If a Leader’s Action is their Speaking, which side of the brain speaks forth better results? And just as our brain works in different capacities between factual rationalization and intuitive imagination, how do our Speech Acts of Assertions and Assessments correlate to that? Let’s dive in and find some answers as well as gain some skill to grow our own leadership agility!
Assertions – Speech Act #4
An assertion is an objective claim that something is factually true or false because is measurable and verifiable. They are Left Brain oriented:
Rational
Systematic
Logic
Facts
Computation
Tactical Details
Sequencial
Practicalities
They are associated with what is being observed out there in the world we work and lend leadership in, not with the person making the statement. Assertions deal with the science side of life and conversation, legitimized through observable proof or evidence. Using our equations:
I assert that “X” is so!
Leaders use assertions because they are seeking to create a shared understanding of reality. It is assertions that set the context for considering requests and offers, for negotiating actions and ultimately making promised commitments. That’s why we focus on measurable data, even though we know it may not be the most important contributor to success. It does however, enable us to coordinate our thoughts with reality and have productive conversations.
Interestingly, an assertion can sometimes be publicly accepted due to the data’s longstanding and consistency, thereby used without recent verification. Unfortunately the world is so rapidly changing, the agile leader must constantly be challenging old publicly held assertions through conversations as well as using analytics, even modern algorithmic computer analytics if affordable, to make sure that our assertions (view of the facts) is well grounded. In other words, trends tend to change much more quickly than they did even 10-20 years ago. The agile leader will always challenge and seek to ground the pertinent assertions/data of their team, their market or field of work so they can negotiate well and establish accurate promises and thus powerful results to accomplish their mission.
Here’s some simple examples of assertions. I may claim to be 5’11” tall, it is an assertion that can be determined true or false by producing my driver’s license or by using a ruler to measure my height. If you accept my driver’s license as verification, you’d be gaining false data that was last verified over 13 years ago when my picture was also taken – oops! So, my assertion would measure up false, I’m closer to 5’10” – due to those 13 years of wear and tear and attrition as a 54 year man. So as leaders, a large part of high level leadership decisions and strategies need to be verified by empirical data.
One more simple example: I say, “Wow, its 95 degrees out today, whew! That is an assertion you can check with a thermometer and verify as true or false. Now if I say, “Wow, it is so hot today, whew!” Then that is not an assertion since my reference to “hot” is subjective, which may be totally relevant to my experience and history, but may or may not match up with those to whom I am speaking. This second subjective phrase would fall under the category of an Assessment.
Assessments – Speech Act #5
An assessment is a subjective claim open to interpretation based on personal thoughts, emotions, aesthetics, and experience. They are Right Brain oriented:
Creative
Intuitive
Feeling
Imagination
Visualization
Non-Verbal
Big Picture Strategic
Possibilities
They reflect the world of the person making the observations, not the things out there that are being observed (ie. as happens in assertions). So its about your interpretation of life as you judge, evaluate and form opinions. These opinions are true only for you as the assessor and may not be deemed either right or wrong. Again using our equations:
I assess this about “X”.
We can use other words here in lieu of assess: perceive, observe, discern, etc. And for example, if you say “that a book is excellent,” you are sharing your view of its quality. Your assessment that the book is excellent does not make it so; it is simply your interpretation. In other words any assessments that you make are not truth with a capital “T” but they are true to you (if you are being sincere). Your assessments reveal the way you see and interpret the world but that does not mean they will be true (perceived the same by others).
Leaders assess their and others’ job performance and productivity. They assess the market or culture and its trends and movement. They assess themselves and their balance. They assess progress of strategic plans and goals, as well as the tactical objects and practices in place to accomplish the goals. Leaders use assessments to expand perspective and broaden the number of possibilities in all these areas. Leaders also use assessments to explore new actions and discern the effectiveness of their results. According to Australian Ontological Leadership Mentor Steve Trivett, agile leaders tend to steer away from too many agreed upon assessments in brain storming conversations. Uniformity of opinions doesn’t generate much learning and creativity. While different opinions can cause arguments based upon ungrounded assumptions, agile teams can use assessment-based conversations to expand their learning by generating a broader perspective of reality. The conversational learning can then be shifted to creatively generating new possibilities of actions need to improve results and move them forward on their mission.
Agile leaders will also encourage creative conversations that challenge old assertions and past plans, goals and tactics that may have worked well for a long time, but may leave a company vulnerable if their culture or market is subtly changing. This is not to deny that many interpretations will be shared and not all of them may lead to full usefulness or any usefulness at all, but the collective creative learning and possibilities that arise from assessments often verify their value.
So back to our original questions:
If a Leader’s Action is their Speaking, which side of the brain speaks forth better results? And just as our brain works in different capacities between factual rationalization and intuitive imagination, how do our Speech Acts of Assertions and Assessments correlate to that? We’ve learned that both sides are needed in exploring new realities and actions through our conversations of assessment, and then in creating new realities in the speech acts of our assertions.
Agile leaders will have a solid grasp of both these actions to create new possibilities, declare shared understanding, to choose the most powerful actions and move themselves and their organization forward on their unique mission with innovative results. Now go experiment in both types of conversations emerging leaders, for you will change the world, I am confident of that!
Tomorrow
As we have jump into this realm of distinctions, assessment versus assertion, truth vs Truth. Its here we encounter the crossroad of linguistics, beliefs and morality. Tomorrow we’ll dive into what can become a bit of a hornet’s nest regarding truth: capital “T” vs small case “t.” This is extremely relevant to our personal lives as well as to the world we live in because it connects to topics like “racial profiling” as well as “religious extremism.” I hope you’ll stick with us!
This post is part of the 31 Days of Leadership Agility series. Subscribe here so you never miss a post.
Coach Dave is a Leadership Coach specializing in elevating emerging and entrepreneurial leaders. He has a Master’s Degree in Divinity and years of experience in coaching. He is a father, and husband to Coach Sue. Learn more about Coach Dave here.