Assertiveness Statistics & Facts: NEW Research for 2024

 

Is assertiveness the key to a successful career?

To inform how we teach our manager training courses we carried out some research into how assertive and confident people are feeling.

We polled 500 employees across a wide variety of industries and age groups to find out:

1. 1. How assertive do people think they are?
   2. How did they learn to assertive?
   3. Have they ever missed out through not being assertive?
   4. Do they find it easier or harder to be assertive over Zoom & Teams

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Q1: Do You Think You Are Assertive At Work?

When reviewing the answers to our first question, we cut the data in several ways to drill down and discover more.

We defined assertiveness as people feeling able to speak up for their point of view and opinion at work even when they knew that it would be unpopular.

What proportion of people are assertive at work?

Our research showed that 88% of people think that they are assertive at work.

What proportion of women are assertive at work?

Our research showed that 80% of women believe that they are assertive at work.

What proportion of men are assertive at work?

Our research showed that 97% of men believe that they are assertive at work.

Q2: How Have You Learned To Be Assertive?

Amongst the people who thought they were assertive?

We were keen to learn whether they had always been assertive or:

If they had developed their assertiveness over time.

What proportion of people are naturally assertive?

19% (almost 1 in 5) of people said that they had always been assertive and so haven’t needed to learn to be more assertive.

Interestingly, this did not vary at all between men and women.

How did you learn to be more assertive?

Amongst people who had to learn to be more assertive, 57% said that they have naturally become more assertive with age.

18% said they had developed it through mentoring, another 18% said that they developed it through practice without external help and finally just 4% have been on a training course.

Q3: Do You Think You Have Missed Work Opportunities Through Not Being Assertive Enough?

With this question, we were keen to learn if people felt that they had missed out on oppurtunities by not being assertive enough.

For example, getting a promotion, onto an interesting project, or recieving a pay rise.

If so, we wanted to try to understand which groups felt they had been most affected.

Have you ever missed out at work through not being assertive enough?

55% of people said that they thought they had missed work opportunities through a lack of assertiveness.

41% of people said that they didn’t feel they have missed out and 4% of people were unsure whether they had missed out.

What proportion of young people (under 35) believe they have missed out at work due to a lack of assertiveness?

A whopping 79% of those under 35 believe that they have missed out at work.

This makes sense as young people are often less confident at work as they are more junior in hierarchies and learning to navigate the corporate world.

What proportion of older people (over 45) believe they have missed out at work due to a lack of assertiveness?

51% of older people believe they’ve missed out at work due to a lack of assertiveness.

Q4: Do You Find It More Or Less Difficult To Be Assertive On A Video Call?

Given that pandemic-induced remote working appears to be here to stay, we wanted to understand if people found it easier or more difficult to be assertive on a video call.

Do you find it easier or harder to be more assertive during a video call?

54% of people find it easier to be assertive on a video call while 46% of people find it more difficult.

This split was pretty much the same for men and women with 55% of men and 52% of women finding it easier to be assertive on a video call.

Similarly, splitting answers between younger and older workers showed that 52% of younger workers and 59% of older workers found that Zoom made it easier to be assertive.

Assertiveness Research Details

The research for these statistics was carried out using Pollfish. 500 people were surveyed.

It polled a representative sample of working people.

It was evenly split between males (45%) and females (55%).

The research was evenly split between age groups, the percentages of each can be found below.

1. 18-24 – 2%
2. 25-34 – 27%
3. 35-44 – 37%
4. 45-54 – 17%
5. 54-65 – 17%

Looking for more assertiveness guides? Read our 5 Assertiveness Tips For Managers here!