Week 2 Post 2: Asserting Yourself

https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_galinsky_how_to_speak_up_for_yourself

I was looking for good videos about leadership, so I went to Ted Talks and searched "leadership". When I was looking through the search results I found one video titled, How to speak up for yourself. This video caught my attention right away because speaking up for yourself is a hard thing to do sometimes, even if you are the most outgoing person in the world. The speaker in the video is Adam Galinsky, who is a social psychologist.

Galinsky describes speaking up for yourself as, pushing one's interests, expressing an opinion, and making an ambitious ask. For example can a person correct their boss when they make a mistake? Can they confront their coworker who keeps stepping on your toes? Can they challenge their friends insensitive joke? Can they tell the person they love the most their deepest insecurities? The speaker goes on talk about the idea that all individuals have a range of acceptable behaviors, which ranges from too strong to too weak. He explains that when you go outside your range of acceptable behaviors you are punished and when you stay within your range you are rewarded. Your range is not something that is fixed, and it is dependent upon your power. When you have a lot of power you have a wide range which gives you a lot of leeway in how to behave, however on the other hand if you have little power you also have a smaller range giving you less options for how to behave. Galinsky then brings up the idea of low power double bind which says that you either speak up and get punished for it, or you don't speak up and you go unnoticed. In order to speak up for yourself you need to expand your range of acceptable behaviors. You can do this by advocating for others, taking the perspective of others, and gaining allies. When people are asked when do they feel the most comfortable speaking up, the number one answer was when they have social support in their audience. People also feel comfortable speaking up for themselves when they have expertise and great knowledge on the subject. Tapping into your passion is also another way that allows you to easily speak up for yourself.

I believe this video is very helpful and gives a lot of tips on how you can speak up for yourself. This is important as a healthcare manager because throughout your career there will be many situations in which you will have to speak up for yourself. If you do not have the ability to do so, you will not have a successful career.

- David