Assertive Communication
Saying “no” nicely.
Most organizations rely enormously on their support staff. These are the people who actually make your business run. Very often these people and their contribution to the success you have planned for are overlooked. In the pecking order at play in your organization they can be amongst the most powerless, and yet, you couldn’t survive or thrive without.
coup’s Assertive Communication Workshops teach support staff to understand their worth in an organization and that by articulating their needs they are building efficiency and effectiveness rather than undermining it.
Underpinning this workshop is an understanding of the Status dynamic. People feel unable to say "no' when they feel powerless and so far down the pecking order that they feel they have no ability to communicate their own needs within the status dynamic at play.
The workshop begins with participant sharing scenarios in which they feel powerless at work. We hear many common experiences in which people feel that they have to juggle others' priorities while not feeling they are in a position to manage their own. Classic examples of this are clerical support staff that have to service the needs of several colleagues, all of whom assume their own needs have the highest priority; health care providers who are interrupted in their allotted task to provide additional services in other areas. Their feelings of powerlessness are often heightened by the high level of genuine, personal commitment these people have to their jobs. They want to help. They feel responsible, thus compounding emotions of guilt, frustration and powerlessness.
By providing insight into the Status dynamics at play in their workplaces, participants begin to see the impact of their perceived status position, and those of others, more objectively. Understanding Status is key to gaining the confidence to communication effectively, which is necessary for functional teams to perform. Entrenched powerlessness leads to lost productivity through illness and the high cost of staff turnover.
Overcoming powerlessness is appropriately assertive communication. Learning how to say "no' without being rude or escalating an emotional confrontation.
Participants are taught to maintain their composure under the pressure of an assertive communication using the ABCDE method. The are taught that an essential element of assertive communication is to explain why they are saying "no"; "No, I can't do that right now, because ........." or, "When do you need that done by, because ........"
Assertive communication leads to more productive workplaces with reduced stress levels and increased staff retention. People who love their work are genuinely affirmed and empowered to continue.
This workshop has been successfully run with support staff in the Health, Finance, Public Sector and Education areas.