A number of horrors can result if the Lead Assessor and team members are not working well together and do not realize it. One of the biggest issues has to do with that moment at the end of an assessment when teams must come to consensus about whether PAs/KPAs are satisfied. A team that remains at loggerheads at this point usually indicates one of two thingseither the team has not collected enough data during the course of the assessment, or it has not sufficiently discussed problematic issues during the daily consolidation periods. A team must be aware of potential disagreements during the assessment and be able to express and work them through before the ratings session.
Some team members will be naturally shy or hesitant to bring up problems. However, they must learn to bring out their concerns early instead of waiting until time has grown very short.
Another kind of problem is team members who believe they know it all and try to dominate discussions and even interviews. This tactic intimidates the rest of the team, and in the short run, the dominant person seems to get his way. However, these circumstances almost invariably lead the team as a whole to feel that it has not come to consensus. Even if the dominant member wins the day during ratings, after the assessment is over, the other team members may complain publicly that they do not agree with the results of the assessment. Assessments are about building a consensus about real problems and a collective will to solve them. No one wins if an artificially high (or low) rating is imposed by one individual.