Career Readiness · Communication · Lesson Plan

How to Be Assertive

A free lesson plan introducing assertiveness as the third way between aggression and submission — based on the belief that your wants and needs are important, but not more so than the wants and needs of others. Students learn to recognize and practice assertive techniques in the workplace. Free to read and reproduce.

HS Business Ed · Adult Ed · College
Lesson + Exercise Worksheet
60 min
Free Lesson

What Students Learn

Learning objectives

The key attributes of assertive behavior — and how it differs from aggression and submission
How to recognize aggression (overriding others’ needs), submission (deprioritizing your own needs), and assertiveness (the balanced third path)
Why assertiveness is a learned skill — not a personality trait — and can be developed through practice
How traditional social orientations affect assertiveness differently for men and women — and why aggressiveness is often mistakenly seen as the only alternative to passivity
Why aggressive people are actually less likely to succeed than assertive people at achieving their aims
How to practice assertive techniques in real workplace situations — before high-stakes moments require them

To be assertive, you have to:

Know what you want
Be sure it is fair
Ask for it clearly
Stay calm
Accept praise and criticism with equanimity

For Teachers

How to use this lesson

Method: Introduce the topic. Have the students read the comprehension passage. Have them complete the exercise worksheet. The lesson works as independent reading or as the basis for a class discussion and pair practice.

Opening framing: assertive behavior is based on the belief that your wants and needs are important, but not more so than the wants and needs of others. It is the third way between aggression (your needs override others’) and submission (your needs matter less than others’). For most students, the discovery that this third way exists is the lesson’s biggest revelation.

Discussion prompt: ask students for an example where they wished they had been more assertive — a situation where they either pushed back too hard (aggressive) or didn’t push back at all (submissive). What would have been the assertive version of that same exchange? Pair with Difficult People and Giving and Receiving Criticism as a workplace-communication sequence.

Free Lesson