“One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.”
Fact: a team’s performance decreases under too much pressure from its leadership.
It is also true that a team may underperform without enough pressure from the leader…but honestly how often do you see under-motivated military leaders? Our challenge is usually in scaling back assertiveness and pressure so that our teams can perform their best.
Tommy Lasorda summarized it well: “I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.”
Similarly, knowing WHEN to apply assertiveness is a skill of great leaders. They read the environment and anticipate when their teams will need pressure and when to back off. It’s a common belief that military leaders must be constantly assertive, Type-A, and intense. But doing so can be counterproductive to achieving unit goals.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/05/12-things-that-good-bosses-bel/
Consider commanders you’ve seen that set out “Command Philosophies” containing lofty goals and the challenge to reach ill-defined levels of “x” capability. These documents may chart a path but they’re not what the junior leader will rely on when he’s trying to do his part to reach those goals.
