Hello, my friend! How are you? If you're out of time or "in a rush", go to the last paragraph of this text for a fast answer.

In times of immediate responses and connection 24 hours a day, talking about long-term transformation is a risk! But… we believe you can (and must!) dream big, and make a daily effort to get better every day. This is our mission - seeing you speaking English and being a Leader wherever you go. "The 5 Essential People Skills" was written by Dale Carnegie and its goal is to improve your people skills. In other words, to improve your relationships at work and at home.

Last class we talked about the effort you must make to understand yourself - seeing your strengths, recognizing your weaknesses and realizing that you might be wrong in some assumptions you've made about yourself. Now it's time to connect this evaluation with the outside world. What specific situations are you involved with right now that will have a bearing on your career success? How are you dealing with those situations? Are you being passive or aggressive?

Dale asks you to pick a specific circumstance that presently concerns you. Be objective and focus on what really happened and is going on right now. Don't get into issues of motivation or psychology and describe the changes you'd like to see made. "Be specific about things you'd like to see stop, as well as things you'd like to see start".

Now it's time to deal with things that need to be fixed. "Assertiveness includes consideration of other people's needs too, along with being willing to make changes in yourself", so think about how you can solve people's needs by arranging these things. And I need to tell you something, my friend. There will still be times when your assertiveness will be perceived as a personal assault, but that's OK. We'll prepare you for that and you will know how to respond to aggressiveness next class. What can you do today to solve an issue that has been disturbing you? Comment here and see you next class!