Marie-Claire Ross, GAICD

I find where leaders get stuck with improving their assertiveness is that they fear that they are being aggressive, so they fall into passive leadership. You can be more assertive by: 1. Finding the value (focus on the work to be done and how to meet expectations). 2. Shifting your mindset - assertiveness isn't aggression. 3. Minimising passive questions (stop being deferential and asking for permission). 4. Avoiding negative self-talk (publicly). 5. Get comfortable with saying no. 6. Stop apologising all the time. Your people look up to you to show them the way forward and the more assertive you are in your communication, the more confidence people will have in your leadership style.

Starting a new leadership role effectively requires: 1. Observing - watching how things get done, decisions get made without judgement. 2. Building trust - meeting with a range of stakeholders 1-1 to find out their needs, challenges and priorities. Understanding the vision, strategy and values is key. 3. Working with me - few leaders include this part, but I find this is critical to helping people know who you really are. It's about talking about your work and communication style and sharing that 1-1 with people. These includes your triggers and flaws. It helps to clear up any potential misunderstandings. It also means getting others to do the same, so you get aligned far more quickly.

The main problem is that a lot of organisation choose the wrong type of leadership development programs. It's important to choose a program that challenges people, makes people take action and learn from others. It's not about feeling good in a classroom. It's not about writing notes and then doing nothing. It's time organisations started choosing leadership development programs that are evidence-based and results-driven. For example, in my leadership development program leaders do pre, mid and post assessments. So does their manager. If the participant isn't changing, I work with their manager to help them improve through a mixture of accountability and 1-1 sessions. Participants can't hide or slack off. That's how teams improve.

There are three things to focus on. 1. Seek discomfort - What the research shows is that for adults to learn, you have to get uncomfortable. You want to expand your leadership skills by doing something that challenges you. This could be taking on a stretch assignment, learning something new or seeking new experiences. 2. Work on your self-awareness - Most leaders don't realise that great leaders are self-aware and spend time self-reflecting and acknowledging what they can do better. Do a personality assessment, ask for specific feedback on a behaviour you want to change from a trusted workplace colleague or do some journalling. 3. Join a community - meet regularly to learn and share ideas with a group of success-oriented leaders.

Take a step back and consider whether you need to: Empower - best used when team is emotionally wounded and prone to conflict. Work 1-1 to provide reassurance and encourage contribution. Focus on increasing safety. Energise - use when team energy is stale, fallen into bad habits and missing deadlines. Work with team to reset team mandate and goals, job roles and accountability. Emphasize team work - use when team members are stressed and feel can only rely on themselves. Provide more connection, recognition and collaboration opportunities. Revisit meeting routines, team purpose and team dynamics. Explore New ideas - use when high performing team starts to go off track. Focus on scanning trends, brain-storming and learning.

People are more likely to accept change if they can understand the reason why. The best way is to ignite their curiosity through highlighting a gap - whether that's capabilities, customer preferences etc. This creates tension that drives us to keep searching for the answer. A good example to create intrigue is to contrast where we are now (and what's working/not working) and where we want to go (what that looks like, how it feels, why it's important). This helps our brain feel safe as it more easily understands complex information through comparison.