Women in Leadership Presents: Break the Niceness Cycle

This month's Women in Leadership (WIL) session invites you to engage with Holly Calhoun, Executive Director of Learning and Development, as she shares her story about learning to express herself authentically in the workplace.

Women are often labeled as “emotional” or “aggressive” when trying to make their points heard and understood. Holly will introduce her approach to empowering women with assertive communication strategies to help you claim your space in the workplace!

JP Kantor Consulting, a Manhattan based management consulting and leadership development firm, helps organizations improve this skill set. They offer tips for building assertive communication skills and call out that assertive communication is based on respecting the beliefs of others while defending your own.

Reading JP Kantor Consulting's tips, I reflected on times when I had to assert my views with poise while staying true to myself. The following characteristics stood out as standard practice:

Actively listening and responding with confidence – Active listening helps me to respond to others with an affirmation I heard what they are saying while creating trust in communicating and making asserting my knowledge and experience more receptive to others.

Asking for what I need – Active Listening comes with asking questions. It shows that I heard the message being conveyed and then gives me the confidence I can do what is needed when I ask for what I need to succeed.

Knowing when to say “no”, respectfully – I am an empathic person! I want to help others! This can make saying no difficult but, I can say no directly, yet be kind, and explain why I am saying no.

Current TTECer? Ready to break the niceness cycle?! Please join us at our WIL Session on September 28th, 12 pm MST. Register here.