Council Post: Behind The CIO’s Desk: The Strategic Power Of Saying No

Rafael Pimentel Pinto, CIO. Internationally awarded Innovation and Digital Transformation Expert.

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​Over the years, the career advice I have given consistently is “be the person with the answers.” Not the loudest person in the room, not the people-pleaser, not the know-it-all. The one people trust to have the strategic vision and the reasoning to back it when decisions need to be made. This is one of the reasons many technology leaders end up drowning, because somewhere along the way we confused having the answer with having an agreeable one.

It shows up in a conference room, usually at the end of the agenda. A peer executive describes a platform their team has been looking at. It solves a real problem, and the demo is, to say the least, impressive. They have already discussed it with two other board members. Then they turn to you with a question that is not really a question: “This should be pretty straightforward on your end, right?” Nine faces turn toward you, and your brain is going over the integration work, the three projects already committed for the quarter and the two people who would have to shift their focus away from another, more critical task. You know the cost of saying all that out loud, so you say yes. Not because you had an answer, but because you didn’t have one, and yes just buys you the afternoon.

​The Powerful No, The Empty Yes

But how do you say no without becoming the bull’s eye for the next year’s unachieved goals?

You learn how to say no. You learn when to say no. You learn how to attach an alternative every time you say no.

A no without an alternative is an obstruction, and any organization is right to resent it. A no with a reasonable alternative is the answer. I’ll name three common yeses given as a lack of an answer.

1. Yes To Technology Over Strategy

Some demos are so impressive it’s hard not to want the thing to be operational immediately, but does it solve any real problem? Is it the only way toward a solution? And more importantly, is this something we need to solve? Technology must never be prioritized over strategy; it must be a consequence of it. So how to say no in this case: Ask what outcome is being bought. The alternative: Name the outcome first, then run a scoped evaluation with a decision date. This way, you are not blocking the tool; you are refusing to skip the step that makes the tool work and be actually useful.

2. Yes To Executives To Avoid Conflict

Agreeing to something you know shouldn’t happen will only delay a conflict, and potentially worsen it. However, it is possible to transform a conflict centered on personal disagreement into an operational or economic conflict. “Let me take a closer look at it before making a decision,” is a perfectly valid response, and if the final answer is no, explain why. In my experience, there is one universal language in every organization: risk. Explain in terms of risk and bring your alternative solutions to the conversation.

3. Yes To Vendors

I enjoy working with vendors who are passionate about what they do. But falling for a convincing sales pitch is one mistake no executive wants to make. “Let’s run a pilot first,” or “let’s bring the key users to the conversation,” will give both sides a better understanding of the potential outcomes of any proposed solution. In this case, there might be no alternative solution proposed. Sometimes the answer is just no.

So much for “you learn how to attach an alternative every time you say no,” right? But sometimes just saying no is not an obstruction, it’s judgment. Remember you’re there to make the right decisions to achieve strategic goals, not to win a popularity contest. Sometimes the right decisions are not the ones people will like.

Back to that conference room, confident that you have the answers, what would your answer be to this question: “This should be pretty straightforward on your end, right?”

For starters, you will be seen as someone with more control if you are self-confident enough to handle a negative answer in front of the board members. This builds up their perception of you as someone with the answers. With time, others will not assume you are a yes-by-omission person, and they will ask for your input instead of assuming things should move forward before you can even understand their full scope.

As a CIO, you have a range of visibility of the organization that no other role may have. This comes with the wonderful capability to make a lasting positive impact or the complete opposite. Saying no deliberately and intentionally should be one of your superpowers. Use it wisely. Know that more often than not, a no is the strategic way to go. How and when you say it will make you the go-to person, or the one to avoid having in the conversation.

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