This course will benefit people who want to:

• Manage and modify their behaviour, whether they feel they are too aggressive or too passive.
• Improve their communication and influencing skills in the workplace.
• Handle challenging workplace situations more effectively.

About 30% of the workshop time is devoted to instruction and examples. 70% of the time is spent on group activities, exercises, case studies and simulations. These activities are designed to give you practice and build your confidence in managing
yourself and your time.

Questionnaire: How assertive are you?

Identifying three main behavioural response
• Passive
• Aggressive
• Assertive

An overview of assertive behaviour
• What does it look like?
• What does it sound like?

The benefits of behaving assertively

Barriers to assertiveness
• External and internal barriers
• Ideas for overcoming them

Learning to think assertively
• Looking at the conditioning influences in your life
• Understanding the Self-Talk cycle
• Developing positive Self-Talk

Building self-confidence
• Self-confidence techniques
• Managing the change of behaviour

Practising the key skills of assertive behaviour
• First impressions: presenting yourself positively
• Positive body language
• Active listening and questioning
• Making yourself heard
• Structuring assertive dialogue
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Standing your ground
• Using broken record
• How to say “No”
• Handling personal attacks

Handling challenging workplace situations
• Dealing with authority figures
• Achieving win/win outcomes
• Arguing your case: assertion in meetings
• Dealing constructively with conflict