Asserting Yourself Where and When You Need To

"You blockhead!" How many times did Lucy say that to Charlie Brown? 4,000? More? It was Lucy's way of telling Charlie Brown that she wasn't happy with what he had done. Lucy thought she was being assertive, but actually she was being abusive. It's not likely that she changed Charlie Brown's behavior in any meaningful way, nor enabled him to feel good about their interaction.

Asserting Yourself Where and When You Need To provides new insights and techniques on how anyone can become assertive. By viewing assertiveness as a positive trait with no negative connotations, author and noted professional speaker Jeff Davidson restores the original meaning of the word to its rightful position in the lexicon of traits and characteristics of self-actualized, self-confident people.

Each of us encounters a variety of situations daily where the ability to be assertive is essential. Whether it's communicating with your spouse, attempting to communicate with your children, dealing with suppliers, customers, employees, coworkers, bosses, sales representatives, or, heaven help us, bureaucrats, the ability to make yourself heard, understood, and heeded is more of a challenge today than ever before. Why? We live in a noisy world where people are bombarded by messages all day long.

Each day at work you encounter bosses, coworkers, staff, and other peers. You also deal with friends, neighbors, and relatives, as well as bank tellers, drug store clerks, super market cashiers, and delivery people. Any way you look at it, you continually face the task of communicating your wants and needs to others. With Asserting Yourself Where and When You Need To, your task becomes easier, particularly in situations where you're not necessarily getting the attention or respect you desire.

From the outset, Jeff emphasizes the importance of developing your self-confidence, as self-confidence and assertiveness go hand-in-hand. Rather than relying on oodles of dialog about what you're supposed to say in specific situations, Jeff instead offers guiding principles and a general framework for sizing up situations and quickly determining how to proceed.

The more comfortable you are at effectively expressing yourself and taking charge as situations merit, the faster you climb in your career, gain the respect of others, and feel good about your interpersonal relationships.