Assertiveness is my fourteenth Key to an “A” in leadership. Leadership is highly situational and contingent,[i] therefore situations will occur when assertiveness is required. There will be times when, as Iachimo says in Shakespeare’s tragicomedy, Cymbeline, “Boldness be my friend: arm me audacity from head to foot!”[ii]
The Mayo Clinic shares the following regarding assertiveness: “Being assertive is a core communication skill. Being assertive means that you express yourself effectively and stand up for your point of view, while also respecting the rights and beliefs of others.
“Being assertive can also help boost your self-esteem and earn others’ respect. This can help with stress management, especially if you tend to take on too many responsibilities because you have a hard time saying no.”[iii]
To be sure, there are good and bad kinds of assertiveness. Different approaches are used by mathematicians to prove mathematical theorems, including direct proofs, proofs by induction, and proofs by contradiction. Similarly, leaders employ proof techniques to support positions they take, including using data and independent experts. However, some leaders use proof by assertion (“It’s true because I say it is!”) as well as proof by intimidation (“Agree with me, or else!”) The latter approaches are definitely bad kinds of assertiveness.
Notice, I chose assertiveness, not aggressiveness for the thirteenth Key. Aggressiveness is not a bad thing. Sometimes, it’s a good thing for a leader to be aggressive, to keep the pressure on. Carville and Begala note, “It is possible to be both hard-hitting and have a soft touch. It’s not easy, but it is possible. Ronald Reagan was the master of being aggressive without being unpleasant.”[iv]
Drawing on Sir Isaac Newton’s First Law, “a body at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force,”[v] Carville and Begala note that it applies to people and state, “Our goal was to overcome the inertia of analysis, put bodies in motion and make it incumbent upon those who wanted to stop that motion to offer a powerful rationale to do so.”[vi]
Noting people are less inclined to be aggressive because they don’t want to be offensive, Carville and Begala argue for people risking being considered offensive in order to get things done, to be successful. If you do and don’t succeed, you’ll know you did your best. They observe, “The time for thinking, for planning, for strategizing, is before the first punch is thrown. After that, whoever is more agile, mobile and (especially) hostile is the one who’s going to walk away a winner.”[vii] Better to be aggressive and fail than to be a wimp and never try.
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Ambiguity is my fifteenth Key to an “A” in leadership. Ambiguity being an antonym of assertiveness, presents a paradox. How can it be a Key to an “A”?
Tyson Foods’ Donald Smith reminded leadership students, “Ambiguity breeds mediocrity; clarity breeds excellence.” Ambiguity is among my Keys to “A”s to remind leaders they must be able to deal with ambiguity. Few things in leadership are binary: right or wrong, black or white, or good or bad. If they were, others in the organization would have dealt with them. But decisions coming to you, in your leadership position, will often fall between the obvious extremes. As a result, qualitative, rather than quantitative judgments will be required. Many of your decisions will be based on intuition and instinct, not data—heart, not head!
I come at this topic with considerable experience, having prided myself on being a data-driven decision maker. I’m not alone. Accountants, engineers, mathematicians, and scientists are among those who often have difficulty dealing with ambiguity. Their data-driven and fact-based academic training leaves little room for ambiguity. As a result, when in leadership positions, they soon learn they have to use different parts of their brains.
Bennis addresses left-brain and right-brain contrasts: left-brain implies logical, analytical, technical, controlled, conservative, and administrative; right-brain implies intuitive, conceptual, synthesizing, and artistic. He notes, effective leaders need to be whole-brained, because leaders need to be both intuitive and logical.[viii]
In addition to dealing with ambiguity, on occasion a leader must be ambiguous. Consider the following situation. When asked by a media representative if I’m considering making a change in the leadership of a college or division, how should I respond? UA athletics director Jeff Long used the following approach: “I’m one hundred percent supportive of the coach until I’m one hundred percent prepared to replace the coach.”
Simply stated, there are times when neither “yes,” “no,” nor “no comment” is a correct answer to a question. People draw conclusions from “no comment.”
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My sixteenth Key to an “A” is accuracy. Giving accurate information to team members is critically important for a leader. As indicated in the previous sentence, it’s not necessary for all information to be shared, but it’d be a huge mistake to give inaccurate information to team members. Not only should information be accurate, but spoken and written statements should be accurate.
Now we come to the difficult choice, be ambiguous or be accurate. The answer, of course, depends on the situation. No, I’m not traveling down the path of situational ethics. At least, I hope I’m not. The issue is how much information to share, because once shared there is no controlling its distribution. Thomas Modly, Acting Navy Secretary, learned this lesson the hard way after firing Navy Captain Brett Crozier from command of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, traveling to Guam where the carrier was located, and, while addressing the ship’s crew over the ship’s loudspeakers, saying Crozier was “naïve” or “stupid” for writing a letter regarding the spread of COVID-19 on the ship.[ix] Modly resigned after recordings of his remarks to the crew became public.
Admittedly, mistakes will occur regarding dissemination of incorrect information. However, if and when it occurs, corrections should be communicated immediately. Remember, your most precious asset is your reputation. Don’t let your life’s work, building your reputation, be destroyed in the blink of a lie! Be accurate. Don’t lie!
General Mattis shared the following: “As Churchill noted, ‘A lie gets halfway around the world before truth gets its pants on.’ In our age, a lie can get a thousand times around the world before the truth gets its pants on.”[x]
In the spirit of lead, follow, or get out of the way, either give accurate information or give no information at all.
Next: Keys to “A”s in Leadership–Part XI (Adaptability)
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[i] Steven B. Sample, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2002, p. 3.
[ii] William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Cymbeline, Act 1, Scene 6, Lines 20-21.
[iii] See https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/assertive/art-20044644.
[iv] James Carville and Paul Begala, Buck Up, Suck Up … And Come Back When You Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets from the War Room, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2002.p. 50.
[v] See https://www.britannica.com/science/Newtons-laws-of-motion.
[vi] Carville and Begala, pp. 60-61.
[vii] Ibid, p. 63.
[viii] Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, Basic Books, Philadelphia, PA, 2009, pp. 96-97.
[ix] See https://www.wsj.com/articles/acting-navy-secretary-resigns-in-wake-of-uss-roosevelt-11586287262.
[x] Jim Mattis and Bing West, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, Penguin Random House LLC, New York, NY, 2019, p. 141.
