Assertiveness
Lesson plan
• What is assertiveness?
• Differences from other types of behaviour.
• Practice of assertive communication.
• Playing scenarios.
• Job interviews (second part of the session)
Energizer!
• Split into pairs.
• One of you is person B, and looks away. Person A
will read the instructions.
• The exercise starts when lecturer says „start“.
Exercise – The Fist, person
A
• Person B will make a fist. You MUST get that fist
open.
• Now look away for B to read her instructions.
Exercise – The Fist, person
B
• Make a fist. Person A is going to attempt to get you
to open your fist. You must NOT open your fist unless
he/she asks you politely and assertively.
What is your definition of
Assertiveness?
What is your definition of
Assertiveness?
• Forthright, positive, insistence on the recognition of
one's rights
• Assertiveness means standing up for your personal
rights - expressing thoughts, feelings and beliefs in
direct, honest and appropriate ways.
• By being assertive we should always respect the
thoughts, feelings and beliefs of other people.
Move out my way
• Create a single line
• The second person then has to persuade the person
in front to leave the front of the line so they can
move up. When the person in front moves, they join
the end of the line.
• The game is over when the person who started at
the back reaches the front.
Identifying behavior
Assertive techniques
• Fogging
• Stuck Record
• Positive enquiry
• Negative Enquiry
Fogging
• Rather than arguing back, fogging aims to give a
minimal, calm response using terms that are placating
but not defensive, while at the same time not agreeing
to meet demands.
• Fogging involves agreeing with any truth that may be
contained within statements, even if critical. By not
responding in the expected way, in other words by
being defensive or argumentative, the other person will
cease confrontation as the desired effect is not being
achieved. When the atmosphere is less heated, it will be
possible to discuss the issues more reasonably.
• Fogging is so termed because the individual acts like a
'wall of fog' into which arguments are thrown, but not
returned.
Stuck Record
• It involves repeating what you want, time and time
again, without raising the tone of your voice,
becoming angry, irritated, or involved in side issues.
• Continually repeating a request will ensure the
discussion does not become side-tracked and
involved in irrelevant argument. The key is to stay
calm, be very clear in what you want, stick to the
point and not give up.
• Accept a compromise only if you are happy with
the outcome.
Positive Enquiry
• Positive enquiry is a simple technique for handling
positive comments such as praise and
compliments.
• People often struggle with responding to praise and
compliments, especially those with lower selfesteem
as they may feel inadequate or that the
positive comments are not justified. It is important
to give positive feedback to others when
appropriate but also to react appropriately to
positive feedback that you receive.
• Positive enquiry is to find out more details about the
compliment or praise given, and agree with it.
Negative enquiry
• is used to find out more about critical comments
and is a good alternative to more aggressive or
angry responses to criticism.
• You ask for clarification of the things about yourself
or your behaviour that might be negative.
• It is important to get specific, eliciting information in
an unemotional low key manner,
Job Interview
• We need Jessica, Victor, Kellen, Ali and Robert
(candidates).
• Candidates have 30 minutes to prepare.
• The rest also uses the time to read, because some
of them will form a commitee.
• The interviews will last 5-10 minutes. We will have 20
minutes to feedback.