WSPA– Becoming More Assertive – P2

Becoming More Assertive

Workshop Tutor: Bev Walsh

Date of Workshop: 28th May 2013

The workshop was certainly one of the more active ones that I have attended and proved to be not only engaging but good fun. The breathing and singing exersises in public were particularly confidence boosting and conveyed the important message that appearing confident is based on how other people perceive you and what you are doing -'look like you own it and other people will think that you do'.

My action points are as follows:

1) I have tended to be an avoider during my university life when it comes to asking questions on important details or generally organising affairs that involve telephone communication such as gas, electric and phone contracts and bills. Inquiries to such organisations as these often involves a level of conflict, while a relatively low level, I am often left with a worse deal because I fail to assert myself effectively -something that was clear during the improvisation task to conflict resolution during the workshop. With this in mind, I intend to re-negotiate these contracts and bills to gain a more favourable rate for my family and I through comparing their value as against what they offer to new customers as well as against their competitors.

2) I feel that I have problems in articulating myself orally to a high standard when feeling stressed or under pressure. This often has to do with a mixture of nerves and a failure to breathe deeply. So, before and during my future conversations with BPP Law School concerning my LPC I will breathe deeply to not only calm down but to provide better intonation to add emphasis to important words or phrases during my inquiries.

3) The importance of an open and neutral posture to convey confidence and an inviting space for people to engage with me will prove particularly critical at future networking events. While I have no problem with this idea, I often find myself uncomfortable and leaning on a table. The reason behind this is that I have mild lordosis caused by the fact that I am part of the modern 'sit-down society' and so I have researched effective daily exercises to tackle this issue with the hope that this will clear up in 2 months. This should provide me with a much more comfortable-looking netural posture and future networking events that I may engage in at BPP.

Sean McShane : 17 Jun 2013 11:49 |  Tags: P2 Portfolio |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem