Course Outcomes

This assertiveness skills communication course will:

  • Define assertive communication and its value in the workplace.
  • Review behaviors that build credibility.
  • Outline techniques for dealing with anxiety and avoidance.
  • Offer language for communicating directly while at the same time remaining professional.
  • Explain the process of breaking and making habits.

Course Overview

Everyone knows that assertive communication strikes a balance between being too soft (accommodating) and too hard (aggressive), but just what does assertive communication look and sound like in the workplace? This interactive course aims to address that question. This program is ideally suited for people who must communicate rules, regulations, and standards on a regular basis. The workshop will provide them with techniques for speaking with authority while remaining calm, collected, and professional. 

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Explain the difference between assertive and aggressive behavior.
  • Make a positive first impression.
  • Turn negative thoughts into positive ones.
  • Choose assertive vocabulary, body language, and tone.
  • Say “no” assertively.
  • Manage criticism from others.
  • Put a plan in place to change habits.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

What Is All of This Anyway?: Defining Assertive Behavior

This program opens with a discussion around assertiveness and the value of learning to communicate with confidence in the workplace. During this conversation, we will look at the words and actions associated with aggressive, avoiding, and assertive behavior. Next, we will talk about the long-term effects of adopting each of those communication styles.

What’s Okay: You’re Allowed to Feel What You Feel

While certain behaviors are okay and others are not in a workplace setting, how people feel about an issue is an entirely separate matter. In this part of the course, we will talk about feelings and how they fit in the assertiveness equation. In the second half of this module, we will focus specifically on a process for recognizing feelings, thinking strategically about desired outcomes, and then planning actions accordingly.

Get What You Need: Asking for What You Want

You can’t always get what you want, and you probably won’t if you never ask for it. In this part of the program, we will look at assertive vocabulary and how to position requests. Working in teams, participants will answer several case studies and practice the skills we’ve discussed.

Saying “No” and “This Is the Process”: Remaining Strong

There is nothing wrong with doing favors, volunteering, or saying “yes,” when you want to, that is. This seminar segment focuses on when to say “no” and how to do it in an assertive manner.

Fifteen Ideas for Managing Critiques: Coping with Criticism

In the face of criticism, people who have learned assertive communication skills can find themselves falling back into old patterns of avoidance or aggressiveness. This part of the workshop offers over a dozen tactics for remaining calm and responding assertively when faced with disapproval, fault finding, or attacking behavior. 

It Takes 21 Days: Making and Breaking Habits

A lifetime of habits can hardly be changed in a three-hour workshop. Making or breaking habits takes time. This part of the course looks at change and the process of adopting positive behaviors, stopping destructive or unproductive activities, and finding substitute responses to triggers. In this part of the course, participants will identify the communication skills they would like to improve and plot a course for making changes.

By the conclusion of this interactive and practical workshop, participants should understand the value of assertive communication and how to communicate assertively.