Conrad Potts

I asked for this book because I often find myself in situations where I have to drive through a course of action, and this involves instructing or persuading other people – staff, colleagues, managers. It’s very important to be able to be assertive in these situations without overstepping the mark and becoming aggressive with people.

The book is in roughly two halves. The first part examines various aspects of assertiveness and discusses various different assertive and non-assertive behaviours. The second part takes a number of real-life situations (4 work related and 3 social) and analyses them in detail, discussing various different options and actions available to someone in this situation.

Every now and again, you are lucky enough to find a book with the potential to change your life – and this is one of those books. The first half has given me a much better understanding of my own behaviours in challenging situations, and of how and why others react to me. The real life scenarios have given me alternative approaches and even scripts for handling a range of situations.

I can’t recommend this book enough!… (more)