Tools to Speak Up

In his talk about assertiveness, Adam Galinsky shares how to speak up for yourself. The social psychologist defines speaking up as pushing one's interests, expressing an opinion or making an ambitious risk. The speaker states your power determines your range of acceptable behavior, which comes in alternatives. When people have a lot of power, they have a lot of leeway with how to act and when they are weak, there is a narrower range. He notes gender differences are actually power differences in disguise.

The talk about assertiveness says there are two things matter when expanding your range: that you seem powerful in your own eyes and that you seem powerful in the eyes of others. The speaker offers tools to expand your range of acceptable behaviour. This includes perspective taking, or looking at the world through the eyes of someone else. For example, women tend to make less ambitious offers compared to men in negotiations, except when they advocate for others.