2 assertiveness in the workplace

Supervision Internship [401591] Assertiveness I Marcus Birkenkrahe [Birkenkrahe Aya]

HWR Berlin Supervision Internship LV 401591 / 2

Agenda

  Excerpts from the weekly forum posts...*

  [Non-] Assertiveness

  Simple methods

  Discussion

  Home work/Commitment round

Agenda | Forum | Models | Discussion | Commitment

Please do remember to upload your (main) forum post to your GoogleDocs file by Monday

at the very latest!!


Forum – from „What Did You Learn?“

«…In every e-mail [to Asian people] I had to pay attention that I never, really NEVER, write something in a negative way or use the word no. This can get pretty difficult when someone did something wrong and you are the one who has to explain it in a positive way to him.»

«From the very first day of my internship I understood that it will be difficult for me to go home at 18.00 as ALL employees finish their working day not earlier than at 19.00-20.00. And some of them start working at 7 a.m.»

«How do you say “No” if someone wants to give you a task that you simply do not have time for?»



Forum – from: “What Did You Learn?“

«It feels a little strange for me to “just” be the intern and to have such control and corrective responsibilities over people in their work. Especially considering that there are people who have been doing their job for 20 years.»

«I often get tasks from the [managers] or sometimes from the clients directly without having clear instructions on how to do it.»

«I learned that it is important to ask for what you want or need because if you don’t, it is possible that you will miss gaining a lot of helpful experience.»

>> What do you make of these stories?

>> Have you made any similar experiences?



[Non-] Assertiveness

  Aggressive behavior – pushy, bullying, requires force

  Manipulative behavior – sly, tricky, requires cunning

  Instinctive behavior – 'fight, flight or freeze'

  Defensive behavior – replying, defending, asking

  Assertive behavior – clear, adult, requires boundaries


Assertive behaviors

The point of all assertive techniques is to let the other person know (a) where your boundary is, (b) if anyone has violated it and (c) what will happen if they keep doing it.

  Direct and clear

  Fielding through repetition (simple message)

  Parallel talking

  Paradoxical


Home Work / Commitment

  Experiment with assertive behavior this and next week.

  First, identify your (typical) pattern.

  For example:

  when you'd normally say 'no', say 'yes'.   when you'd normally be aggressive, be assertive   when you'd normally be manipulative, be assertive   In all cases, observe how other people's response

changes when you change your behavior.



Opinionator! [if there‘s time]

Let's move over to the (now fixed) Opinionator to get a sense of the views of the entire group and not just a few...

?

2 assertiveness in the workplace

Education