Most presenters close by summarizing and sit down without asking for anything. When you don’t ask your audience to act, you let them off the hook. Here’s why presenters skip the ask, and why a no is worth more than silence.

At about the midpoint of the last semester, a student enrolled in one of my classes stopped by my office. After a few minutes of small talk, she said, “I’m really stressed right now because I’m failing your class.” After suggesting there must be some mistake, I checked the gradebook and confirmed that her average was a B. Then it dawned on me that, to her, B-level work was the equivalent of failing. Perfectionism can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, striving for exce

My favorite game when I was a young child was Candy Land. I’m told that I had a habit of cheating to ensure my gingerbread man was the...