If you know the multiple ways in which bullies and harassers groom, and how to respond safely, you’ll know how to protect the things you most care about.

Join the ranks of the unbullable

Those who never get bullied or harassed at work or anywhere else!

You graduate as bully-proof not when you can protect yourself, not even when you can warn others, but when you can intervene to protect others.

The most common sentence I hear is, “I wish I’d said something.” My goal is for you to replace it with, “I did say something, and he won’t try that again.”

Bully-proofing is a life skill, a superpower that can turn a bystander into an upstander: someone who is capable of intervening when necessary. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find intervention can be extremely rewarding.

I’ll give you one example of when someone should have intervened but didn’t, and what they could have said.

I heard the same story had happened in two different sectors of the media and entertainment industries. A junior team member thought they’d fallen in love with their boss and left a letter to that effect on their boss’ desk. At the next team meeting, the boss read the letter aloud. That didn’t shock me; there are arseholes in all industries. What shocked me was that no one spoke up; no one called out the behaviour for what it was. They should have said something, anything, that showed the target that someone recognised what was happening to them and that they did not approve.

The boss could have handled the situation privately and told the target their feelings weren’t reciprocated or appropriate, but chose instead to humiliate them. I would have said, “All that reading out that letter shows is that X has terrible taste in men.”

My ultimate aim is to train as many people as possible not only to protect themselves, but also to protect others. Because if you witness abusive behaviour and say or do nothing, it means you think it’s OK. It means you are willing to be part of that bully’s weapon: the means to humiliate.

“I did say something, and he won’t try that again.” Come and earn that sentence. My workshop takes you from wishing you’d spoken up to knowing exactly what to say: https://tinyurl.com/5yjnkjjp

#BullyProofingSuperPower