Updated April 21, 2023
Assertive at Work
“Positive attitude,” / “high motivation,” / “Self-confidence” are the key traits in an individual that leads to being assertive at work success. With these factors in yourself, you can step up in your career, creating a bright future for yourself. Possessing correct assertiveness at work and with colleagues could aid in getting what you want at your office.
Assertiveness is one similar quality that would help you keep your point in a polite manner. It is a communication mode and assertive skills that could be easily learned. It is about standing up for your rights in a positive and calm way without being passive or aggressive. With assertive skills, you can be able to evolve rapidly.
It is about being balanced. Being direct about your needs and wants while considering the needs and rights of others as well. By being assertive at work, you could get what you want in most cases. An assertive behavior could be a base for your winning in various situations.
How to be Assertive in a Relationship?
Being assertive in a relationship is not that easy. However, it is a technique that could be learned. Evolving assertiveness in oneself could be started by understanding yourself and the beliefs you value. With these simple steps, you can build the basis of self-confidence. Assertiveness builds your self-confidence and provides various perks for refining your relationship at the office and in other spectrums of life.
General Behavior of Assertive People at Work
They can solve the problem better 8- they feel endowed to do anything it takes to discover the best solution.
- Are accomplishers: They know they can do it, and they get it done.
- Win easily: They analyze the value of the opponent. They quickly find common ground and defeat the opponent from their position.
- Are stress-free: They know their potential and are not threatened or mistreated when things do not go as expected or planned.
About Assertive Personality
People with an assertive personalities manage to get what they want at work. Assertive personalities will speak out and ensure that they are heard. While assertive people who cannot communicate confidentially or hesitate in stating their points often fall to the curb. Their points are out sided as they are observed as uncategorized, weak, and uncertain.
Assertive personality workers try to be assertive but end up being aggressive while keeping their point, while others go to the other end of the side completely. Hence, managing an assertive personality to stand out amongst such colleagues and depict better professionalism skills is very important. It is imperative that you be assertive personality without going overboard or without being feared.
An assertive personality speaks the truth to get what you want while exhibiting a confident and reliable professional image. The task is not simple, but you can learn to be assertive and professional by following a few methods. In our work life, we juggle deadlines, multiple projects, changing priorities, constant interruptions in the assertive personality, and fewer resources. According to the recent assertive personality, people face difficulty negotiating limits on their workload, specifically when the request is impossible or unreasonable. While some have difficulties in giving feedback without forming disharmony in their working relationships.
These days effective and assertive communication has become essential to survive and propel your credibility and career.
9 Most Important Skills of Assertive at Work
Given below are the 9 most important skills of assertiveness at work:
1. Be certain about what you want to speak about
Your communication style defines your assertive skills. If you do not try to send the message in a crystal clear manner, expecting clear communication is of no use. Assertive people often start speaking even before being sure what they want to say. If you are not coherent about the thing in your head, chances are you won’t be able to coherent it when you try to talk about it in front of others. There will be no problem if you are a fluent speaker and a strong thinker. Hence, it is necessary that you plan your objectives prior to starting the conversation.
What are you to talk about? Clarifying what you will say before speaking up will enable you to focus more on how you will say it during the conversation or discussion.
2. Consider important things
An easy method of putting all your efforts down the drain is messing your message with pointless information. This just instigates others to pay no attention. If the people listening to you or are part of the discussion insight the senseless tangent in the transition, instead of listening to you, they will avoid your talks. Your message will be more influential if you stick to the point or get to your opinion quickly without much rounding around.
3. Prepare and reduce filler
Speaking is not similar to the task of thinking. You will often discover what seemed so perfect in your head becomes cluttered disarray when it is said out loud. Practicing out loud previously is a good option if the discussion is particularly imperative. Being assertive is extremely significant, as everyone knows that talking about something new for the first time can be difficult. You might tussle to find the right word, stammer, talk amongst colleagues, or repeat yourself. These mistakes could be expected if you do not prepare beforehand. The more you practice, the easier the task of speaking will get.
This is also a great technique to reduce the filler- those unnecessary words that would fill the sentence while you pause thinking about the next word. The words include “hmm”, “uh”, “you know”, and “well”… Most of us probably do the mistake of overusing these words, the results of which make our speech appears unsophisticated, hesitant, or indecisive. If you have not heard your speech before, you would be shocked to hear the use of filler often. You could improve a lot if you make yourself aware of the mistake you commonly make.
4. Control the volume
Assertive people naturally have quiet voices or a very high tone voice. The volume at which you communicate greatly impacts how assertive people interpret your message. You will seem hesitant, timid, and fearful if you speak in a weak, low tone. It is a suggestion that you hide something when people constantly ask you to repeat your words. Manage your volume; you will appear more confident, strong, and certain. You do not need to yell as it puts you into aggressive territory. However, you need to maintain the volume of your voice so that everyone is able to hear you comfortably if you cannot breathe properly while your speech or getting hoarse, taking a sip of water or pausing for a moment is fine.
5. Avoid degrading language
One of the worst things you can do while communicating is use language that decreases the imperativeness of what you are saying. For example, the word ‘Just’ implies that something is inappropriate. “This is just an idea” or “I just thought”…. These statements seem like the person saying them is barely interested. It sounds more like warning the listener that what is coming is irrelevant or trifling. Another manner of doing this is by prefacing the words with phrases like: “This might sound crazy but” or “I could be wrong”…. It is like giving people a reason to consider your thoughts crazy or wrong. Such framing of sentences, when heard, makes the listener look for confirmation.
Also, avoid the sound of a question mark at the end of the sentences until you ask a question. It sounds like you are questioning yourself if you are stating it is declarative and your voice is up at the end. How would anyone else be if you are unsure about what you are saying?
6. Trust in yourself
The most important point to remember while communicating assertively is to trust what you are saying. The more certain and passionate you are about the subject matter, the more natural and easier it will be to speak strongly about it. If you want to witness the assertive side of yourself, have a talk about something you deeply care about and for which your beliefs are quite strong. Listen to yourself, Watch yourself, Note how you converse, and find ways to glimpse the same assertive skills during the discussion or talk at work.
7. Understand the circumstance
Know the context you are working in before changing your behavior. Assertiveness is not commonly considered a positive trait. Does the organization, region, or national culture truly value strength? Or is a persuasive, quiet approach more respected in a work situation? The reward for your assertiveness also depends on your gender. The world’s leading gender consultation firms warn that women asking for what they want are often labeled aggressive and bitchy. The latitude range is smaller for women to get away with what they want. Before altering your behavior, consider the implication of your conduct.
8. Estimate your level of assertiveness
Evaluate your behavior and willingness to discuss your opinions with others. Complete a success inventory over a specific period and assess if you achieved what you wanted. This helps track success and identify necessary adjustments. Getting feedback from a trusted colleague or conducting a review can also be helpful.
9. Set objectives and stick to them
Suppose you find out during an assessment that you are holding back. Ask yourself why you are keeping quiet or what you are not saying. Next time you are into something similar, practice beforehand what you will say and how you will say it. Challenge yourself to a particular time-bounded behavioral goal. For example, challenge yourself with a week to initiate a conversation with colleagues on three difficult topics or decide to speak out within the first two minutes of the next group discussion. Real modifications could be made only by focusing on incremental modifications. If you succeed in these challenges, set other aims and stick to them. If anything does not work out, try a different one instead of beating yourself. Approach everything with a lively attitude.
Some Additional Tips You Should Consider While Learning to be Assertive at Work
- Ask for what you want exactly without offending any junior or senior at the office.
- Use practical and proprietary speech techniques to deal with any conversation confrontation with grace and confidence.
- Use particular phraseology to gain confidence and speak the truth with sensitivity and power.
- Identify the difference between digressive and aggressive behavior.
- Learn to speak the truth assertively through effective communication and stop feeling incapable in daily connections with assertive people at work.
So it is evident that you could manage to get what you want at your workplace by simply bringing assertive change in your behavior and way of speaking. Work on your assertive skills and make time-to-time modifications to keep your point in your work. This small step could benefit you in several ways in building your career and work relationship.
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This is a guide on How to be Assertive at Work. Here we have discussed the 9 most important skills of assertiveness at your work with some additional tips. You may also read about assertive personality-
