from a spiritual perspective. We struggle with learning to say “no” to people.

The result tends to leave leaders overloaded, panic stricken, stressed out, and at times, burned out.

There is probably an unending list of reasons why leaders refuse to use these two significant letters, but here are few that must be overcome.

1) Pride: the issue here is the mindset that no one else has the ability to do the job as good as “I” can do it. Therefore, the job gets placed on a stack of “to-do” items that becomes an abyss of work.

2) Selfish: when leaders become so inwardly focused and only see their own agenda or desires, saying yes creates an appearance of being busier than they really are and pads their ego.

3) Apathy: once a leader reaches a point where they are no longer concerned about others, they might as well say yes because it does not matter whether they get to it or not.

There are obviously more reasons, but these are critical to address if we intend to succeed in leadership.