This week’s young professional challenge is all about being assertive, we’ve been working with you on your communication skills for a little while and we think you are ready to tackle a big one! If you are new here you can catch up on all things Young Professional on your dashboard, which is where you will find all of the past challenges too.
Being assertive can help with your confidence, communication and leadership skills, it can be difficult to start pushing yourself forward but we’ve got some tips that can help!
Top tips and tricks:
Be clear: be specific about what you are trying to stay, what you are asking for and the expectations you have. When we are complaining or asking for things we can use more words than we need to or, we go the other way and do not explain enough.
We often say things weren’t good, it could be a film, meal or piece of work but without an explanation of what was actually wrong or what good looks like we aren’t setting people’s expectation for next time. Was the film too long, was it hard to follow? Was the piece of work rushed, too short, didn’t end with any recommendations? By explaining what good looks like to you you give a better view of what you expect, setting this out at the beginning of a project is a great way to save time and show you are assertive.
Ask for things: try swapping some words around. Instead of asking if anyone is free to help you tell the team you will need someone to help on this project, explain what for and how long it will take and then stop talking and let them come forward. Needing help isn’t something you need to apologise for so don’t overcrowd the detail of what you really need with long winded explanations.
Confidence: whilst we are thinking about the words we use assertive people don’t use the words just, only or try unless they need to. Saying you are ‘just’ in college, I’m ‘only’ an administrative assistant or that you will ‘try’ and do something creeps negative language in unnecessarily, these words aren’t needed and you should really be owning the things you do, say where you at with confidence.
Balance
What is the right level of assertiveness? How do you make sure you are still approachable and fair and that you haven’t turned in to a scary person who no one knows how to approach. There is a difference between assertive and aggression and you need to be aware when you are communicating fairly and asking for the help you need and when you are pushing your needs above any others.
Your challenge:
We’ve given you great tips and suggestions that you can put into your next conversations but we’ve also pulled together this short quiz to test you’ve taken this in! What better way to show our assertive skills than asking you to check what you’ve learnt 
