What could you achieve if you asked for what you truly want at work? Amy Gallo and four listeners embraced Alison Fragale’s “nos challenge,” requesting everything from clearer communication and help with a project to leadership opportunities and job title changes. As they pursued 10 rejections each, they noticed surprising patterns in how people respond, overcame fears of rejection, and made progress on personal and professional goals. Their experiences offer practical insights into how to ask assertively and gain status—even when the answer is no.
Over 40,000 businesses have future proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud ERP bringing accounting, financial management, inventory and HR into one platform.
Download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning for free at netsuite.com womenatwork.
You'Re listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review.
Amy I'm Amy Gallo.
What's on your work wish list?
Do you want to go to a conference or training?
Are you hoping for a higher performance rating or salary or job title?
Is there a project you'd like to lead?
Or maybe you need an extension on a deadline?
When we really want something from our boss or a colleague, the prospect of them saying no is sometimes enough to deter us from even asking in the first place.
Yet, as Allison Fregale shared in an episode earlier this season, most of us underestimate how often people will say yes.
In case you didn't hear that episode called to get what yout Want, Be Both Assertive and Warm.
Let me catch you up real quick.
Alison is a professor of organizational behavior at the University of North Carolina's Business School.
The book she wrote is Likable Badass How Women get the Success They Deserve.
Now, her main argument is that women can and should embrace warmth and assertiveness to build respect, elevate their status, and gain power.
The warmth part often comes easy, like building good relationships, taking into account people's priorities and constraints, helping them out.
That's how the world typically raises us to be considerate and giving.
The advocating for ourselves part doesn't come as easy for many of us.
It definitely takes practice, which Alison likes to fast track into a habit through an exercise she calls collecting no's.