7 Free Assertiveness Training Activities for Adults at Work

Assertiveness training activities help adults learn to communicate their needs confidently and respectfully in the workplace. These exercises improve body language, mindset, and emotional control — all key to developing stronger workplace relationships. Activities can be delivered in group sessions or online.

What Are the Best Free Assertiveness Training Activities for Adults at Work?

These exercises are great for building self-confidence at work and improving the way in which employees manage challenging conversations. Assertiveness helps build effective interpersonal communication, especially in professional settings where clarity and respect are key.

1. Three Ways to Enter a Circle

How does body language affect assertiveness at work?
Body language significantly influences how confident or submissive someone appears. This activity lets participants test how physical presence impacts perceptions of assertiveness.

▸ Time: 20 – 40 minutes
▸ Participants: 3 – 20
▸ Equipment: None

Purpose of the activity: One of the key elements of assertiveness is body language.

How you move and stand can have a big impact on how you feel and how you are perceived, thus helping you build assertiveness if you get it right.

This is one of the most impactful assertiveness training activities you can use to demonstrate the importance of body language for assertiveness.

Instructions: Instruct the participants to stand and form a circle.

Then, select three volunteers and assign each person to perform one of the following roles using only their body language:

• Passive person – using passive body language such as lowered gaze, slouched shoulders, and stepping hesitantly.
• Aggressive person – entering the circle with aggressive body language, such as tense posture, staring gaze, and hands on hips with elbows out.
• Assertive person – displaying body language such as upright and open posture, direct eye contact (but without staring), and purposeful steps.

After each volunteer has entered the circle using their assigned body language, ask the volunteers how they felt and the rest of the group how they perceived the person entering the group each time.

Allow other participants to volunteer to enter the circle and to adopt aggressive, passive, or assertive body language, for further practice and more discussions.

This exercise can potentially be done online using video conferencing software, but the body language is likely to lose some of its impact. This is because participants will not be sharing the same space.

However, it could be useful to discuss how differently body language can be perceived when we communicate with someone on video as opposed to in person, and whether and how this can affect the perception of assertiveness (i.e., can body language be misunderstood on video, and what do we need to be careful of?).

Questions You Could Ask for Discussion:

• How did it feel to adopt different types of body language?
• How did body language affect your perception of people?
• How can you use your understanding of body language to come across as more assertive in your life?

To learn more about assertiveness coaching, see our full trainer’s guide to teaching assertiveness skills at work.

2. Giving up the Chair

What can this activity teach about standing your ground respectfully?
Participants explore the challenge of maintaining their position while respecting others, a key skill in assertive behavior.

▸ Time: 20 – 40 minutes
▸ Participants: 5 – 20
▸ Equipment: One chair

Purpose of the activity: This is a great assertiveness training activity for practicing assertiveness after you have explained to your participants what constitutes assertive behavior.

Instructions: Find one volunteer to sit on a chair and four more volunteers to try and persuade the person on the chair to give up their seat in their favor.

The four people who try to persuade the person in the chair to give it up will each adopt one of the following behaviors: aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive, and assertive.

Assign two minutes for each of these participants to try to persuade the person in the chair to give it up, using their assigned behavior.

The person in the chair tries to resist as assertively as they can.

At the end of the game, start a discussion about the effects that each behavior had on the person who was sitting in the chair.

You can either split the participants into groups of 5 for this activity, or you can have the remaining participants take the role of observers.

It is possible to run this exercise online using a video conferencing piece of software.

Questions You Could Ask for Discussion:

• How do you feel being on the receiving end of each type of behavior?
• As an observer, what did you notice in terms of the differences between each behavior?
• What did you find most challenging about adopting each type of behavior?

3. Assertiveness Chain

How can assertiveness be practiced collaboratively?
This activity promotes quick thinking and respectful turn-taking in group communication.

▸ Time: 20 – 40 minutes
▸ Participants: 5 – 15
▸ Equipment: None

Purpose of the activity: This is a group exercise and one of the assertiveness training activities that focuses on communication.

The aim is for participants to practice their assertiveness skills by initiating and responding to assertive statements in a collaborative manner.

Instructions: Arrange participants in a circle.

Ask one participant to start the activity by making one assertive statement (for instance, I believe we should allocate more resources to this project because…”).

The next person in the circle responds with an assertive statement and then makes a new assertive statement (e.g., “I agree with your point, but I think we also need to consider…”).

Continue around the circle in this manner, making sure that every participant has the opportunity to initiate and respond to an assertive statement at least once.

End by discussing the flow of assertive communication and any challenges encountered.

Questions You Could Ask for Discussion:

• What were the difficulties in trying to maintain assertive communication?
• What strategies have you learned that can help you communicate assertively after this training in life and in the workplace?

Improving assertiveness skills helps employees strengthen workplace relationships by reducing passive-aggression and misunderstandings.

4. Developing an Assertive Mindset

Can mental rehearsal improve assertiveness?
Visualization helps participants prepare to respond calmly and confidently in real-world scenarios.

▸ Time: 20 – 30 minutes
▸ Participants: Any number
▸ Equipment: None

Purpose of the activity: This assertiveness training activity uses visualization to help participants change their internal attitudes and beliefs to support an assertive mindset.

Instructions: Ask your participants to close their eyes and visualize a situation in which they want to behave assertively.

Instruct them to pick a difficult situation to handle, either something they dealt with in the past or something they are likely to face in the future.

Ask them to imagine themselves behaving assertively. Instruct them to visualize everything in detail, including their body language, their inner feelings, seeing the place where they will be in detail, and visualizing the people they will talk to and their reactions.

Give your participants 5 to 10 minutes to do this, and then ask them how it felt and start a discussion.

Questions You Could Ask for Discussion:

• How did it feel to visualize yourself behaving assertively?
• Moving forward, how do you think visualization exercises might help you feel more confident and assertive in dealing with difficult situations?
• What was the hardest thing about visualizing yourself behaving assertively?

View the Assertiveness Skills Training Course Materials for providing training

5. Assertiveness Role-Play

Why is realistic practice essential for assertiveness?
Role-playing builds confidence by letting participants try assertive responses in a safe, supported setting.

▸ Time: 20 – 40 minutes
▸ Participants: Groups of 3+
▸ Equipment: Scenarios, pens, and paper

Purpose of the activity: This is one of the assertiveness training activities that allow participants to practice hands-on how to behave assertively in the safe setting of a workshop.

Through role-play, participants will be able to practice how to stay calm in the face of aggression (if you give them a scenario in which the other person is behaving aggressively) and how to communicate confidently (both verbally and using assertive body language).

Instructions: Prepare a set of scenarios for participants to use during the role-play.

For the scenarios, you can use common situations in which a person needs to behave assertively, such as asking for a pay raise or refusing an unreasonable request. Alternatively, if you are training staff who work in customer service, the scenario might involve a difficult customer.

On the day of the training, ask your participants to form groups of three, with one participant playing the part of the person who is trying to be assertive, another person being their opponent (e.g., the angry customer or a manager who is being asked for a pay raise), and the third being the observer.

Give groups a set time to act out the scenario. Explain that the person who needs to be assertive will need to show assertiveness through both their choice of words and their nonverbal communication (i.e., body language, tone and pace of voice, etc.)

At the end of the set time, the observer (who will have been taking notes during the role-play) will give feedback on the behavior they witnessed and how assertive it was based on verbal and nonverbal communication.

Ask participants to switch roles (so everyone has a chance to practice each role) and start again.

Once the exercise is complete, hold a whole-class discussion.

You can run this exercise online by sharing the scenarios electronically with your participants and using virtual conferencing software with breakout rooms for the small group activity.

Questions You Could Ask for Discussion:

• How hard was it to show assertiveness? Were there some aspects of showing assertiveness that you found harder or easier than others?
• Which strategies did you use to show assertiveness?
• How are you going to apply these strategies in real life?

Many of these assertiveness training activities also support emotional intelligence by encouraging participants to recognize and manage emotions during difficult conversations.

6. Asking Line vs ‘No’ Line

How can you practice saying ‘no’ assertively?
This paired exercise builds muscle memory for making requests and setting boundaries confidently.

▸ Time: 20 – 40 minutes
▸ Participants: 4 – 20
▸ Equipment: None

Purpose of the activity: This is one of the most effective assertiveness training activities for allowing participants to practice staying assertive while dealing with rejection.

It focuses on persistence, resilience, and maintaining assertiveness when requests are denied. At the same time, the activity also focuses on being able to say ‘no’ respectfully but firmly (which is another aspect of being assertive).

Instructions: Divide your participants into two lines (if there is an odd number of people, one participant can be an observer), with each member of one line facing a person from the other line.

One line is the asking line, which means that participants will have to ask the person they are facing for something (e.g., ask for a favor or propose an idea) in an assertive way.

The people in the other line, which is the ‘no’ line, will have to try to refuse the request as much as possible in a firm but respectful way.

After a set time, switch lines so that each person can practice both asking and saying ‘no’.

Finish off the activity with a discussion about how hard it was to ask for things and say ‘no’ in an assertive way.

Questions You Could Ask for Discussion:

• How did it feel to assertively make a request and be refused?
• What strategies helped you maintain assertiveness despite rejection?
• How can this exercise help you make requests assertively and say ‘no’ firmly but politely in real life?

7. Replacing Thoughts

How do thoughts affect assertiveness?
Participants identify and reframe internal beliefs that undermine their ability to speak up confidently.

▸ Time: 20 – 30 minutes
▸ Participants: Individuals or small groups
▸ Equipment: Pens and paper or flipcharts

Purpose of the activity: This assertiveness training exercise focuses on the cognitive aspect of assertiveness, i.e., on the thoughts and the self-talk that usually accompany a person’s attitude.

The aim is to promote positive thinking at the expense of negative thoughts that can hinder assertiveness.

Instructions: For this activity, participants can work on their own, in pairs, or in small groups.

Give participants pens and paper or markers and flipcharts, and ask them to write down a list of thoughts that they have, or might have, or that they heard others say, which can stop a person from being assertive.

Then, ask participants to write down, next to each unhelpful thought, a positive replacement that can instead inspire a person to be assertive.

Some examples of unhelpful thoughts and their replacements might include:

• “If I say no, they will think I’m selfish” to be replaced with “It’s ok to say no when I need to. It’s impossible to please everybody all the time.”
• “I might hurt their feelings if I don’t agree with them” to “It would be more unethical to lie to them, and I can express my opinion respectfully”.
• “I don’t like confrontation” to “Constructive confrontation can lead to better results for everyone”.

Lead a discussion about how influential your thoughts can be on your behavior and how changing thought patterns can change your mindset.

If you are teaching online, participants can use a virtual whiteboard.

Questions You Could Ask for Discussion:

• What was challenging about finding a positive counterpart for each unhelpful thought?
• How did it feel to turn around each thought and adopt a more positive way of thinking?
• How can you use this technique to adopt a more assertive mindset in your daily life?

What Are the Benefits of Assertiveness Training Activities for Adults?

Assertiveness is a great skill to have both in the workplace and in your personal life.

This is why training employees, managers, and everyone in general on assertiveness is very important for the benefit of individuals and teams alike.

Engaging in assertiveness training activities can have additional benefits that can have a positive impact on other skill sets, such as:

• Communication – Assertiveness is a crucial part of strong interpersonal communication in the workplace, where employees should be able to communicate openly, without fear of rejection.
• Confidence and self-esteem – behaving assertively and having an assertive mindset helps people understand the importance of boundaries and makes them feel more confident to handle a variety of social situations.
• Conflict management and collaboration – assertive people are more likely to be open about what they want, while at the same time being more accepting of other people’s needs and opinions.
• Mental and emotional balance – being assertive means that you don’t suppress your feelings or dwell on negativity and anger. So, if you are assertive, you are less likely to feel stressed overall.

If you’re discussing personal boundaries and personal space at work, this guide on proxemics in the workplace is worth reading.

Assertiveness Training vs Confidence Building: What’s the Difference?

Although assertiveness and confidence are closely related, they’re not the same. This table highlights the key differences between assertiveness training and confidence-building activities, especially in the context of workplace development.

Focus Area	Assertiveness Training	Confidence Building
Purpose	Teaches how to express needs and opinions respectfully and clearly	Helps boost belief in one’s own abilities and worth
Skills Practiced	Saying no, setting boundaries, handling conflict, using “I” statements	Positive thinking, risk-taking, building resilience
Common Activities	Role-playing, workplace scenarios, body language exercises	Visualizations, affirmations, celebrating small wins
Where It’s Used	Meetings, performance reviews, dealing with conflict	Public speaking, taking on new roles, self-development
End Goal	Improve communication and strengthen relationships at work	Increase self-confidence and emotional strength
How They Connect	Builds confidence through action and communication	Supports assertiveness by reducing fear of judgment

If you’re looking to deliver structured assertiveness training in a professional setting, our editable Assertiveness Skills Course Kit includes all the tools you need.

Want to expand your communication skills training? Explore our full library of Workplace Communication Guides for Managers.

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