Communication Skills in Pharmacy Practice
Assertiveness with Employees
Talk in private
Be specific in your approach to the problem
Do not become defensive
Positive feedback is as important as negative feedback (specific praise)
Assertiveness with Employers
Five responses that are helpful in situations of criticism:
Getting useful feedback
Agreeing with criticism
Disagreeing with criticism
Fogging (example)
Delaying a response
Assertiveness with Colleagues
The best response is to ‘delay’ your response
Resist the urge to change response from ‘no’ to ‘yes’
Assertiveness Skills
Assertive people
Assertive people have the following characteristics:
They feel free to express their feelings, thoughts, and desires.
They are "also able to initiate and maintain comfortable relationships with [other] people
They know their rights.
They have control over their anger. This does not mean that they repress this feeling; it means that they control anger and talk about it in a reasoning manner.
"Assertive people ... are willing to compromise with others, rather than always wanting their own way ... and tend to have good self-esteem".
"Assertive people enter friendships from an I count my needs. I count your needs position".
Techniques
Techniques of assertiveness can vary widely. Manuel Smith, in his 1975 book When I Say No, I Feel Guilty, offered some of the following behaviors:
Broken record
The "broken record" technique consists of simply repeating your requests or your refusals every time you are met with resistance. The term comes from vinyl records, the surface of which when scratched would lead the needle of a record player to loop over the same few seconds of the recording indefinitely. "As with a broken record, the key to this approach is repetition ... where your partner will not take no for an answer."
A disadvantage with this technique is that when resistance continues, your requests may lose power every time you have to repeat them. If the requests are repeated too often it can backfire on the authority of your words. In these cases it is necessary to have some sanctions on hand.
Fogging
Fogging consists of finding some limited truth to agree with in what an antagonist is saying. More specifically, one can agree in part or agree in principle.
Negative inquiry
Negative inquiry consists of requesting further, more specific criticism.
Negative assertion
Negative assertion is agreement with criticism without letting up demand.
I-statements
I-statements can be used to voice one s feelings and wishes from a personal position without expressing a judgment about the other person or blaming one s feelings on them.