Assertiveness Training for Managers

Mastering assertiveness skills can do a lot more than just help win arguments. If you want your managers to enhance their leadership stature and persuade others to help reach their goals, Assertiveness Training for Managers is an important first step.

Assertiveness Training for Managers gives your managers the opportunity to learn how their behavior style impacts their overall performance as a manager. They’ll take stock of their current assertiveness skills and learn how they can improve them for a more effective approach. Using the behavior modeling approach toward assertiveness training, this seminar teaches managers how to employ assertiveness skills to take control of a situation without alienating others.

• Improve communication by using assertive-responsive skills
• Acquire a more polished and powerful communication style and let your leadership ability emerge
• Tap other people’s resources to get the job done
• Empower yourself and your staff
• Exercise greater influence on others

• How your perceptions determine your reactions
• Operating consciously vs. unconsciously
• Guidelines for achieving your objectives through assertive-responsive behavior
• Developing your own self-improvement plan
• Using assertive-responsive techniques to identify what you want—and then go after it

Learning Objectives

• Develop Awareness of Thoughts and Feelings and Use Them as a Resource
• Grow Conscious of Behavior and Make Appropriate Choices
• Gain Insight into the Impressions You Make

Conscious Communication

• Describe Examples of Conscious and Unconscious Communication
• Explain the Thoughts-Feelings-Behaviors Model and Its Importance for Understanding and Controlling Your Communication
• Define Beliefs and  Describe Their Role in Your Communication
• List the Factors That Can Help You Become a Flexible Communicator, Responding Appropriately to Different Situations

The ASSERTIVE/RESPONSIVE Model

• List the Four Quadrants in the ASSERTIVE/RESPONSIVE Model and Describe Their Corresponding Behaviors and Attitudes
• Explain the Human Needs and Beliefs That Drive Individuals into One Mode of Behavior or Another

Trying on the Model

• Identify Statements as ASSERTIVE, RESPONSIVE, AGGRESSIVE or NON-ASSERTIVE as Well as Those That Erode Self-Esteem
• Formulate Your Own Assertive and Responsive Statements Using Each Skill Discussed, and Respond Appropriately to the Statements of Other Participants
• Employ These Communication Strategies to Reach Consensus in a Team
• Use a Positive Feedback Discipline in Your Teamwork

ASSERTIVE/RESPONSIVE Skill Building

• More Complex Content
• More Complex Team Challenges

Listening Responsively

• Use Your Assertive Skills to Clearly Stake Out a Position Without Becoming Aggressive
• Explore Another Person’s Position and Demonstrate Complete Understanding of the Opposing View

Emotions and Conflict

• Identify Your Own Emotional Triggers and Better Recognize Those of Others
• Describe Your “Personal Zone of Control”
• Be Prepared to Manage Conflict
  • Resolving it where cooperation is present and emotions are under control
  • Lowering the emotional temperature where necessary and possible
  • Deciding with confidence to disengage when it is not possible to resolve or deescalate conflict

Communication Styles

• Analyze a Conversation, Characterize the Statements in It, and Draw Conclusions About the Communication Style Demonstrated
• Identify the Styles of Others
• Apply Your Assertive and Responsive Skills to Reach Team Consensus About the Style of Each Member
• Practice Through Giving and Receiving Feedback in Both Small and Large Groups

Your Action Plan

• Prepare a Plan for Improvement Back on the Job
• Discuss Your Goals and Plans to Receive the Benefit of Feedback and Coaching From Members of Your Team and the Experience of Supplying the Same to Them

Download Extended Seminar Outline PDF