How to be Assertive In Any Situation, 2nd Edition



Chapter 4

How to deal with other people’s expectations and demands

‘Don’t mind criticism. If it is untrue, disregard it; if unfair, keep from irritation; if it is ignorant, smile; if it is justified it is not criticism, learn from it.’

Mark Twain

Let’s imagine that you work in an office and one morning you receive this message:

‘Mr Barnes would like to see you in his office at 2pm. Sharp.’

Assuming that Mr Barnes is your superior – how would you react?

Was your immediate response to think, ‘I wonder what I have done wrong?’

Or perhaps, ‘I wonder if he’s going to offer me the promotion I’ve been after.’

Or, ‘This will be interesting. I’m ...