Propose Solutions in Assertive Communication

Video Transcript

"Ok, we've been talking about word choice and we've already established that to be an assertive communicator you need to define the problem. There are other things that you must do to be an assertive communicator. We define the problem rather than ignoring the problem or attacking the problem, this is the situation. But an assertive communicator will always propose a solution. "I would love to help you out but I can't. Have you asked Jo? I think she's available on Saturday." "I would love to help you out but I can't do it today. If you could wait until tomorrow, I'll be glad to help you." So identify the problem, try to come up with a solution and then what you want to do after that is you want to make sure the person understood you completely. "So what I said was XYZ, is that OK with you? Do you understand that? Is that clear?" That way there can't be any misconceptions. Because you?re non-assertive communicator is never even going to address the problem. They're simply going to say "OK" and then they're going to be upset about the fact that they really couldn't do it anyway but they agreed to do it. And then your aggressive communicator is going to be mad about it, throw a fit about it and probably storm off and maybe not even talk to you for a day or two. But there will be no proposing of solutions with the aggressive communicator. So, we want to be assertive - problem, solution, understanding."