My client (we’ll call her M) is making bold strides in putting on her own red cape and using her incredible superpowers of innovating powerful, relevant business training and meetings that execs actually want to attend. To get where she is, she’s had to say a lot of yeses. But to stay in her superpower space–and make the difference she aspires to make–she’s starting to practice the power of saying no at work.

• If we add X to the scope of this assignment, we’ll compromise our priority of Y, and so if Y is still our priority, I recommend we say no to X.
• No, we can’t complete it sooner than planned–unless we make changes to the timeline. Do we want to revisit the timeline?
  
• I’m focused on serving our company’s best interest of ABC. With that in mind, no, it’s not in our best interest for me to take on Z right now. Let’s brainstorm other solutions.
  

No is an acceptable answer. Where will saying “no” help you say “yes” to work in your superpower space, work that’s most important, work that’s making a difference to you and your company?