Using the right amount of assertiveness as a supervisor
As a supervisor you probably wonder how assertive you should be with your employees. Often it is hard to ascertain whether you are challenging people just enough, or whether you are driving them too hard. Getting the balance right between being assertive and letting things go, is an important part of being a good boss.
According to research conducted at Columbia University, it was observed that managers who are too assertive are seen as overbearing and that damages their relationships with others; but managers who are not assertive enough don’t end up achieving much with their teams, which in terms harms relationships and motivation. As part of the research over 200 MBA students were asked to rate their previous supervisor on a number of areas. The findings showed that most bosses who were rated ‘moderately assertive’ were also rated the most effective overall. Furthermore the survey participants indicated that the moderately assertive bosses would be most likely to succeed in the future and that they would be happy to work with them again.
To clarify a few things. It is not that you need to find a certain level of assertiveness and then stick to that exact level every day. At different times and with different people you will need to use different levels of assertiveness. Sometimes you will need to be very assertive and at other times you might need to back-off completely. So it is a constant balancing act, which needs to be tailored for different individuals and essentially you should be seen as moderately assertive on average.
Now, with research it is always tricky and conclusions that come from one study might be very different from what is shown by another study. It is good to always remember that and not completely/blindly follow all conclusions. Your situation might be different and could call for an approach that requries more or less assertiveness. So use the research as a starting point, experiment a bit to see what works best and make adjustments accordingly.
Sources and references: HBR, Columbia University