Assertiveness
Training Exercises and Resources

This is an activity on being assertive. A great way to learn how to be assertive is to know how it contrasts with being aggressive or submissive. This activity helps delegates to analyse a given situation and analyse various responses delivered and see how their feelings are affected as a result of each response.

Before going through this activity, you should have talked about assertiveness in detail along with giving examples so that delegates know what is expected of them here.

This exercise helps delegates to explore the nature of a given topic. It helps generate a discussion around that topic and see how people view it differently. Through these discussions delegates can see if their views are markedly different from those of others and if so what it may suggest when they interact with others. The aim is to provide an insight into one’s own view of a given topic.

Being able to have an opinion about important subjects and defend that position is an incredibly important skill in life. Often, we come across such potentially heated debates during the course of a day, but the subjects are mainly to do with practical daily tasks rather than deeper philosophical issues. The solutions to such issues are usually non-obvious where many thinkers have been putting efforts in exploring them and providing insights.

This structured exercise provides an opportunity to practice debating on such topics in a controlled environment where the main focus is on the following:

• Practice presenting a viewpoint clearly, concisely and accurately
• Avoid exaggeration that can be used to derail a position by others
• Not getting emotional when others disagree and instead learning to see it from their point of view
• Have a conversation about a topic and learn something about it by listening to others

All of us go through some experiences in life where we feel victimised or wronged. The negative emotions and feelings generated by these experiences can stay with us for a long time afterwards and make us feel overtly emotional, weak, stupid or even unworthy. One way to deal with this emotional baggage is to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it. The idea here is that sharing difficult experiences and the feelings generated by them will allow delegates to acknowledge them to another person and therefore more easily come into terms with them.

This exercise helps delegates to practice communicating assertively. Assertive communication as opposed to passive or aggressive communication is usually the best way to handle aggressive communication. The focus of this exercise is on learning how to constantly use assertive communication and not necessarily only at the beginning of a conversation.

Many countries around the world regularly broadcast soap operas on TV; social programs which usually contain a lot of angry and emotional discussions between various extreme characters.

This exercise helps delegates to use the scenarios on such programs and turn them around with assertive communication.

Being assertive is not just about expressing your rights; it is also about increasing the efficiency of your communication with others. There are a number of ways you can express yourself to achieve this aim. This article suggests a few useful sentence formulations to help you express yourself assertively and increase your confidence in dealing with potentially aggressive people.

This fun exercise shows the effect of assertiveness in achieving goals by presenting a combination of passive, aggressive and assertive behaviours in the task.

This exercise shows the importance of different communication styles. In particular, it shows the effect of assertive request in obtaining a desirable outcome.