A Critical Analysis of My Strengths and Weaknesses in the Skill of Assertiveness Essay

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A Critical Analysis of My Strengths and Weaknesses in the skills of Assertiveness

Assertiveness enables us to act in our own best interests, to stand up for ourselves without undue anxiety, to exercise personal rights without denying the rights of others, and to express our feelings honestly and comfortably (Alberti & Emmons, 2008). Within interpersonal communication, the skill of assertion is absolutely vital; it is a skill we are constantly utilising either consciously or unconsciously. Through nurturing the skill of assertiveness a person may have fruitful relationships with family, friends, peers, superiors and subordinates (Rakos, 1997) based on honesty and equality.
The skill of Assertiveness can be viewed in differently

The second major flaw that I had involved my body posture, upon analysing the practical I realised that during our entire interaction my body was never directly facing the other persons. When talking to another person, notice how much more personal the conversation becomes with a slight turn of the shoulders and torso toward the other person, this suggests confidence and openness to the conversation at hand (Alberti & Emmons, 2008). I now realise from my practical I was portraying quite a defensive posture, thus not putting the other person at ease whilst talking to me. Also from a defensive posture it is a lot harder to be assertive as the other person is likely to already have a certain prejudice about you.

My final and most glaring weakness was overuse of the “broken record” approach, after analysing my practical session I realised that I used the phrase “I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do” a staggering amount of times. This is not a good tactic to employ as it can frustrate the other person, it can also dilute the argument and take away the relevance of what you are saying. Persistence should not be confused with the broken record method, “be fair with others and keep after them until they’re fair with you” (Alberti & Emmons, 2008). Throughout my practical I also used too much ‘you language’, this attributed responsibility to the other person and was possibly too aggressive rather than