Page 383 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar
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Model Question Papers | 371
The aim of assertion is to satisfy the needs and wants of both parties in the situation
(known as ‘win-win’).
Non-assertion refers to behaviour which involves the following:
• Failing to stand up for your rights or doing so in such a way that others can easily
disregard them.
• Expressing your needs, wants, opinions, feelings and beliefs in apologetic, diffident
or self-effacing ways.
• Failing to express honestly your needs, wants, opinions, feelings and beliefs.
Non-assertion is based upon the beliefs that in any situation:
• The other person’s needs and wants are more important than your own.
• The other person has rights but you do not.
• You have little or nothing to contribute; the other person has a great deal to
contribute.
The aim of non-assertion is to avoid conflict and to please others.
Aggression refers to behaviour that consists of the following:
• Standing up for your own rights, but doing so in such a way that you violate the
rights of other people.
• Ignoring or dismissing the needs, wants, opinions, feelings or beliefs of others.
• Expressing your own needs, wants and opinions (which may be honest or dishon-
est) in inappropriate ways.
Aggressive behaviour is based on the belief that:
• Your own needs, wants and opinions are more important than other people’s.
• You have rights but other people do not.
• You have something to contribute; others have little or nothing to contribute.
The aim of aggression is to win, if necessary, at the expense of others.
Example of the three different behaviours situation
Taking an unsatisfactory letter back to the person who produced it.
Assertion
‘Sarita, I would like you to re-do this letter as there are several mistakes in it.’
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