Breakout Business English - Improve your vocabulary and confidence using English at work.
Jul 8, 2026 · 24 min · 9 segments
Send us Fan Mail If you want to be more assertive when speaking English at work, without sounding rude then this episode is for you. Maybe you want…
So today, I had a coaching session with someone I've been working with for a while, a client I've been working with for a while.
And she mentioned to me that she'd recently asked her boss for a raise, for an increase in her salary.
Now, I love negotiation.
It's one of my favorite topics in professional communication.
I've read lots of books on the topic and worked with professionals around the world to role play and prepare them for various negotiations.
So I leaned in.
I was excited to hear how the conversation went, where she started, what the initial reaction was from her boss, and where she took the conversation, and how she pushed to get the outcome that she was looking for.
However, that's not quite what happened.
In fact, the conversation was a lot shorter than that.
The person I was coaching started by talking about the value of her contribution and how much she'd improved since she joined the company, and that was a great start.
So far, so good.
Then she announced her number.
Okay, a single specific number that she wanted her boss to agree to pay her.
Fine, not the best strategy, but we can go there.
And what did her boss say? "Sorry, we can't do that." "Okay," I thought, "now the negotiation starts.
Now we're going to build a conversation and a structure that leads her boss to the logical conclusion that she needs to offer this person more money." Actually, no.
That's where the conversation ended.
"What went wrong?" I asked.
"How might you have structured the conversation differently?" This client of mine, who I should say is a fantastic professional with an incredible CV in her industry, told me that pushing any harder for a raise or maybe making the conversation more direct felt pushy, too direct, maybe too assertive.
She didn't want to come across as rude.
It would be awkward to have that conversation with her boss, and she wanted to avoid it, so she did.
And I completely understand where she's coming from.
Conversations like that aren't fun for most people, especially if you don't come from a professional culture where that kind of approach is common, and especially if you haven't practiced them very much.
So with that said, today we're going to talk about having difficult conversations and being a little more assertive at work.
So today, I had a coaching session with someone I've been working with for a while, a client I've been working with for a while.
And she mentioned to me that she'd recently asked her boss for a raise, for an increase in her salary.
Now, I love negotiation.
It's one of my favorite topics in professional communication.
I've read lots of books on the topic and worked with professionals around the world to role play and prepare them for various negotiations.
So I leaned in.
I was excited to hear how the conversation went, where she started, what the initial reaction was from her boss, and where she took the conversation, and how she pushed to get the outcome that she was looking for.
However, that's not quite what happened.
In fact, the conversation was a lot shorter than that.
The person I was coaching started by talking about the value of her contribution and how much she'd improved since she joined the company, and that was a great start.
So far, so good.
Then she announced her number.
Okay, a single specific number that she wanted her boss to agree to pay her.
Fine, not the best strategy, but we can go there.
And what did her boss say? "Sorry, we can't do that." "Okay," I thought, "now the negotiation starts.
Now we're going to build a conversation and a structure that leads her boss to the logical conclusion that she needs to offer this person more money." Actually, no.
That's where the conversation ended.
"What went wrong?" I asked.
"How might you have structured the conversation differently?" This client of mine, who I should say is a fantastic professional with an incredible CV in her industry, told me that pushing any harder for a raise or maybe making the conversation more direct felt pushy, too direct, maybe too assertive.
She didn't want to come across as rude.
It would be awkward to have that conversation with her boss, and she wanted to avoid it, so she did.
And I completely understand where she's coming from.
Conversations like that aren't fun for most people, especially if you don't come from a professional culture where that kind of approach is common, and especially if you haven't practiced them very much.
So with that said, today we're going to talk about having difficult conversations and being a little more assertive at work.
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