The $200 Million Yes
A Sales Leader at a top IT firm agreed to a target everyone knew was "impossible". Here is what it cost him.
He told me he accepted a $200 million target from his CEO.
He knew it was not realistic. His team told him it was not realistic. His boss told him to push back.
He said yes anyway.
I asked him why. He said, “It felt like a privilege that he asked me.”
This is the most common pattern I see in the leaders I coach at billion-dollar IT firms. They cannot say no. They cannot push back. They cannot let go of a request even when they know it will hurt them.
Another leader told me, “I choose collaboration and restraint over pushing back hard.” That sounds noble. In practice, it means he swallows objections and does the work anyway.
Another colleague of his told me he stays silent in senior executive meetings. “I have hardly anything to speak in most open meetings that involve execs.” He has plenty to say. He has decided it is safer to stay quiet.
In all these examples, the cost is real.
The leader who accepted the $200 million target spent the next three months managing his team’s frustration. They knew the number was completely unrealistic. He knew that too. Everyone around him could see he had agreed to something he did not believe in.
His team lost trust in him. The CEO lost confidence in him. And, he lost respect for himself.
Saying yes to everything is not leadership. It is avoidance in the garb of commitment.
Here is how I reframe as I coach these leaders.
When your CEO gives you a target you cannot meet, say what you believe. “I can deliver $150 million. Here is how. The $200 million number needs a different resource model. Let me show you what that looks like.”
When your boss asks you to take on a client you know is troubling, say so. “I will take this on. Here is what I need to fix it. Without these three things, I will fail and we will all look bad.”
When your team expects you to fight for them in a meeting, show up. Say the thing they need you to say. They are watching to see if you will protect them or protect yourself.
The leaders I coach who make this shift all follow the same path. They start small. One conversation. One pushback. One moment of saying what they actually think.
One leader made three hard calls in a single week after months of avoiding them. His team noticed immediately. They started bringing him problems instead of hiding them.
The pattern is simple. When you start saying what you think, people trust you more. When they trust you more, they bring you the truth. When they bring you the truth, you make better decisions.
When you cannot say no, you cannot lead.
Take the Leadership Bottleneck Diagnostic.
Raju Panjwani
Founder of Live Masterminds, Inc.
Former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. I work with senior leaders in $1bn+ IT services and technology consulting, on becoming the leader the business now needs.