Assertiveness & Communication Skills

This module can be taken independently for professional & personal development, The objective of the courses is to facilitate participants in learning and applying the principles and related techniques of assertiveness training in order to improve communication skills and to increase confidence and self-esteem. Topics covered include:

• Different types of communication behaviours
• Giving & receiving feedback & criticism
• Making requests & expressing a point of view
• Managing anger and conflict
• Saying ‘No’ and standing your ground
• Increasing self-confidence & self-esteem

Our courses for women and mixed groups promote the art of communication and interpersonal skills. Assertiveness can be practised even under stress, indeed, in any situation. Becoming more assertive helps us to express ourselves honestly without seeking for approval, to make our own decisions, and to evaluate our behaviour in the light of other people’s feedback, including criticism, without being destroyed by it or resorting to defensive denial.

Assertive communicators are confident and make effective negotiators, able to stand their ground whilst seeking to achieve win-win outcomes.

One of the reasons why we so often feel as if we are in conflict, as if the only options are winning or losing, is because we are used to thinking in terms of just two alternatives, often a pair of opposites. This is known as thinking in binary mode; winners and losers, top-dog and under-dog, powerful and powerless, haves and have-nots. Most people have not been taught to think in terms of an alternative – being clear and honest, having high self-esteem, and accepting the same rights for others – a win-win situation, where compromises can be made, but not at the expense of the autonomy of any one individual.