Decency Series…Patience

This week’s installment of my Decency Series focuses on Patience.

Patience Is A Choice

This simple fact may not go down too well — especially if you’re a Type A personality.

Indeed, there’s no need to fly off the handle every time something doesn’t quite go your way. It’s not good for you. It’s not good for the people that you work with and lead.

In this installment on leadership decency, I want to offer you some ideas for better managing your patience and strengthening your team, too. Here are 5 suggestions:

1. The very first thing you should do the next you feel like your patience is wearing thin, is to ask, what I call the “Patience Question” which is this:

Is it worth it? 

It gives you immediate perspective.  Is this event worth blowing your top? If so, go for it. Most situations are better managed by maintaining your composure.

2. Name That Feeling. If you can give what you’re feeling a name, chances are strong that you’ll discover that the opposite of patience is not impatience. Rather, it is anxiety. So, now let’s deal with that. What are you worried about? Being late? Not delivering at highest quality? Whatever it is, losing your $#!+ probably won’t help.

3. Make Your Team Better:  You will almost immediately become more patient, when you can better count on your team to get work done. So, be sure to invest in preparing them.

4. Find the Humanity in the Situation: By seeing that there are people (who are mostly oblivious to you (and the impact that their behavior is having on you) that sit behind the situation that causing you all of this stress. Stop to recognize this and you’ll do better in managing your feelings about what’s going on.

5. Be Kind to Yourself: Take a break when you need one. You deserve one of those from time-to-time. It will also help you to change your point-of-view.

To close, the key to practicing patience is recognizing what you can control and accepting what you can’t.

If you’d like some help with developing better patience, reach out. I’ve helped many leaders through executive coaching to become stronger in this skill.

I’ll be back next week with another installment on bringing decency back to leadership.

Note: This entry is based on my CEOWorld article, published on Monday, November 16,2020 in its C-Suite Agenda section.