The Likability Penalty For Women Is A Daily Challenge
The likability penalty limit’s women’s success.
Because of gender bias, women face the “competent but disliked” double-bind dilemma, where likable women are seen as less competent and vice-versa, according to a Catalyst report. And this penalty dilemma limits women’s growth in their careers, opportunities, and contribution.
Assertiveness helps women come across as competent.
The problem is that success relies on being perceived as both likable and competent, friendly and strong. Assertiveness helps women come across as competent, decisive, credible, and as leadership material.
How to be likable without hurting competence brand?
The question is, how can you add add likability to your assertiveness without triggering the likability penalty? While bias will always exist, there are many communication strategies women can use find the perfect balance between assertive and likable.
It Affects Women’s Careers, Impact, And Engagement.
Are told they’re too aggressive, rude, difficult, abrasive.
Are told they’re too aggressive, rude, difficult, abrasive
What If The Women In Your Company Overcame The Likability Penalty And…
Introducing The Talk Or Workshop:
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SPEAK UP AND BE HEARD
How Women Can Speak Confidently, Powerfully, and Effectively
- Increased DEI
- Women’s engagement
- Improved communication skills
- Higher morale
- Greater retention
- Increased confidence
- Increased productivity
- More inclusive workplace culture
- Debunk common speaking up myths
- Identify your unique communication style
- Learn practical steps to speak up confidently and effectively
- Navigate challenging conversations and situations with ease and grace
Do you struggle with speaking up and being heard in the workplace? As a woman, you may face unique challenges such as gender bias, inequality, and double standards that can make it difficult to assert yourself without being labeled as aggressive or abrasive. But what if you could break through those barriers and communicate with confidence, authority, and warmth?
In this inspiring talk / workshop, Ivna Curi shows you how to master the art of assertive communication and overcome the obstacles that may be holding you back. Through a proven framework, you’ll learn how to eliminate unhelpful behaviors, structure your communication for maximum impact, and declutter your language of ineffective friendliness.
You’ll discover how to add warmth and approachability without sacrificing your authority or power. You’ll gain practical steps to speak up without fear of backlash or retaliation and learn how to navigate labels such as “too aggressive,” “difficult,” and “abrasive” with grace and confidence.
WORKSHOPS
Upskill your team on practical speaking up and assertive communication skills. Our workshops are designed to educate, illustrate, and provide actionable strategies the audience can immediately apply to speak up and be more assertive. These workshops are designed to be interactive, relevant, and hands-on.
TALKS
Explore our interactive virtual and in-person talks to inspire and engage your team. Our talks are designed to inspire, motivate, and provide actionable strategies the audience can immediately apply to effectively deal with workplace challenges. These talks are designed to be relatable, unique, and practical.
Here's What Happens When Women Outsmart The Likability Penalty With Empathetic Assertiveness Skills
Click below to find out what happens when employees learn to speak up assertively.
Speaking up assertive communication skills increase employee retention.
The pace of employee turnover is forecast to be 50–75% higher than companies have experienced previously according to Gartner. Plus, turnover can cost up to 200% of an employee’s annual salary, depending on the role, amounting to nearly $700 in 2020 according to HBR article. Not only is it important to reduce turnover, but to retain those who stay.
Speaking and assertive communication skills improve retention because they:
- Help employees feel heard, understood, and appreciated.
- Give employees the skills to advocate for their own needs.
- Give employees the skills to make others treat them with respect.
- Give employees the skills to propel their own career and opportunities forward.
Speaking up assertive communication skills help teams be more productive.
Employees in United States companies spend approximately 2.8 hours each week involved in conflict. This amounts to around $359 billion in hours paid that are filled with – and focused on – conflict instead of on positive productivity (CPP study).
Assertive communication helps employees:
- Prevent and minimize conflict
- Help handle small issues before they escalate into big conflict
- Resolve conflict promptly
- Express mistakes in a timely and productive way
- Express opinions, ideas, perspectives and engage in meetings.
- Get point across.
- Respectfully disagree.
- Express concerns to authority.
- Ask for clarification and ask smart questions.
- Speak up for the team and customers.
- Speak up for what is right.
- Ask for and receive feedback in a way that gets you relevant and useful information.
Speaking up assertive communication skills increase employee engagement.
51% of the U.S. workforce is not engaged (Gallup, 2017). According to Gallup, the key drivers for employee engagement are development, ongoing conversations, a caring manager, focus on strengths, and purpose.
Assertive communication helps employees be proactive around what they need to to happy and engaged at work:
- Express what they need to be happy, engaged, and successful (e.g. ask for a development plan)
- Proactively seek ongoing conversations with their managers.
- Ask for the kind of work that focuses on their strengths and gives them a sense of purpose.
- Influence others to appreciate, value, and recognize them.
- Create positive relationships at work for themselves.
- Express their ideas more often and in a way that is heard, understood, and taken seriously.
- Train others to treat them with respect.
Speaking up assertive communication skills support innovation.
Companies that have employees who feel more comfortable asking for help, sharing suggestions, or challenging the status quo innovate more according to Mckinsey.
Assertive communication teaches employees how to communicate in innovation-inducing way:
- Challenge authority and the status quo
- Share suggestions in a way that gets across
- Ask for clarification
- Ask questions
- Ask for help
- Disagree without being disagreeable
- Communicate mistakes and concerns early on
Speaking up assertive communication skills help leaders be more effective.
Leaders often avoid or delay necessary hard conversations and other leaders do so in an ineffective way.
With assertive communication skills, leaders can have the appropriate skills to have hard conversations in a timely, positive, yet impactful way, such as:
- Give constructive feedback (both negative and positive), in a way that engages rather than deflates people.
- Communicate negative messages in a humane and positive way.
- Prevent conflict from happening or from escalating.
- Resolve conflict without being confrontational or emotional.
- Confront without being confrontational.
- Be decisive as a leader when it matters without coming across as uncaring.
- Hold people accountable without blaming, shaming, or micromanaging.
- Better communicate expectations positively and at the right time.
- Express feelings and ideas in non-threatening way.
- Be an effective advocate for others.
- Balance the use of power and warmth based on the situation and people.
- Express impatience and anger in the right way
Speaking up assertive communication skills increase diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Assertiveness improves diversity:
- MORE INTERNAL PROMOTIONS by helping minorities position themselves and other minorities for internal promotions by self-promoting, communicating with warmth and authority, and making the ask.
- MORE SUCCESS IN LEADERSHIP ROLES by providing essential soft skills for minorities rising through leadership to succeed (give feedback, share perspectives, disagree, handle conflict, request resources, hard conversations).
- INCREASED RETENTION of minorities because they feel more in control (and less like victims) with speaking up assertively skills.
Assertiveness improves equity:
- MORE ACCESS by empowering minorities to ask for access to resources, opportunities, and key decision-makers in a way that minimizes backlash or retaliation.
- MORE FAIRNESS by providing minorities the skills to become their best advocate, stand up for themselves when they experience unfair treatment, and pursue their interests.
- LESS BIASED JUGEMENT by enabling minorities with assertive questioning skills to reduce assumptions and judgement in interactions.
Assertiveness improves inclusion:
- MORE FEELING VALUED by providing minorities with actionable skills to make themselves heard and understoodin meetings, to help superiors appreciate and recognize them, and to get coworkers to take them seriously.
- MORE AUTHENTICITY by giving them the ability to express their differences and individuality in a positive way.
- MORE VOICE by boosting their confidence to speak up at work.
About Assertive Way
Assertive Way is the only company exclusively dedicated to teaching speaking up and assertive communication skills for the workplace to create a robust speaking up culture that drives engagement, productivity, and innovation.
About The Speaker / Trainer / Consultant
- Host of the Speak Your Mind Unapologetically Podcast Show.
- MBA from INSEAD, the leading MBA program outside of the U.S.
- Forbes contributor.
- TEDx speaker “How To Speak Up Safely When It’s Psychologically Unsafe“
- Decade of corporate experience for Fortune 500 Johnson & Johnson, A.T. Kearney, and Etihad Airways leading teams.
- 20 thousand students in personal, group sessions, or trainings.
- Lived and worked around the world in 4 of the 7 continents.
- Speaker at conferences, events, and podcasts.
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Submit Your Request
Alternatively contact me at info@assertiveway.com or ivnacuri@assertiveway.com.