3 Ways To Be More Assertive At Work

Feeling in control of your work life leads to greater job satisfaction

It seems to me that many people would love to be more assertive at work, but hesitate because they aren’t sure how they’ll be perceived, and decide it’s somehow better to just not speak up. The fact is, though, that feeling in control of your work life leads to greater job satisfaction. There’s nothing wrong with being assertive, either, as long as you go about it in the right way. Consider the following tips for becoming more assertive in the workplace:

1. Know your role and the roles of others

It’s a good idea to understand the parameters of your own role at work, as well as the relationship of your role to others. This knowledge makes it easier to clarify whether the actions and directions of others are appropriate within the framework of your roles at work and the chain of command.

2. Maintain an awareness of your own deadlines and priorities – what’s important to you?

Just as it’s important to know about your role and the roles of others at work, it’s valuable for you to remain vigilant about your own deadlines and priorities on the job. In addition to keeping close tabs on what’s important to you, it’s good to stay aware of how the particulars of your own job fit in with the overall objectives of your whole team. In order to stay on task at work, you must have a clear understanding of just what your task if about. Then you will know if incoming requests are compatible with your goals, or distracting you from success.

3. Don’t be afraid to say no.

Surprise requests at work, particularly those of the last minute variety, are a fact of professional life. While you can’t dismiss them all just because they would distract you from your own objectives (see number two above), it’s important to maintain that awareness of what your own goals are and how they fit into the big picture of your organization’s goals. If requests are made of you that you believe to be counterproductive either to your own goals or to those of your company, it’s actually okay to respectfully decline. Now if the request came from your boss or someone else who’s significantly higher on the food chain than you are (see number one above), then you might have to just suck it up and do it anyway sometimes. However, at least part of the time you should be able to be assertive enough to insist on the ability to stay on track with your own goals at work.

Basically, it comes down to being aware of your boundaries and having the confidence to protect them. It is inherently a selective process as it won’t work in the same way each time. However, with the assertiveness to protect your interests at work comes the confidence and peace of mind of a leader instead of a doormat. Therefore, developing the ability to be assertive at work will lead to more control of your work life and much greater levels of job satisfaction.