Avoid Forcing Your Opinion on Your Team

We all have our opinions, goals, and wants when communicating with our teams. Maybe you want to use Product A, and others want Product C, or you want to follow a course of action based on the data as you see it, but others have different opinions.

Having different opinions, goals, and viewpoints makes our teams better and helps the team get to an optimal solution for the team.

We want to avoid asserting our opinion to force the team to adopt our opinion. We want to encourage open and honest discussion of multiple viewpoints and processes. In the discussion, we can find a solution the benefits the team and the team’s skill set.

Often we assert our opinion because we are feeling insecure about our position on the team, our knowledge, or our identity. I’ve definitely been on both sides of asserting opinions. I’ve asserted my opinion to be heard and valued on a team; I’ve had team members assert their opinions on the team while ignoring attempts to have a conversation about options.

This assertion of opinions damages relationships, blocks active listening, and active support by team members.

In our teams, we want to foster open discussions and open decision-making through open communication. Asserting our opinions and blocking discussions about the opinions not only makes people less likely to contribute later but prevents the team from finding an optimal solution for the team.

Next time, you want to assert an opinion, try turning it into an open-ended question to promote discussion around the opinion.

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