The assertive communication training gives you methods to address difficult conversations with serenity and effectiveness. Over two intensive days, you discover assertiveness techniques, non-violent communication, emotion management and methods to give difficult feedback without breaking the relationship. A crucial skill for all managers and HR profiles in French speaking Switzerland.
Address what disturbs without damaging the relationship, and conclude positively
For economic actors of the region, knowing how to lead a difficult conversation is one of the rarest and most valued managerial skills. This course focuses on hands on cases: refocusing a collaborator, managing disagreement with a peer, giving critical feedback, defusing emerging conflict.
Difficult conversations are part of managerial daily life: refocusing behavior, managing disagreement, giving critical feedback, addressing emerging conflict. Poorly led, they break the relationship. Well led, they reinforce trust and unblock situations. This training gives you these keys over two intensive days.
Assertiveness is the art of expressing what you think or feel without aggressiveness or avoidance. The training details fundamental techniques: I-messages, expressing facts then feelings, clear demands.
An improvised difficult conversation often goes wrong. The training details preparation: clarify objectives, anticipate interlocutor reactions, prepare factual arguments, choose the right time and place.
Emotions are at the heart of difficult conversations. The course details how to recognize and name your own emotions, how to welcome those of the interlocutor without being destabilized.
Marshall Rosenberg’s non-violent communication offers a 4-step method: observation, feeling, need, request. The training details this method.
A well-led difficult conversation ends with a clear agreement on next steps. The course emphasizes conclusion: recap, validate mutual understanding, set next steps.
Designed for managers, HR, project managers, executives and all profiles who manage complex professional relationships.
At ITTA centers in Carouge and Le Flon, this course runs over two days. Role plays and simulations pace the training.
What is assertiveness?
Assertiveness is the art of expressing what you think or feel without aggressiveness or avoidance, respecting yourself and others.
What is non-violent communication (NVC)?
Marshall Rosenberg’s NVC is a 4-step method (observation, feeling, need, request) to express disagreement without escalation.
Does this training cover difficult feedback?
Yes, giving constructive critical feedback is one of the central use cases.
How to manage your own stress before a difficult conversation?
The course addresses mental and emotional preparation techniques.
Is this training held in Geneva?
Yes, at the ITTA center in Carouge in Geneva, at Le Flon in Lausanne and in a virtual classroom.
How long to integrate these techniques?
The basics are acquired in two days. Lasting integration comes with practice.
How to go further after this training?
The Fundamentals of Team Management course to structure your managerial posture.
Managers, HR, client relations functions, support functions and any collaborator who must say no, correct or express disagreement with respect. In Geneva and Lausanne, the course welcomes participants from international organizations, banking, consulting and growing SMEs. No specific prerequisite is required other than a concrete willingness to progress on the subject.
You leave with an operational mastery of the fundamentals, reusable canvases on your concrete cases, a structured action plan for the weeks that follow. Many participants report a visible effect from the first week back, with sustainable anchoring over four to six weeks of regular practice. The course combines short theory inputs, practical exercises on your real situations and personalized trainer debrief.
A service leader finally daring to set clear limits to an invasive client. A manager expressing disagreement with N+1 without aggression or submission. An HR conducting a corrective interview with firmness and kindness. The course adapts exercises to your context with personalized trainer feedback, and each participant leaves with an action plan calibrated to their own situation.
This training combines well with difficult conversation for high-stakes exchanges, feedback manager for managerial returns, and conflict management for installed tensions. Many participants enroll in one of these courses in the following trimester, according to their current priority and professional context.
Assertiveness is an essential relational skill, popularized in Smith and Bower works: neither submission nor aggression, but respectful expression of self and other. This training lays the foundations of a lasting assertive posture, applicable daily in varied contexts (team, client, hierarchy, peers), with techniques validated by decades of practice in therapy and management.
Most participants signal a noticeable effect from the first or second week of return, with deeper anchoring over four to six weeks of regular practice. The course closes with a personalized practice plan calibrated on your professional rhythm, with milestones at one, three and six months for participants wanting to track their progression more formally over time.
At ITTA centers in Geneva and Lausanne, this course runs in a small group with an expert trainer and a format alternating concise theory, practical exercises and personalized debrief. Group confidentiality is explicit and held. Each participant arrives with a real case and leaves with an action plan calibrated to their context. The course integrates recent evolutions of the domain (digital tools, hybrid formats, 2025-2026 practices) without losing focus on fundamentals.
Is assertiveness really learnable?
Yes, it is a behavioral skill that trains like any other. Regular practice is the key to anchoring.
Is the course suitable for naturally shy profiles?
Yes, small group format and gentle progression suit profiles discovering this work.
Do we work on real cases?
Yes, each participant arrives with two or three situations to prepare. Confidentiality held.
Where do sessions take place?
ITTA has three centers in French speaking Switzerland: in Geneva (Carouge, Route des Jeunes 35), in Lausanne at the Flon (Rue des Cotes de Montbenon 16) and at Lausanne Mon-Repos (Avenue de Mon-repos 24). The training is also available in virtual classroom.
Monday to Friday
8:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Tel. 058 307 73 00
ITTA
Route des jeunes 35
1227 Carouge, Suisse
Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 06:00 pm.
