Workplace Multiplier by Tola Akinsulire

June 24, 2025

Welcome to the Workplace Multiplier newsletter. Published Monday to Friday, equipping you to achieve your professional goals faster and without burnout or overwhelm by leveraging The Triple Win Method.

The Time Protection Secret They Don't Teach in Business School

Howdy ,

Once upon a time, on my way into a meeting, I got another interesting request. One of the other persons attending this meeting said, "I have a meeting with an external party in 1 hour and I want you to join me for the meeting."

My quick response?

No, I'm not attending.

She was surprised and said I responded "No" too quickly. I agreed with that. Yes, I don't say "Yes" too easily for pieces of my precious time.

She tried to convince me to attend the meeting. I did not yield. I didn't find her reasons strong enough to change to "Yes".

Furthermore, I believe dragging me into that meeting was an afterthought, in my opinion.

Some people like to make decisions through group thinking. I try to avoid those sorts of meetings.

After conceding that I would not yield, she requested for a particular team member of mine to join the meeting instead.

I said "No" to the request. I have trained my team members to value their time. I am not going to "farm" them out to time wasting meetings.

I stood my ground.

In the end, neither I nor any member of my team attended the meeting.

Please note that the requester was my senior at work.

But I am committed to protecting my time at work.

The Hidden Cost of Saying "Yes" Too Often

In today's workplace, there's an unspoken expectation that being available equals being valuable. The person who always says "Yes" to every meeting request, every last-minute project, every "quick favor" is often seen as the ultimate team player.

But here's what I've learned after years of leading teams across multiple countries: Your availability is not your value. Your results are.

When you say "Yes" to everything, you're actually saying "No" to the work that truly matters. You're trading strategic thinking for reactive busyness. You're exchanging high-impact activities for the comfort of appearing cooperative.

The meeting scenario I described above wasn't about being difficult or disrespectful to a senior colleague. It was about understanding a fundamental truth: Time is the only resource you cannot replace, delegate, or recover.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Let me share some sobering statistics. According to a study by Harvard Business Review, executives spend 23 hours per week in meetings. For middle managers, it's even worse. And here's the kicker – most participants rate 67% of these meetings as failures.

Think about that for a moment. We're spending nearly a full day every week in activities that don't work.

But the real cost isn't just the time spent in unproductive meetings. It's the opportunity cost – the strategic work that doesn't get done, the creative thinking that gets pushed aside, the team development that gets postponed because we're all sitting in rooms talking about talking about things.

The Meeting Request Red Flags

When someone approaches you with a last-minute meeting request, here are the red flags I've learned to watch for:

• The Afterthought Invitation When someone suddenly decides they need you in a meeting that's happening in an hour, it usually means one of two things: they haven't properly planned the meeting, or they're looking for someone to share responsibility for a decision they should be making themselves.

• The Vague Purpose "I want you to join me for the meeting" tells me nothing about why my presence would add value. If someone can't articulate in 30 seconds why they need me there, they probably don't.

• The Group Think Approach Some people use meetings as a way to avoid making decisions. They gather a room full of people hoping that somehow, magically, a decision will emerge from the collective conversation. These meetings are productivity killers.

• The Safety Net Request Sometimes people ask for your presence not because they need your expertise, but because they want someone else to blame if things go wrong. I've learned to recognize this pattern and avoid it entirely.

Teaching Your Team to Value Their Time

As a leader, one of your most important responsibilities is teaching your team members that their time has value. When I refused to send one of my team members to that meeting, I wasn't just protecting their schedule – I was reinforcing a crucial lesson about professional boundaries.

Here's what I tell my team: "Your time is an investment, not an expense. Make sure you're getting a good return."

This means:

• Ask for meeting agendas in advance
• Decline meetings where your contribution isn't clear
• Suggest alternative ways to achieve the same outcome
• Don't attend meetings just to "show face"
• Trust that quality work speaks louder than perfect attendance

When you protect your team's time, you're sending a powerful message: I respect your ability to prioritize, and I trust your judgment about how to best use your working hours.

The Respectful Way to Say No 

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking: "But what about hierarchy? What about being seen as uncooperative? What about political capital?"

These are valid concerns, and saying "No" to a senior colleague does require finesse. Here's how I approach it:

1. Acknowledge the Request "I understand you'd like me to join this meeting..."
2. Express Appreciation "...and I appreciate that you thought of me for this discussion."
3. State Your Constraint Clearly "However, I have a prior commitment that requires my full attention during that time."
4. Offer an Alternative When Appropriate "If there's specific input you need from me, I'd be happy to provide it via email or schedule a brief call afterward."
5. Stay Firm But Professional "I want to make sure I can give my best contribution, and right now, that means focusing on the strategic planning session we already have scheduled."

Notice that I didn't say "I'm too busy" or "I don't see the value." I framed it in terms of being able to give my best contribution, which is usually hard to argue with.

When Saying No Actually Says Yes

Here's something counterintuitive I've discovered: When you become selective about your time, people actually respect you more, not less.

Think about it from their perspective. If someone says "Yes" to everything, their "Yes" doesn't carry much weight. But when someone who carefully guards their time says "Yes" to your request, you know it means something.

By saying "No" to the unimportant meetings, I can say "Yes" to the strategic conversations that really matter. By protecting my team's time from random requests, I can deploy their talents on projects that showcase their abilities and advance their careers.

The Ripple Effect of Time Protection

When you start protecting your time and teaching others to do the same, something interesting happens: the quality of meetings in your organization actually improves.

People start:

• Sending agendas in advance
• Being more thoughtful about who really needs to attend
• Having clearer objectives for their meetings
• Respecting others' time constraints
• Finding more efficient ways to communicate

It's like a positive contagion. When you model good time management, others begin to adopt similar practices.

This was one of the things I did when I joined an organization recently. I made it clear to all the teams I supervise that I would not accept any meeting invite without an agenda. I modelled it in all my meetings. And I kept to the agenda I sent. This ensured meetings were focused and result-driven.

A lady from another team attended one of my meetings and remarked, “I like your meeting”. She didn’t say why but I know. A pre-planned agenda helped us to close out the meeting in about 15 minutes with clear outcomes and next steps.

Building Your Time Protection Muscle

Learning to say "No" professionally is a skill that improves with practice. Start small:

• Decline one unnecessary meeting this week
• Ask for agendas before agreeing to attend
• Suggest phone calls instead of in-person meetings when appropriate
• Block time on your calendar for focused work
• Train others to respect your boundaries by consistently maintaining them

Remember, every time you protect your time, you're making a statement about your professional standards. You're saying that your work matters, that quality thinking requires uninterrupted focus, and that results are more important than appearances.

Your Time, Your Rules

The meeting I declined that day? It went ahead without me or my team member. The world didn't end. The project moved forward. The senior colleague understood that I operate with clear boundaries around my time.

More importantly, my team saw that I value their time as much as I value my own. They learned that being busy isn't the same as being productive, and that saying "No" to the wrong things enables you to say "Yes" to the right ones.

In a world that constantly demands more of your time, learning to protect it isn't selfish – it's strategic. It's not about being difficult – it's about being deliberate.

Your time is finite. Your energy is limited. Your attention is precious.

Use them wisely.

As always, keep winning at work and in life.

Tola Akinsulire

Your Strategic Workplace Mentor

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Want to get in on some of the lessons I have picked up in my career? Get my eBook "21 Lessons I Learned in My Career - A Primer to Help You Become Better at Work". Get it here

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