Power tool: Empathy vs. Assertiveness

Reflections

1. When have you noticed a person being empathetic towards you? What happened?
2. How do you feel when your communication partners are assertive?
3. How do you feel when you are overly assertive?
4. How do you feel when you are empathetic?
5. What changes when you step in someone else’s shoes?
6. What do you need to become less assertive?
7. What do you need to become more empathetic?

References

Ames, Daniel R. & Wazlawek, Abbie S. (2014). Pushing in the Dark. Causes and Consequences of Limited Self-Awareness for Interpersonal Assertiveness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 775-790.

Brown, Brené (2007). Shame Resilience Theory. In S.P. Robbins, P. Chatterjee & E.R. Canda (Eds.), Contemporary human behavior theory: A critical perspective for social work (Rev. ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon

Goleman, Daniel (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books

Iacoboni, Marco & McHaney, Roger W. (2009). Applying empathy and mirror neuron concepts to NeuroLeadership. NeuroLeadership Journal, 2, pp. 35-41.

Weiber, Jürgen (2nd edition, 2012). Personalführung. Munich: Vahlen Verlag.