Assertive Leadership Programme

Leaders at all levels of organisational life face an overwhelming number of imperatives. They must listen, empower people, have a clear end in mind, collaborate, be inclusive, drive productivity, have focus, embrace diversity, eat last, lean in, have empathy and insight, and inspire other people as they do all of this. The challenge for many people is not the theory, but actively developing the behaviours and mindset to lead themselves and other people towards desirable outcomes. The good news is that everyone can be become a leader in the workplace, but it all starts with leading yourself. If you can’t lead yourself, how will you lead and empower anyone else?

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

This powerful programme turns leadership theory into practice by developing the competencies and the mindset to make better behaviour choices in the workplace. It draws on the two key behaviour dimensions of leadership, namely people orientation and task focus.

The Managerial Grid developed by Blake and Mouton calls these dimensions ‘Concern for people’ and ‘Concern for production’. The Hersey-Blanchard Model on situational leadership calls them ‘Relationship Behaviour’ and ‘Task Behaviour’. The Dimensional Model of Managerial Behaviour developed by Lefton, Buzotta and Sherberg calls them ‘Warmth’ and ‘Dominance.’ This programme helps participants blend these dimensions to lead people as individuals with respect for their differences and capabilities.

Since the Career Warriors® brand is about inspiring choices, we only work with those things about which you have a choice, and leadership we believe is one of them. We do not use any form of psychological assessments, personality types or styles. This programme rather offers profound personal change and ownership through making better choices in your career, your business, and your life. It is not about discovering your leadership style, but about creating it in a way that is authentic and productive.

The result is not just a good leader in the workplace, but someone who is easier to get on with at home and work, who has a new outlook on life, increased confidence, and is able to lead themselves and their career more proactively. 

FROM PERSONAL TO ORGANISATIONAL LEADERSHIP

There are three core principles that drive this work. The first is that your behaviour is a choice, every moment of the day, and you are 100% responsible for your own behaviour, but only 50% responsible for any relationship at work or in your life.

The second principle is that you teach people how to behave towards you. What you allow, or don’t, has a significant impact on the way other people behave around you.

The third principle is that you can become your own therapist in the workplace, by challenging irrational thinking that creates drama, clouds judgement, and misdirects decision-making.

Participants will therefore gain insight into those behaviours that cause conflict, resentment, irritation, and misunderstanding, then gain the competence and mindset to interact with others in a co-operative, direct and mutually respectful manner.

In a world of increasing turbulence and change, more than ever do we need leaders at all levels of business who can identify issues clearly, build productive work relationships, embrace diversity, and drive ownership in a changing workplace. At an organizational level this supports effective culture change as it embraces a spirit of collaboration and understanding at all levels of work.

Our programmes are set apart by the scope of work it covers and the practical application it offers. It brings elements of leadership, psychology, and personal management together to provide insight into current behaviour choices. It then helps participants to make new behavioural choices using their own real issues rather than case studies or role plays.

We have run programmes in organisations across South Africa for more than twenty years with groups of first line Supervisors, seasoned Managers and with Executive teams. Responses are often: “Where has this been all my life…?” “Why didn’t I know this in my twenties…?” “Why doesn’t everyone know this…?” and most often “After all the leadership training I have done, this has been the most helpful since it has pulled it all together, it now makes sense for me.”

As a leadership intervention it helps those in positions of leadership and influence at all levels of the organisation to access their own growth and encourage it in others. They will not only learn to hold themselves and others accountable for delivery, but also to establish good relationships based on dignity and mutual respect.

LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE

Assertiveness as a concept has got some bad press over the years, since it often translated into pushy, dictating, and often inauthentic behaviour. Edith Eger, the internationally known therapist, explains in her book ‘The Choice’ that aggression is telling other people what to do, submission is allowing other people to tell you what to do, assertiveness is telling yourself what to do. At Career Warriors® we believe that assertive leadership can be learned. But it requires a change in thinking, letting go of ego, and focusing on results. Career leadership embraces assertiveness, since it drives partnerships, ownership and results.  

Here is what we believe Assertive Leaders do differently in the workplace:

1. Assertive Leaders are people-focused and results-driven. They seek opportunities to empower other people to achieve results and are therefore ‘we’ rather than ‘me’ focused.
2. Assertive Leaders communicate clearly what they want, where they are going and why. There is no need for double-guessing or hidden agendas within the confines of confidentiality.
3. Assertive Leaders do whatever they can to grow themselves and other people. They make every effort to gain insight into themselves and give both positive and constructive negative feedback to help others grow and reach their best potential.
4. Assertive Leaders are authentic. They are the same people in different situations, no pre-warning is required about how they may be ‘today’.
5. Assertive Leaders show dignity for other people in every interaction, even where there is disagreement or bad news.
6. Assertive Leaders are willing to make unpopular decisions that may be necessary for the business. They are not dependent on approval from other people, and they don’t seek consensus on every issue before they move forward.
7. Assertive Leaders are willing to make mistakes, to admit them and to learn from them. They are also willing to accept that others make mistakes in the process of learning.
8. Assertive Leaders are willing to stick their necks out to make progress. They don’t hide behind policy and old ways of doing things simply because they are there. They know that systems are there to support the business, and not the other way round.
9. Assertive Leaders are honest. They are honest with themselves, are honest about their values and are willing to say what needs to be said without in any way belittling or shaming other people.
10. Assertive Leaders listen better. They give their full attention to what other people are saying, rather than listening selectively and waiting for their turn to respond, criticise or offer advice. They are therefore able to identify the real issues amidst a sea of information and activity.
11. Assertive Leaders truly empower people. They ask more questions, invite contribution and encourage others to present ideas to solve problems.
12. Assertive Leaders treat other people as individuals. They appreciate that people are different with different capacity for work. They also do not judge or discriminate against anyone for their gender, culture, sexual orientation or background.
13. Assertive Leaders are able to manage themselves. They have the emotional intelligence to manage their thinking, their emotions and their behaviour and are well able to regulate themselves in the workplace and beyond.
14. Assertive Leaders are more interested in solving the problem at hand than wallowing in the past, naming, blaming and shaming other people. They are focused on what needs to be done rather than who needs to carry the blame.
15. Assertive Leaders ask for help. They realise it is not necessary, or practical, to know everything or do everything themselves to succeed. They also don’t demand to be competent in all things and openly acknowledge those who bring solutions.
16. Assertive Leaders take ownership for decisions they make without blaming the system, other people, the environment or market conditions for lack of success.
17. Assertive Leaders are willing to make tough decisions and pay the price for those decisions without complaining endlessly how costly they were.
18. Assertive Leaders plan and grow people to succeed them. They know they are neither immortal or indispensable, and that the world will indeed go on without them.
19. Assertive Leaders are committed to growth. They therefore seek opportunities for development and growth for themselves as well as for other people.
20. Assertive Leaders are kind to themselves. They treat themselves as importantly as other people and actively manage themselves, their energy and their wellbeing. They do whatever it takes to increase their own capacity to lead others to results.
21. Assertive Leaders realise that perfection is not possible (or required), but that excellence is both a choice and a habit. They therefore nurture excellence in themselves and in those they lead.

 THEORETICAL CONSTRUCTS

Our programme include the work of: 

• R.E. Lefton Ph.D, V.R. Buzotta Ph.D, and Manual Sherberg of Psychological Associates, who blended the dimensions of hostility and warmth with those of dominance and submission to create quadrants of managerial behaviour.
• Lidia Vosloo, a psychologist and the Doyenne of Executive Assertiveness in South Africa, who combined leadership competencies with the therapeutic work of Rational Emotive Therapy.
• Stephen B. Karpman, a psychiatrist who developed ‘The Karpman Drama Triangle’ that identified the dynamic roles of Persecutor, Victim and Rescuer, often the drivers of dysfunctional teams and relationships in the workplace.
• Daniel Goleman, who introduced the power of emotional intelligence through self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
• Stephen R. Covey, more particularly his framework of growing from dependence to independence, and ultimately to interdependence.
• Albert Ellis, the psychologist and psychotherapist who founded Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, and his method to challenge (and replace) irrational beliefs that drive irrational emotions and irrational behaviour.
• Prof. Carol Dweck on developing a Growth vs. a Fixed mindset.
• Susan Jeffers, the psychologist whose book ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ has become a world classic.
• Susan Cain and Marti Olsen Laney on the nature and power of introversion.
• Dr Martin Seligman, who is credited as the father of positive psychology, using his theory on learned helplessness and on what you can change and what you can’t.
• Nancy Kline on listening and creating a thinking environment.
• Chris Voss, previously a hostage negotiator for the FBI, who in his book ‘Never split the difference’ challenges Harvard assumptions about negotiation, introducing tactical empathy and calibrated questions to negotiate in emotional situations.

PROGRAMME MODULES

Module 1: Behaviour choice – The behaviour choices we have and the impact those choices have on work relationships, our careers and on organisations.

Module 2: Mindset – How beliefs and attitudes determine behaviour choices and feelings of well-being.

Module 3: The Career Warriors® Results Format – a powerful system to identify real issues, empower yourself and other people, and implement workable solutions.

Module 4: Listening – The power of empathetic listening, including truly understanding your own needs.

Module 5: Creating win-win outcomes – Dealing with demands and requests and negotiating to reach workable solutions.

Module 6: Sharing opinions – Sharing opinions and ideas more confidently whilst also truly embracing the ideas of others.

Module 7: Sharing feedback – The power of giving both positive and negative feedback to lead other people.

Module 8: Receiving feedback – Receiving positive and negative feedback in a helpful and constructive manner, even when it is confrontational.

Module 9: Managing anger – How to deal with your own anger in conflict situations.

Module 10: Making choices – How to make tough choices in your career and your life.

WHO WOULD BENEFIT?

• Leaders who want to empower themselves and other people more effectively, no matter what level they may be at in the organisation
• Leaders who struggle to give feedback, whether about performance or behavioural issues
• Leaders who are defensive and need the skills to accept feedback and find new solutions to problems
• Leaders who struggle to say no and end up overcommitting themselves to things they don’t have the capacity or competence to do
• Leaders who struggle to ask for help and don’t delegate sufficiently
• Leaders who don’t speak up and end up sabotaging themselves while also robbing the business of their insights and ideas
• Individuals who want to improve their relationship skills in the workplace, or need to acquire more sophisticated skills to manage ‘difficult’ people
• New entrants in the workplace who need to develop the skills and confidence to manage themselves and their careers
• Since interpersonal skills are a key competence in the workplace, anyone who is expected to achieve results by working with and through people.

INDIVIDUAL OUTCOMES

Individuals will learn to:

• Eliminate ‘game-playing’ in relationships with others
• Interact with others with respect for their dignity and ideas
• Receive criticism in a mature and non-defensive way
• Turn interpersonal conflict into a win-win situation
• Manage interpersonal demands without rejecting the other person
• Accept themselves and others regardless of age, gender, race, or culture
• Communicate and raise opinions more confidently
• Empower themselves and other people to achieve results
• Become more proactive in leading their own careers.

TEAM OUTCOMES

Teams will learn to:

• Interact in an honest, direct, and unthreatening manner to develop a climate of trust
• Build a culture of co-operation, openness, and accountability for results
• Build a strong people-orientation towards other staff and clients
• Develop a proactive and problem-solving culture, reducing defensiveness and a ‘moan’ culture
• Communicate better and be more cohesive as a team
• Make better decisions as a team
• Create more energy and confidence within the team
• Develop empathy for each other and their clients
• Listen better and ask better questions
• Let go of ‘stuff’ that gets in the way of productive work
• Work towards a common goal
• Share thoughts more openly
• Embrace imperfection and strive for excellence
• Develop a common language to address issues and get things done.

ORGANISATIONAL OUTCOMES

Organisations will:

• Develop a language that describes behaviour without being personal or discriminatory
• Make leadership language accessible at all levels of the organisation
• Have difficult conversations and deal with conflict more productively
• Improve listening and good questioning to resolve issues and achieve results
• Establish a clear leadership and work behaviour culture
• Improve feedback on a personal and team level
• Drive personal ownership at all levels of the organisation

PRODUCTIVE CULTURE CHANGE

We know that organisations don’t change behaviour, people do. In that sense successful culture change is not too different from personal change since it means helping people to challenge their thinking and do things differently.

Culture is not framed statements of intent, but rather what people do in practice. If meetings are an opportunity to report problems and wait for someone else to do all the thinking, that’s part of the culture. If meetings go round in circles for hours, that’s part of the culture. If only the formal leader makes decisions, that’s the culture too.

When organisations seek culture change, they often express it in the following ways:

• We want honesty. We want people to have the conversations they need to have, not only those that are comfortable and easy.
• We want true empowerment. We want people to think, to be accountable and to drive development in themselves and others.
• We want participation. We want active engagement that invites contribution, problem-solving and focused action.
• We want to focus on results. We don’t just want to talk, spend cash, and make everyone feel warm and fuzzy. We want to do better as a business.
• We want to learn from our mistakes and give people to the freedom to try new things without fear of reprisal.
• We want innovation and excellence.

 What they want in essence is to find a way to increase both the people and task orientation in the organisation, not in theory, but through real behaviour change.

The danger is over-compensating to fix the problem. An organisation may want to change the legacy of autocratic management since employees have learned to say little, not to take any chances, not to raise innovative ideas and not to challenge authority. The organisation says it wants to introduce a culture that values people and their ideas. They introduce initiatives and leadership programmes to be more inclusive, transparent and collaborative. Meetings do become more inclusive, and longer. Posters go up about how the company’s biggest asset is their people. New reward schemes recognise people who live their values and positive reinforcement is given to those who have tried, even if they have not succeeded.

But results go down rather than up. The leadership team become increasingly impatient when this “high people culture” doesn’t get the results they had in mind. So, they have an offsite meeting and decide it’s time to go back to telling people what to do. The people had their chance to take the initiative and didn’t take it. Now it’s time for business again – if people don’t perform, they’re out!’

The organisation goes into another round of change with new initiatives to create a so-called high-performance culture. Except they have now lost the people orientation they worked so hard to establish. What a pity when all they needed to do was add a better people orientation to their autocratic culture without losing their clear results focus.

IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation of this work can take different forms. It might be run with functional teams, across functional areas to create a common focus, or as a culture change tool across the business. It can also be customized to meet specific organizational needs or as a framework for coaching executive teams.

CLIENT COMMENTS

“Thanks Andrew. The feedback has been amazing from this group. You have touched the people deeply.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“I have been fortunate enough to have attended a number of courses aimed at providing insight and guidance into leadership, but none has provided a lasting impression in the way you portrayed it. The depth of understanding and the ability to convey that understanding so that it makes sense to everyone present left me ready, willing, and able to make positive changes to my work and my personal life.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“Thank you for an unforgettable learning experience.” (Assertive Leadership Programme)

“Thank you, Andrew for a stunning course. To me it was the experience of a lifetime. The no-nonsense way in which you present the course has made it a lot easier to share my feelings in front of strangers.” (Assertive Leadership)

“My team and I had an unbelievable week with Andrew Bramley on his Assertive Leadership Programme. The impact on my team is phenomenal; a real life-altering experience.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“I attended this programme in 2005 with my management team and it was definitely one of the best development courses I have done in my 24 years at this organisation.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“Some years ago, whilst working at [corporation], I attended a workshop with you, which was probably the most useful workshop I have ever attended in my 20-year working experience.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“On behalf of my team, I would like to thank you for arranging the Assertive Leadership Programme. It is a profound course and a life-changing experience. The team participated openly and brought themselves into the process. We left with a feeling of optimism, being more comfortable in managing our interpersonal relationships both in our private lives as well as at work. It was hard work but a very rewarding experience. It was also such a privilege to spend a week out of the office to experiment and challenge our existing mindsets. Compliments also to Andrew who presented very well and brought the concepts to the fore through dramatization and realistic case studies and examples. Thank you for investing in us.” (Assertive Leadership Team Intervention)

“The Training Manager and I experienced an overwhelming buzz when we visited the programme on Friday. The staff were believers in Assertive Leadership and started to see life in a different light. They are realizing that dealing with conflict is not scary and giving appreciation is simple. They are back in the office with new energy. From us as a management team, thank you. You are very special and have a unique approach in getting this information across. I believe you have found your niche and you are living your life’s work. Wishing you more energy and inspiration going forward.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“The purpose of this email is to give you feedback regarding the Assertive Leadership course that we have attended last week. This course made more sense than any other course that I have ever attended in this Corporation. The contents were relevant and current, and Andrew is excellent in his facilitation methods. Because real life scenarios were used, it was extremely helpful and can be applied in everyday life – at work and at home. I cannot see how one can stay the same after attending this course. It can only have a positive impact on each and every person that attended it – it is life changing!” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“It is some time since I have completed the 4-day Assertive Leadership course which you facilitated in the mountains for us. I would just like to thank you and give you some feedback which I think is the best compliment I can give to you. There have been no earth shattering changes in my life since learning the skills of assertive leadership. I didn’t expect it anyway. What is more important is the little changes which have occurred. These changes have left me more in control, not only of my personal life but also of my professional life. I am less frantic about things and take myself less seriously. Strangely I am less stressed, more able to cope and in much better control of my life. The results are tremendously satisfying and gratifying. I am privileged to have attended the programme. I just wish everyone I know could attend the programme as well. It would make things a lot easier.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“This course is definitely in another class, and we all have learnt a lot and enjoyed it very much. I spoke to my manager, and he wants the rest of the team to do the course in May.” (Assertive Leadership Team Intervention)

“Congratulations on being nominated by your Regional General Manager to attend Assertive Leadership presented by Andrew Bramley. The Assertive Leadership Programme now forms part of the leadership training for all our financial advisors.” (Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“This is probably the best programme I have ever attended, where has this been all my life?” Corporate Assertive Leadership Programme)

“This course [Assertive Leadership] has saved me ten years of therapy.”

Contact us to set up a programme for your team or organisation. 

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