Friday, June 10, 2005

Passive, Aggressive, Assertive

Last night in my Organizational Behavior class, we had an excersize and discussion on the importance of understanding what type of behavioral category you fall under, passive, aggressive or assertiveness. In all cases, everyone has characteristics of all three types of responses, however, the most effective response would be assertive.

After class I had a good conversation with my daughter because she asked me what we talked about in class. At this point I realized how important it is for parents to train their children in yet another area of socialization. Since my daughter is only 10, these concepts were a little difficult to relay to her so these were the definitions I used:

Passive - You let people walk all over you, you hardly ever stand up for yourself.

Aggressive - You are too confrontational with people, this ussually makes people think you are rude.

Assertive - You are able to stand up for your rights while not taking away someone else's rights. Being able to stand up for yourself tactfully while still remaining respectful of others.

Of course most of us know this, so this message serves as a reminder for you to spend some time in reflection of what actions do you exhibit most and how can you change them to better achieve your goals.

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