Every ‘yes’ is also a hidden ‘no’
Simon Breakspear
12 August 2025
This week, we’re tackling an essential leadership practice – understanding and intentionally making trade-offs.
The idea: Every ‘Yes’ Is Also a ‘No’
Leaders often mistakenly believe they can do it all. However, every ‘yes’ we commit to implicitly means saying ‘no’ to something else. Recognising this can significantly improve our ability to focus on the most essential elements of our roles.
30-Second Version
- We often operate as if we can avoid trade-offs, mistakenly believing we can do everything without compromising.
- This belief leads us to say yes too readily, leaving us overstretched and reducing overall effectiveness.
- By adopting an ‘impact versus effort’ mindset, we can intentionally prioritise tasks, freeing time and resources for activities with the most potential for meaningful outcomes.
The Full Read
Have you ever caught yourself agreeing to a new initiative or responsibility without fully recognising that by doing so, you’re implicitly saying no to something else? In education, it’s very easy to feel the pressure to say yes to everything that appears beneficial, leaving us overloaded and unable to genuinely prioritise what matters most.
The reality is simple yet often overlooked: every ‘yes’ to something implicitly means a ‘no’ to something else. Time, energy, and resources are finite – we can’t manufacture more of them, only allocate wisely what we have. Yet deep down, many of us still hold a belief that we can somehow avoid trade-offs, striving instead to ‘do it all’.
Impact vs Effort Thinking
Moving away from ‘any benefit’ thinking (i.e., ‘this activity has some benefit, therefore I should do it’) towards a clear focus on looking at ‘impact versus effort’ allows us to see where the highest-value work lies. Ask yourself:
- “What is the true impact of this activity relative to the effort and resources it demands of me?”
- “Are we holding onto activities merely because they offer just some benefit, however small?”
By evaluating tasks, commitments and initiatives through this lens, you gain clarity on where to allocate your limited resources for maximum impact. You’ll also feel more confident making strategic trade-offs and clearly communicating your reasoning.
Practical Steps for Making Trade-offs:
- Clearly identify your highest-impact priorities.
- Regularly audit current commitments, honestly assessing their impact relative to effort.
- Intentionally prune away lower-impact tasks – even those that seem ‘good’ – to focus deeply on high-impact areas.
- Be very strict about what else you allow onto your dance card. Always question the marginal benefit of adding one more thing.
Small step → Reflect on your current responsibilities and identify one initiative or activity you said yes to, but should probably now say no to. Consider what valuable initiative or activity you could prioritise instead.
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