You're listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review.

I'm Amy Gallo.

It's something that I started using in my negotiation and influence classes when I was teaching MBA students to get them to go out and push the boundaries of their skills in the real world.

And we often think negotiation, try to get a yes, but this assignment is trying to get nos.

Several Women at Work listeners did the exercise and kept track of their asks and the yeses and nos they got, and four of them volunteered to share their experience so that we could all hear how the advice plays out when real women take it.

As you're about to hear, collecting those nos brought about surprises, insight, some discomfort and growth.

Yeah, for sure.

I coach and mentor student leaders who are working in higher education.

A couple of the things that I asked for: I asked to speak at an event, I asked for people to come and speak at a conference I was doing, I put forward proposals.

I just kept going, and I actually failed the assignment.