Leadership Training · In-house workshop
Assertive Communication for Leaders: Workshop in Vienna
Speak up with clarity, say no professionally and stay composed under pressure. An evidence-based workshop in which your managers practise on real situations from their own work, rather than collecting communication tips.
★★★★★ 140+ Google reviews · ICF PCC · EMEA Entrepreneur Award 2025
What this is about
In many organisations, good ideas do not fail on quality. They fail because they are not put on the table early enough or clearly enough. And many deadlines slip not for lack of competence, but because of too many commitments that were never negotiated.
Assertive communication means expressing your views, needs and boundaries clearly and directly, while respecting the other person’s position. It protects your interests and the relationship at the same time.
Passive
Your needs disappear
“Whatever works for everyone else.”
Short term: peace. Long term: invisibility. Easy to overlook and easy to overload.
Assertive
Both sides count
“I see it differently. Here is why, and here is my proposal.”
Costs some courage in the moment. Buys credibility, visibility and influence.
Aggressive
Only your needs count
“That makes no sense. We are doing it my way.”
Short term: compliance. Long term: resistance. People stop bringing you problems and uncomfortable truths.
Why it pays off for organisations
Execution problems are often boundary problems. Every unnegotiated yes is a hidden no to existing commitments, to quality and, over time, to people’s own capacity. Unfiltered yeses turn into silent overload, slipped deadlines, firefighting and eventually a loss of credibility. A negotiated yes reverses the chain: a realistic workload, kept commitments, focus and the trust that leads to bigger mandates.
More is not better. Research shows an inverted U-shaped relationship between assertiveness and leadership effectiveness (Ames & Flynn, 2007, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). Too little makes you invisible, too much creates resistance. The goal is not volume, but clarity on substance and respect in style, adjusted to the situation.
Boundaries are stress prevention. People who cannot set limits during the day struggle to switch off in the evening, and lack of recovery is a central path to exhaustion (stressor-detachment model, Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015). A clear no breaks this chain at its first link. Resilience starts in the meeting where the overload is created.
Assertiveness is trainable. Assertiveness training is one of the best-researched methods in behavioural psychology (Speed, Goldstein & Goldfried, 2018). A meta-analysis of 207 intervention studies also shows that personality traits change measurably through targeted intervention (Roberts et al., 2017, Psychological Bulletin).
The six modules
The workshop follows a clear sequence: from each participant’s starting point, through the typical situations of leadership life, to a concrete plan for the next 30 days.
Module 01
Personality and your leverage point
Where assertiveness sits in the Big Five model, why your profile sets your starting point rather than your ceiling, and where your personal leverage lies. Including a short self-assessment.
Module 02
Impact and presence
Passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, assertive: what each style buys in the short term and costs in the long term. With the two-sentence test for clear statements: position plus proposal.
Module 03
Assertiveness in meetings
Speaking in structure with PREP, disagreeing constructively, including with senior leaders, and holding your position under pressure. With a meeting simulation in groups of three.
Module 04
Saying no and negotiating priorities
Language patterns for the professional no: yes-no-yes, the conditional yes, the priority ask and the DESC script for repeat requests. Practised on participants’ actual working week.
Module 05
Composure under pressure
Your body speaks first: a short protocol of pause, breath, posture and pace, trained in a 60-second pressure drill. Plus how emotional stability can be built over time.
Module 06
Practice lab and 30-day plan
Real cases from the group are rehearsed live, with feedback and a second run. To close, each participant writes concrete if-then plans and commits to a first step in the following week.
How we work: practice over theory
The most effective ingredient in assertiveness training is rehearsing real situations with feedback. The workshop therefore consists mainly of exercises in pairs and small groups, with observer cards and clear feedback rules: specific beats nice, and one upgrade rather than a list.
The approach is evidence-based, built on the Big Five personality model, and deliberately free of typologies and boxes. Personality determines which strategy fits best, not whether someone can be assertive. A more reserved manager will not out-talk anyone, but can out-prepare everyone.
Format at a glance
- Duration: half day (3 hours) or full day
- Setting: in-house, at your premises or a venue in and around Vienna
- Language: English, including all materials
- Materials: self-assessment, observer cards, language-pattern card, transfer card for the 30-day plan
- Optional: short pre-conversations with participants, follow-up session after a few weeks, one-to-one coaching for key people, personality assessment (MPA)
Most recently delivered as an English-language leadership workshop for an international pharmaceutical company in Vienna.
Who the workshop is for
- Middle and senior managers who want more impact in meetings
- Project leads and experts who need to persuade without formal authority
- New managers learning to negotiate expectations upwards and sideways
- International teams where different communication cultures meet
- Organisations where overload builds through too many commitments and decisions stall
Your trainer
Dr. Judith Girschik
ICF PCC · Vice President of ICF Austria · 15+ years of leadership experience
Dr. Judith Girschik does not teach communication from a textbook. She draws on 15 years of her own leadership responsibility in international companies, in marketing, sales and business development, including as managing director of a software company. Before that she worked in management consulting at PwC (then Coopers & Lybrand). Today she coaches leaders up to C-level and lectures at universities and universities of applied sciences.
She designs every workshop personally and leads the initial conversation with you herself. More about Dr. Judith Girschik
Frequently asked questions about assertive communication
What is assertive communication?
Assertive communication means expressing your views, needs and boundaries clearly and directly while respecting the other person’s position. It sits between passive behaviour, where your own needs disappear, and aggressive behaviour, where only your own needs count. Communicating assertively protects both your interests and the working relationship.
Is assertiveness the same as being pushy?
No. Pushing through with pressure or volume can win a single meeting but costs trust and cooperation over time. Assertiveness means being clear on substance and respectful in style. That combination is exactly what the workshop trains.
Can assertiveness be learned?
Yes. Assertiveness training is one of the best-researched methods in behavioural psychology and has been used since the 1960s. The most effective ingredient is rehearsing real situations with feedback. That is why the workshop is mostly practice and role play on participants’ own cases, with only short inputs.
Who is the workshop for?
Managers, project leads and subject-matter experts who want to take a clear position in meetings, negotiate priorities and stay composed under pressure. It works particularly well for teams where decisions stall, alignment takes too long or overload builds up through too many commitments.
How long is the workshop?
The core format is an intensive three-hour half day. A full-day version adds more practice time. On request we add short one-to-one pre-conversations with participants and a follow-up session a few weeks later, so that the new habits carry into daily work.
What language is the workshop held in?
The workshop is delivered in English, including all materials. It was most recently run as an English-language in-house format for an international company in Vienna, which makes it a natural fit for international teams and organisations where English is the working language.
What does an in-house assertiveness workshop cost?
The fee depends on duration, group size and add-ons such as pre-conversations or a follow-up session. After a short, free conversation you receive a transparent proposal.
Workshop or one-to-one coaching: which fits better?
A workshop builds a shared language and shared tools across a team. If the issue concerns one person in a specific, confidential situation, such as a difficult negotiation with the board, one-to-one coaching is the more direct route. Many organisations combine both.
Assertive communication for your leadership team
In a short, free conversation we clarify audience, format and focus. You then receive a concrete proposal.
Related
All formats at a glance: Leadership Training Vienna. When conflicts have already escalated: Conflict Management Seminar. For resilience in the team: Resilience Training. For impact in front of audiences and media: Media Training & Executive Communication. For personality as a leadership instrument: Personality & Leadership Seminar.