Centered Leaders are Patient

How much patience do you have with your team?

Yes, it is a leader's job sometimes to be an impatient challenger. We need to constantly raise our standards and push the edge of what can be achieved. We need to meet our goals.

While doing that -- while being impatient with stasis or low performance -- we must also be patient with our people. Finding what is standing in the way of success, rather than losing patience with our people, takes more time but is far more effective.

Do your people know the goals? Then your impatience will not help to achieve them: your help will. Your guidance. Your persistence. Your focus. Your creativity. Your support.

Leaders who lose patience lose support.

People have little patience for leaders without patience and will seek other paths as soon as it is feasible. That's not double-talk, but reality: your own patience will pay off with the persistence and loyalty of your people.

Much of the business world has abandoned loyalty to their people as a value. To do so is to set up a future failure difficult to overcome: the loss of your talent, your spirit, your organizational cohesiveness.

Does it all hinge on patience? Not all, but a significant part of what makes for a great leader is that leader's gentle challenging guidance and patience.

Keep your support. Keep your patience.

-- Douglas Brent Smith

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