Assertiveness →
Responsiveness →
Owl
Eagle
Dove
Peacock
Your most likely failure mode with this person is not conflict. It is a very agreeable relationship in which you have no idea what they actually think.
Where friction shows up
They will not push back on you directly. Your force of personality does the work before they open their mouth, so you get agreement in the room and quiet non-execution afterward. You experience this as unreliability. From their side, they were never really asked.
What to do differently
- Ask for objections explicitly and then wait through the silence. Count to ten if you have to.
- Give them time and a lower-stakes channel. They will tell you in writing, or one on one, what they will not say in a group.
- Slow down the open of the conversation. Two minutes of non-work talk is not a courtesy, it is how you get honest information from this person.
- Acknowledge the effort, not only the result. They notice, and it changes how much they bring you.
What not to do
Do not confuse harmony with alignment. Do not put them on the spot in front of others.
One line to remember
Their first "sounds good" is not a yes.
Keep going
See your whole team on one map
Run the free assessment with your team and get a shared grid of who works how — then use guides like this for every pairing.
Start with your team — free