Workplace Dilemmas
By Greg Cootsona
When Greg Cootsona took a job as an associate pastor at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, he learned that Manhattan's fast pace and long hours apply to clergy just as they do to investment bankers and real estate brokers. Bombarded with obligations, he found himself in a cardiologist's office with signs of high blood pressure and without adequate time to enjoy the pleasures of family life with his wife and two young daughters. It had to stop, but how could a man of God justify saying "no" to any church duty?
It took a few years for his revelatory mindset to develop. "I discovered that 'no' guards vital commitments and, when used properly, creates excellence," writes Cootsona in his book Say Yes to No: Using the Power of No to Create the Best in Life, Work, and Love (Doubleday, 2009). Cootsona, who owned a tennis-equipment business before becoming an ordained minister, offers his wisdom for determining which types of scenarios demand an unconditional call to duty and which ones can be deferred until later or declined--in church life as well as in the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds. Read on as Cootsona offers up 21 scenarios and explains which ones merit a yes, a no, or a maybe.
