“I wanted it yesterday.”
This is a fair statement if the deadline has actually passed. But demanding constant speed when there is no real urgency can wear down an employee. Great leaders know that having excellent skills in patience will create the best kind of team.
Why?
Patience Shows Respect
Focused listening to an employee communicates respect and therefore encourages productivity. Impatience while listening communicates that you don’t value your team members’ opinions.
Patience Increases Productivity
If you are constantly telling your team members to hurry up, it will foster either frustration or fear and you want neither on your team. To get the best results, use patience and deliberate instructions. Productivity will be twice what it was compared to when you are rushing.
Patience Allows Freedom
When you are presenting the idea of change, employees will process that at different paces. If you are impatient with their progression, you will be subtly communicating to them that they are “less than.” That is simply not true and will possibly drive your team members to quit. If they know they have freedom to accept the change at their own speeds, they will be better workers.
Patience Inspires Positivity
Patience inspires your team to have a positive attitude during difficult times. Your leadership when displaying patience will be noticed by your employees and will infect them with positivity. “If the boss seems calm and patient, I can be, too.”
Patience Exercises Good Timing
Timing is everything. If you are a leader of a team that must act on the stock market or forge ahead when the timing is right, patience is an extreme virtue. CNN’s news and the alerts that come up on our cell phones encourage us to go, go, go. But wisdom says to use patience. Slow down. Wait. And it is a thrill when the waiting pays off, especially in areas like real estate and Wall Street stocks.
Patience Grows Companies
Building a company takes time. Wise leaders know this and use patience appropriately. Some don’t and their attempts fail. In an article about patience in leadership on Inc.com Eric Holtzclawe wrote, “But as you move through your entrepreneurial journey, pay close attention to the pressure you are applying. Is it consistent, purposeful pressure like that needed to create a diamond? Or are you using the brute force of a sledgehammer?”
Gandhi used incredible patience in leading India to its independence.
Look at the Red Sox – from 1918 to 2004 they waited patiently through the “curse of the Bambino” and then took the World Series at last.
The Cubs fans are still using their patience!
If you want to be the best leader you can be, begin fostering the characteristic of patience. Slow down and be deliberate. Most leaders, ironically, are not patient people. The tendency is get it done and get it done now. But great leaders are patient and it reflects in their team members and productivity.
Sources:
http://artpetty.com/2012/12/27/leadership-caffeine-6-reasons-why-patience-is-a-leaders-best-friend/
http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/blog/importance-patience-leadership
http://www.inc.com/eric-v-holtzclaw/leadership-power-of-patience.html