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The Barriers to Assertiveness in Project Management Teams

After a series of incidents, the US Navy conducted a study in the 1990s that identified key skills necessary to train flight crews to prevent aviation mishaps and work together as a crew. They referred to these skills as the seven critical resource skills. They are rooted in how people work together, and our project management teams can glean valuable lessons from them to reduce mistakes and work together as a team.

One of these skills is assertiveness. Assertiveness is the willingness to participate and state a position while actively listening to other team member’s positions. The goal is to communicate issues and determine the best course of action. For example, the Navy found that copilots would sometimes not be assertive and speak up to the Captain when they observed a mistake or issue. Errors and mistakes fester when assertiveness is absent. There is no unity of purpose after a real discussion and airing of opinions, but instead a false sense of consensus. The best ideas are not put forward, and the worst ideas go unchallenged. Assertiveness is essential to developing an effective project team.

The Navy found these common barriers to assertiveness in teams and we need to look at these in our project teams as well. They are:

· Variation of authority levels

· Different levels of experience

· Fear of retaliation

· Low comfort levels

· Lack of focus

Variation of authority levels simply means that the farther apart two individuals are in the organizational hierarchy, the more reluctant the lower level individual is to be assertive. They may take on a “who am I to bring this up” outlook, or assume the “higher-ranking” person must know what they are talking about. This can be especially challenging in cultures rooted in a chain of command, such as the military.

Varying experience levels is similar to authority levels and means that individuals with a lower level of experience will tend to defer to someone with a higher level of experience.

Related to that is the fact that an individual will not be assertive if they believe there will be some sort of retaliation. This can be rooted in organizational and cultural issues that discourage instead of encourage assertiveness. There may not be any formal retaliation in an organization, but often times there are subtle reprisals that become deterrents to assertiveness.

Comfort levels also play a role in assertiveness. Individuals tend to not be assertive when they are not comfortable with the pace, level, or complexity of the work. They may question what they saw, whether they even know what they are talking about, or whether it is worth the time. A project manager or team leader needs to be extra vigilant about drawing out information from team members when the pace, level, or complexity of work is high.

Finally, the lack of a clear focus and mission for the team or organization can translate into a lack of assertiveness. If people are focused and have bought into achieving a clear objective, they will be more apt to be assertive when they observe something that could compromise the objective. If it is just routine “work” and people are unclear or unsure of the underlying mission, they will be less likely to be assertive. They may not realize how the observed issue will impact the mission, or they may not care enough to make the effort to communicate it.

A proactive, continual effort is one of the keys to remove these barriers. Assertiveness should become part of your team culture, but it needs to be cultivated. You have to talk about it, encourage it, train on it, draw people out, set the expectation, support people when they are assertive, and never allow even subtle retaliations. When proper assertiveness is active in a project team, issues are not buried, good ideas are discussed, communication is enhanced, and the team becomes more effective at accomplishing its objective and mission.

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Source by Mark S Kenny