At Vivo, we talk to companies and teams a lot about the value of leaders asserting themselves on their project teams and in their roles in the boardroom and in meetings.
And sometimes it’s really, really difficult for executives, coworkers, employees just to show up.
They’ve written their contract, they’ve got a role and now they’ve shown up on a project, or in a meeting and it's really hard for them to place themselves. One of the reasons might be is that when they walk into a new boardroom situation, a new project perhaps or a new company where they’ve finally found their dream job and they look out at the field - they see two dramatically different presentations of people coming to the boardroom table.
The first group, we call the bully in the china shop. People that are very vocal and very interested and very energetic and constantly driving energy to the boardroom table. These people often hijack the conversation so that nobody else can get a word in edgewise.
Then there’s another group of people who may just show up and passively be entertained by the meeting. They sit through the meeting, they listen in a passive manner and they leave without saying a peep. Those are more of the silent players in the boardroom.
So, how do I as a new team player show up right in the middle in between that, being assertive enough that I’m not aggressive, where I actually bring forward my viewpoint and opinion and not slide into the silent group where essentially I don’t own my seat? That’s what being assertive is about and it’s very difficult sometimes for executives to speak up or to assert themselves without becoming aggressive.
Think about the behaviours around your boardroom table. What do you see in the field? And how are you showing up in the midst of that? Are you asserting your leadership? Do you know how? If you don’t know how - give us a call, we’d love to help. www.vivoteam.com
