Warren Smith has a warning for all the keeners of the world: if you say yes to too many things, you’ll end up dropping the ball.
Smith first heard this sage advice when he was on a committee to choose winners of the University of British Columbia’s Wesbrook Scholarships. A fellow committee member congratulated him on doing a good job.
“And then she said, ‘Let me give you some advice that you’re not going to appreciate right now,’” Smith said. “‘You have to be careful as you move forward in your career that you don’t say yes to everything that you’re asked to do, because once you get known for being good at volunteer work, you’re going to get bombarded.’”
Smith listened politely. Then, a few years later, he found himself in hot water, having committed himself to too many organizations. The consequence?
“You can get too busy to properly commit to the things you’ve said yes to,” he said.
For example, a few years ago Smith was doing volunteer fundraising work for the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, but he ended up getting overwhelmed – and unable to complete tasks he’d said he would do.
“I let down a really good charity that’s doing a really good thing in the community because I couldn’t put the time in to do the things I needed to do,” he said.
Smith is now more careful about making commitments to organizations, and sometimes that means being firm. He was vice-president of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of British Columbia and Yukon board when he was approached about becoming president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants, an industry association for legal recruitment.
Smith realized he had to make a choice.
“I recognized I couldn’t do both. … Make-A-Wish tried to convince me to stay, but I said, ‘I can’t do both. I know if I do both of these I’m going to fail both organizations.’
“Where I ended up with them was I helped them find a great person from the legal community to replace me.”
On prioritizing the right things | “The other system I have is with my team. I entrust them with how we need me to help them, and we have these discussions all the time, where if you ask me to help with these three things, then something else over here’s got to give. So let’s have a discussion about what’s … the best use of everybody on the team.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected]
