Take the Yes.

One of the major problems I have being a Management Officer is when people can't take the yes.  What does that mean?  I'll explain.

Someone comes into your office to ask for something.  They start it off explaining what it is they need, and then go into a long explanation of why it is the want it.  However, you've already decided that it's ok, and say yes before they get to the explanation.  Even after hearing that it's ok, they continue on with the reasoning behind why they need it.  Even after you tell them that it's ok, you've already said yes, they continue on with their explanation.

For goodness sake, just take the yes.  The good thing about being a human is the ability to stop our speech whenever we want to do so.  We're not clockwork men.  We don't have to continue on until our key stops.  When someone says yes, just stop there, thank them, and go on with your day.  It's not a hard thing to do!

Another pet peeve of mine is overly long meetings.  I hate meetings, as they can be a large time suck.  Everyone probably has something better to do, and no one likes being in a meeting.  However, they are important to the smooth running of an organization, so I accept them for the necessary evil that they are.  I do, though, place a time limit on the meetings that I hold.  One hour.  That's the longest I will sit for one of my meetings.  When I first arrive at a post, I call together everyone I supervise for a meeting and lay down the ground rules.  If after 1 hour the meeting is still going, I will get up and leave.  (This rule can be broken if there is an emergency, like a natural disaster, a large visit, or something like that.)  It doesn't matter if someone is in the midst of talking, I will leave.  This keeps the meetings short and to the point.

I had to institute this rule during my first time as a Management Officer.  I had an employee that would always go into long drawn out stories before getting to his point.  I finally instituted the rule, and actually walked out during one of his stories.  This made him very angry, but I explained that we didn't need the full background, just the point he was trying to make.  If I wanted background, I told him, I would ask him for it.  While on occasion he needed to be reminded to move forward, it worked perfectly, and meetings became much more productive.

The point of this post is: Get to the point immediately, and then take the yes.  It'll make everyone happier in the long run.