One challenge surfaces repeatedly when I work with technical experts transitioning into leadership. These capable professionals want to speak up and contribute more fully, but they hold back for fear of seeming too pushy, only to end up appearing too reserved.
It’s a frustrating double bind that many technical professionals face when they move into leadership. Push too hard for your ideas and colleagues label you aggressive. Hold back to avoid conflict and decision-makers dismiss your input entirely. Neither extreme serves the leader, the team, or the outcomes everyone is working towards.
Research shows that assertiveness is the most commonly cited weakness among aspiring leaders, yet it’s rarely mentioned as a strength.1 When leaders get assertiveness wrong, it becomes glaringly obvious. When they get it right, it seems to disappear into the background of effective leadership.
The challenge is particularly acute for leaders in pharmaceutical, life sciences, and IT sectors. These environments demand both technical precision and collaborative problem-solving. Leaders need to advocate strongly for evidence-based decisions whilst maintaining the relationships that make cross-functional work possible.
The solution isn’t to aim for perfect balance every time. It’s to understand how assertive leadership actually works and why it unlocks genuine influence rather than forcing compliance.
What Assertive Leadership Actually Means
Assertive leadership is not about dominance or winning arguments. It is the ability to express needs, opinions, and boundaries clearly and confidently whilst respecting the rights and perspectives of others.
This matters because technical environments often mistake directness for aggression or confuse collaboration with passive agreement. Assertive leaders cut through this confusion by communicating with both clarity and respect.
The distinction matters most when stakes are high. In a project review where timelines are slipping, a passive leader might hint at concerns without stating them directly. An aggressive leader might blame team members publicly. An assertive leader states the facts clearly, acknowledges the challenge, and focuses the conversation on solutions.
Research from CIPD emphasises that assertiveness enables leaders to balance achieving goals with maintaining healthy working relationships.2 This balance is not just nice to have; it is essential for sustained influence across technical organisations where the same colleagues will work together across multiple projects.
Why Technical Experts Struggle with Assertiveness
Many science and tech professionals reach leadership positions precisely because they excel at evidence-based thinking and careful analysis. These strengths can become liabilities when assertiveness is required.
The analytical mindset that serves technical work so well can lead to over-qualifying statements, hedging conclusions, or presenting so many caveats that the core message gets lost. Leaders worry about being wrong, so they soften their position to the point where it carries no weight.
There is also the cultural dimension. Many technical environments reward conflict avoidance and consensus-building. Leaders learn to couch disagreements in diplomatic language that obscures rather than clarifies their actual position. Over time, this habit erodes their ability to advocate effectively when it matters most.
Gender dynamics compound this challenge. Research consistently shows that women leaders face harsher judgement for assertive behaviour, being labelled as aggressive for the same communication style that earns male colleagues respect. The solution is not for anyone to become less clear in their communication; it is to recognise these biases and address them strategically.
How Assertiveness Creates Genuine Influence
Influence flows from two sources: instrumental outcomes and social outcomes. Leaders need both to be effective long-term.
Instrumental outcomes mean achieving goals, delivering results, and making things happen. Social outcomes mean building trust, maintaining relationships, and being someone others want to work with. The mistake many leaders make is optimising for one whilst neglecting the other.
Leaders who are insufficiently assertive fail at instrumental outcomes. Their teams lack clear direction, projects drift without decisive intervention, and other stakeholders fill the leadership vacuum. These leaders may be well-liked, but they are not particularly influential because they are not getting results.
Leaders who are excessively assertive sacrifice social outcomes. They might deliver results short-term, but they burn relationships in the process. Over time, the social costs accumulate: colleagues stop volunteering information, cross-functional partners become less cooperative, and team members disengage.
Assertive leaders thread this needle by being clear about what they want whilst remaining genuinely open to others’ input. They state their position without requiring everyone to agree with it. They advocate firmly for their perspective whilst making space for dissenting views. This approach builds influence because people understand where the leader stands, respect their directness, and feel respected themselves.
Practical Assertiveness for Technical Leaders
Assertive communication requires specific techniques that technical leaders can apply immediately:
- Use “I” statements to express viewpoints without implying that others are wrong. Instead of “That approach will not work,” try “I am concerned about scalability with that approach.” This frames the issue without putting colleagues on the defensive.
- State needs directly rather than hinting at them. Replace “It would be nice if we could get clearer requirements” with “I need the requirements specified by Friday to keep this project on track.” Direct requests are more respectful than forcing colleagues to guess what is needed.
- Set boundaries explicitly when workload or timelines become unrealistic. Rather than accepting impossible demands and hoping for the best, assertive leaders say “I can deliver X by that deadline, but not X and Y. Which takes priority?”
- Disagree without dismissing. When technical disagreements arise, assertive leaders acknowledge the other perspective before presenting their own: “I understand the appeal of that architecture. My concern is the maintenance burden it creates. Here is what I would suggest instead.”
- Ask for what is needed without apologising. Replace “Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if maybe you could…” with “I need your input on this decision by Thursday. Can you review the options and share your recommendation?”
The Leadership Sweet Spot
The most effective leaders are not moderately assertive all the time. They are flexibly assertive, calibrating their approach to what each situation demands. Sometimes leadership requires pushing hard against resistance; other times it means listening more than speaking.
The key is having the full repertoire available and knowing which approach serves the situation best. Leaders stuck at either extreme (perpetually passive or consistently aggressive) have limited options when circumstances change.
Building this flexibility starts with self-awareness. Leaders need honest feedback about how their assertiveness is perceived by colleagues at different levels. What feels like healthy directness to the leader might land as aggression with team members. What seems like thoughtful deliberation might be perceived as indecisiveness by senior stakeholders.
Technical leaders can develop this awareness by seeking specific feedback: “When I pushed back in that meeting, how did it come across?” or “Am I being clear enough about expectations, or should I be more direct?”
The goal is not perfect calibration every time. It is building the skill to recognise when assertiveness has tipped into aggression, or when collaboration has become conflict avoidance, and making real-time adjustments.
Frequently Asked Questions About Assertive Leadership
Building Your Assertive Leadership Approach
Assertiveness is not an innate trait that some leaders possess and others do not. It is a learnable skill that improves with practice, feedback, and deliberate attention to how communication lands with different audiences.
For science and technology leaders, developing assertive communication often means unlearning habits that served technical work well but limit leadership effectiveness. It means becoming comfortable with stating positions before all the data is in, advocating for team needs even when it creates friction with senior stakeholders, and expressing disagreement with colleagues without exhaustive justification.
The influence that assertive leadership creates is fundamentally different from the compliance that aggressive leadership might force short-term. Assertive leaders build credibility through consistent, clear communication that respects others whilst advocating firmly for what they believe serves the work. Over time, this approach generates the trust and respect that makes genuine influence possible: the kind where colleagues actively seek a leader’s perspective because they value the clarity and respect they will receive.