How To Be Assertive In A New Job (10 Rules To Follow)

A strong sense of assertiveness can help you progress in your career and achieve your professional goals. By being assertive in a new job, you can negotiate a salary, earn a promotion, and build long-lasting relationships with your coworkers. The key to success in assertiveness is knowing what steps to take to be assertive. Some people are born with confidence, but you can also learn to be assertive over time. 

In this article, we’ve compiled the ultimate guide on how to be assertive in a new job and how being more forceful can help you achieve your career goals.

Workplace Assertiveness: What Is It And How Do You Do It?

The ability to assert yourself is a key communication skill that allows you to express your opinions, goals, and ideas with confidence. In order to be assertive, you must have the confidence to express yourself freely and to take care of your personal and professional needs while remaining respectful and appropriate. At work, this skill is particularly useful. Employees who are assertive are usually more focused on achieving their goals, and they can easily say no without feeling guilty about it.

Assertiveness can help you advance your career by allowing you to focus on your goals, discuss your plans openly, request help when you need it, and recognize when someone is taking advantage of you. 

Here are some of the most important steps you should take to be more assertive in a new job:

1. Embrace Compliments And Criticism

The way someone reacts to criticism and compliments is one of the easiest ways to tell if they are assertive. People who are assertive are typically able to accept both negative and positive comments without reacting emotionally, even if they disagree with them. It is because they realize and respect the fact that everyone’s opinions can differ, but stick to their convictions.

2. Adopt An Assertive Tone Of Voice

You can boost your confidence by using assertive language when expressing your needs or saying ‘no’ to someone. An assertive communication style is usually tactful, direct, honest, appropriate to the situation, and allows you to advocate for yourself while showing respect. Your conversation partner can benefit from passive eye contact and a steady, calm voice to sound more assertive.

You should also use one-word terms when describing feelings, such as anxious, happy, frustrated, so that your communication is clearer. When communicating effectively and remaining assertive, consider explaining how you feel, mentioning how and why you feel that way, and sharing what you believe could help.

3. Differentiate Assertive Behavior From Aggressive Behavior

You can avoid tense situations with your coworkers by understanding the difference between assertiveness and aggression. When you express assertive behavior, you remain empathetic and respectful of others while expressing assertive behavior. By contrast, aggressive behavior is typically one-sided, making it difficult to maintain positive working relationships.

4. Recognized That You Can Only Control Your Behavior

Despite some of the most stressful situations at work, you can stay calm by acknowledging that you are only responsible for your own behavior. This way, you can continue to work towards your goals without letting others’ opinions ruin your mood or make you doubt your abilities. Keep calm and respectful if someone interprets your assertive behavior as anger or resentment.

5. Get To Know Your Limits

Your well-being at work depends on knowing your limits. The ability to say ‘no’ to your colleagues or supervisors may be difficult to learn, but it can be very useful when you are expected to do more than you can handle. You can also manage your workload more effectively by setting clear boundaries to help maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Understand what situations make you feel uncomfortable or overworked by listening to your thoughts. Also, you can identify the things in life that are most important to you. As an example, if your goal is to pay off your student loan within two years, you could calculate how many hours you want to work each month to save for that and tell your manager you won’t work beyond that.

6. Communicate Your Needs Effectively

Communicating your needs may take some time, but it’s an important element of assertiveness. In addition to helping you advance your career, effectively articulating yourself can also help you perform tasks that directly benefit your employer. You can improve your communication technique by analyzing how you’ve approached conversations in the workplace in the past.

Describe the issue you would like to discuss in a concise manner to begin conversations. Share facts rather than your interpretation, and be as objective as possible. For example, if you feel uncomfortable working in an open space office, you can explain how working alone or from home makes you more productive, and provide evidence of how you succeeded in completing a task while working in a quiet environment. In this way, you will be able to communicate your needs with coworkers and supervisors in a way that relates directly to your role.

7. Develop Your Self-Confidence

Assertiveness can be developed by developing self-confidence because it makes it easier to advocate your ideas and opinions when you disagree with others’ ideas. Confidence makes receiving criticism easier since you’re less likely to take it personally. Looking back at your accomplishments and analyzing them to determine how your skills, experience, and knowledge helped you achieve them is a proven way to become more confident. As a result, you will also gain a better understanding of yourself and your goals.

8. Don’t Rush 

In some cases, being assertive at work comes naturally, while in others, it may take more time to learn how to express one’s needs. Maintain motivation by being patient with your progress and rewarding yourself occasionally.

9. Get In Touch With Someone

The process of learning new skills and investing in your growth can be a dynamic and challenging one. It can be helpful to have someone to talk to about your concerns who will support you unconditionally.

10. Keep A Positive Attitude

When it comes to assertiveness at work, it’s all about achieving your professional goals and asking for what you want. Use positive language that encourages others to succeed when speaking up.