Express Yourself

Last week, I was at one of the most reputed logistic organization to train the employees on the topic - How to be Assertive? Initiated with a brainstorming session and believe me, I could sense that why the organization had thought of a training program on Assertiveness.  Participants grouped in team according to their department, hardly looked at other team members. There were no greetings or passing of smile. The view in the training room was not pleasant.

Well, people with wonderful qualification and such high intelligence, still found it difficult to interact with others? This was startling. Amused with the prevailing action I requested all the 20 participants to make a line according to their height and then divided them in a group of four. Taking the training ahead, when I requested the participants to interact with each member in his/her team for couple of minutes and then to introduce me his team member who was sitting next to him.

While introducing, I learnt that there were people who were working in the same organization for over a year or two, but they hardly had an opportunity to interact with each other. Some had graduated from the similar college and were excited to know about the team member. Well, the room which looked so dull and lifeless was replaced by murmurs and buzz.

I continued thereafter and things went on very well. As a reader, you may think, why am I telling you this story?

The reason is, as corporate personnel, people are trained on numerous topics. The knowledge bank of the participants keep enhancing but the riddle which remains unsolved is who is counter checking the performance of the participants, whether the implied knowledge is really applied in the day-to-day life. What are the positive changes and if there isn’t any change, then how to bring the necessary change into application?

It took me a week, to vouch peoples’ performance after my training. Though this was not into my assignment purview, still I was keen to know – what happens after the training? With due permission of the organization, I got to study five personalities from each group. Trust me the after effect of the training was clearly visible:

Greetings:

People were friendlier. They passed on loud greetings with high-five. During breaks, they sipped the coffee together, sharing their problems and explaining it to other, how they had resolved the problem.

Assertive Answers:

Instead of passive or aggressive conversation, the mode changed to positive communication. They were at compliance, respecting thought or idea shared by others. They responded over anything after put their logic into the process.

Fair Communication:

Instead of monosyllabic answers – Yes/No/Okay, there was a flow of interaction which helped the group or team to function in a better manner.

Art of Saying No:

I must appreciate the way people took the lesson of saying NO. Rather than back bitching or showing frustration, they could say No to those tasks which was not their key action areas.

Listen:

The perceived the art of listening in pretty decent manner. In certain meetings, or where they had to listen to the conversation of their boss, they showed their interest and started noting the points. Before raising any question, they heard the things clearly and evaluated whether they are on right page with their boss or the members in the meeting.

Question: Was this because of my training? Should I take the credit?

Certainly the answer would be NO. People do know what to do, how to do and why to do but they fail to connect the dots properly due to one reason…They find it difficult to express their feeling/s.

When you are at your workplace, you are so much engrossed in your strategies, plan of action thinking so hard about your forward action plan, that often you consider talking to your colleagues or spending some time with your team members as an offense. The moment you realize that by having these short breaks actually rejuvenates your thought process you may like to take such short breaks in a very calculative manner.

You need to allow yourself to express your view point rather being judgmental of what others will think over it. Your expression will create a clear vision even in your own thought process. To get positive reply from others, you will apply assertive nature while expressing your feelings. Even when your ideas are condemned or criticized, you get to know its weaknesses, which will ultimately help you to think in more logical and reasonable way.

You can express your feeling without any hitch when you create that ambience for your personality among your team. Be more thoughtful and proactive.