What Assertiveness Can Do for You

Here are eight benefits to motivate you to be more assertive:

1. Deciding to be assertive can raise self-esteem because you pat yourself on the back for speaking up or taking action.
2. Assertiveness increases self-awareness by helping you identify your feelings and clarify your needs more quickly.
3. Assertiveness is a proactive behavior. Rather than wait for something to affect you, you act to effect change. As a result, you get more of what you want out of life instead of waiting for it to come to you.
4. Assertiveness allows others to learn more about you and understand your needs.
5. Assertiveness allows you to take more risks, be more creative, and have less fear of failure.
6. Assertiveness is self-reinforcing. When you are assertive, you empower yourself. You reduce the natural desire to hold back, postpone a project, not take credit, or fail to test your ideas. Rather than err on the side of caution, you act, knowing that it is better to fail as a step toward success.
7. All decisions are rooted in assertiveness. Making faster and more effective decisions is a by-product of an assertive person.
8. At work, knowing what your needs are and acting to get them met improves job satisfaction. This affects your desire and willingness to engage, and this behavior is something employers value because it raises productivity.

Keith Stein | 8/23/2018