{"id":2988,"date":"2025-06-02T14:24:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T04:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/?p=2988"},"modified":"2025-06-02T14:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T04:24:04","slug":"assertiveness-styles-in-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/02\/assertiveness-styles-in-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Assertiveness Styles in Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Assertive people:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>feel empowered<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 they do not feel that they are unjustly controlled by others<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>are proactive<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 that is, they make things happen \u2013 and are not reactive always waiting to see how they will respond to the words and actions of others<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>know how to assert their rights<\/strong>\u00a0and fulfill their responsibilities in dealing with others<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>are able to resist the aggressive, manipulative and submissive ploys<\/strong>\u00a0of other people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But to be assertive, or to become more assertive than we are today, requires the deployment of a different communication style, and to this end there are four possible styles which may be applicable. These styles arise because individuals bring different levels of energy and empathy to any conversation and this allows a four-quadrant grid model to be constructed, as can be seen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The model below has one axis describing the level of \u2018energy\u2019 that an individual may adopt in a situation (running from \u2018Strong\u2019 to \u2018Gentle\u2019). This includes the verbal energy in terms of speaking (when the voice may be louder and more forceful), but also the non-vocal characteristics such as leaning forward or backwards, high\/low use of other body language and\/or facial expressions, etc. The other axis on the grid relates to the level of \u2019empathy\u2019 that may be preferred by an individual. This runs from \u2018warm\u2019 to \u2018cool\u2019 and clearly relates to the interest in and warmth towards the other person. By intersecting these two axes the grid created shows four assertiveness styles.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"354\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Assertiveness-styles.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2992\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Assertiveness-styles.png 354w, https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Assertiveness-styles-300x212.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every one of these four styles may be adopted in different situations, although it is likely that most individuals will stick to their strongest preference in most circumstances that they encounter. Of course, all of these styles have their associated strengths and weaknesses, and some are more useful and applicable in different circumstances, than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Aggressively Controlling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Violates the rights of other. Their own needs take priority<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Passively Observing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Violates one\u2019s own rights. Other needs given priority<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Warmly Proposing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wants their needs met but make ambiguous remarks that are hard to interpret<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Firmly Asserting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Respects both their own needs and the needs of others<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Firm and positive assertiveness requires considerable practice for most people. However, it is fair to say that successful efforts to be assertive often arise from a strong feeling of self-worth, or high self-esteem, combined with a strong and positive belief about the intrinsic worth or value of others around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Individuals may actually draw on all four of the different styles in the same communication, or in different situations from time to time. In addition, an individual can learn or choose to use more of a particular style than another. However, for the most part, an individual is likely to have a primary and\/or a secondary style that is considerably stronger than the others. This means that they are likely to adopt this style (or styles if there are two) more often and with greater ease than other styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of these four styles, research tends to suggest that it is the \u2018Firmly Asserting\u2019 style that is used the most and is adopted more than any other by people that are seen to be the most positive in their efforts to be assertive (and who are happy with the end result of their efforts). This is followed by the \u2018Warmly Proposing\u2019 style, with the\u2019 Aggressively Controlling\u2019 style and the \u2018Passively Observing\u2019 style both being last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/colin-noyes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Colin Noyes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more information and free leadership tools <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">visit our site<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assertiveness is a key competency for effective leadership. Colin Noyes discusses some of the dynamics leaders must navigate to improve in this area to reap the rewards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2988"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2995,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions\/2995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}