1080: How to Say No When the World Demands Yes with Dr. Sunita Sah

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

How to be Awesome at Your Job

Success, Career, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Sharpening, Business, Education, Selfhelp, Collaboration, Winning, Meaning, Development, Mockaitis, Skills, Training, Mental Health, Speaking, Decisions, Careers, Interview, Fun, Money, Writing, Thinking, Wins

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Sunita Sah reveals the dangers of compliance and offers strategies for building the skill of defiance.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) The powerful force that makes saying no so difficult

2) How to disagree while still being a team player

3) A super sentence to make defiance easier

Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1080 for clickable versions of the links below.

— ABOUT SUNITA —

Sunita Sah is a national bestselling author, an award-winning professor at Cornell University and an expert in organizational psychology. She leads groundbreaking research on influence, authority, compliance, and defiance. A trained physician, she practiced medicine in the United Kingdom and worked as a management consultant for the pharmaceutical industry. She currently teaches executives, leaders, and students in healthcare and business.

Dr. Sah is a sought-after international speaker and consultant, advisor to government agencies, and former Commissioner of the National Commission on Forensic Science. Her multidisciplinary research and analyses have been widely published in leading academic journals and media entities including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American. She lives with her husband and son in New York.

• Book: Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes

• Study: “Kicking Yourself: Going Against Your Inclinations Leads to Greater Feelings of Control and Culpability” with Kaitlin Woolley

• Website: SunitaSah.com

• Substack: Defiant by Design

• Instagram: @drsunitasah

• LinkedIn: Dr. Sunita Sah

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Study: Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (Perennial Classics) by Stanley Milgram

• Book: Animal Farm by George Orwell

• Study: Stanley Milgram Shock Experiment

— THANK YOU SPONSORS! —

• Strawberry.me. Claim your $50 credit and build momentum in your career with Strawberry.me/Awesome

• Plaud.ai. Use the code AWESOME and get a discount on your order

• Rula. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at Rula.com/Awesome

• LinkedIn Jobs. Post your job for free at linkedin.com/beawesome

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Transcript

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0:00.0	How to Be Awesome at your job is sponsored by LinkedIn Jobs.
0:04.0	When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in.
0:07.4	Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash be awesome.
0:11.5	That's LinkedIn.com slash B-E-A-W-E-S-O-M-E. We often think that, oh, I'm going to upset someone.
0:28.2	I'm going to lose a relationship.
0:29.7	I'm going to lose my job even.
0:31.4	We don't think so much about the costs of compliance, which can be significant.
0:40.1	This tension, this anxiety, this stress,
0:45.3	it can keep us up at night, it can lead to chronic inflammation, burnout, dissatisfaction,
0:50.8	so many things. Whereas if we can live in alignment with our values, that tension dissipates,
0:55.4	we feel more joy, we feel more authentic, And ultimately, it's a more honest life.
1:16.0	That's Dr. Sinita Saw. She's an award-winning professor at Cornell who leads groundbreaking research on influence, authority, compliance, and defiance. She's also the best-selling author of Defy,
1:21.4	the power of no in a world that demands yes. So you'll learn, one, the powerful force that makes saying no so difficult. Two, how to disagree while still being a team player. And three,
1:26.7	a super sentence to make defiance easier.
1:29.4	And if you want a quick summary write-up of these actionable takeaways,
1:32.1	I recommend you to sign up for the free Gold Nugget email newsletter found at
1:35.1	awesome at your job.com.
1:37.2	I'm Pete McItis.
1:38.3	This is How to Be Awesome at Your Job.
1:40.0	And now, here's Sinita.
1:46.0	Sanita, welcome.
1:47.3	Thank you.
	...

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