Section 5: Leadership, Assertiveness and Cooperation

Section 5: Leadership, Assertiveness and Cooperation > Leadership > Stepping up
Section 5: Leadership, Assertiveness and Cooperation > Assertiveness and cooperation > Assertiveness and cooperation

David: Several years ago, Lydia and I were involved in a team project.
Lydia was the team leader on the project and the team was meeting with a representative of another group who had been doing some work for us.
About half way through the meeting, one of our team members became agitated and aggressive towards the other group’s representative.
It was an exceptionally welcome show of leadership and thankfully our team member calmed down.
All team members need to be prepared to exercise leadership if, and when, the situation demands it.
Lydia: There are many different models of team leadership that can be agreed at the outset and whatever is chosen can be reviewed and changed if, and when, necessary.
I have also seen one adventurous and innovative team decide that they would change roles every month so that each team member was given the opportunity to develop a range of team skills.

Earlier we talked about how teams need leaders.
Essentially the leader or leaders take responsibility for the final outcomes and for the process by which the team achieves these.
For the team to work effectively all members must have a voice and all must be willing to listen, otherwise it’s not really a team and members become quickly disenfranchised, leaving the team opened conflict.
Our point here is that we think everyone in the team should purposely develop both their assertiveness and cooperation.
When an individual or team is accommodating they’re being cooperative but unassertive.
It could mean that eventually their ideas will get little attention from the rest of the team and the rest of the team may perceive that individual is not pulling their weight.
An accommodating team will almost certainly never achieve project deadlines and or requirements.
Individuals are assertive so they’re satisfying their concerns but they’re uncooperative which means they are not listening to other team members opinions, and by this we mean effective listening whereby opinions are given due consideration.
If you feel that there is little cooperation your best bet is to raise the issue at a team meeting and get a process whereby everyone has a voice established.
This is where the team functions well; everyone has a voice, decisions are made after informed discussion, and the best use is made of everyone in the team.