Patience

Unfold performance by stepping back

When I was a sales rep, a friend of mine graduated into a regional management position before I did. He was a charming fellow and generally did quite well. At a conference we were having a drink and chatting away about the brand, how each of us are going and some things we had in the pipeline. At one point we discussed the mountain of emails we have to wade through and even more so for him. I asked how he gets through it all. His response stayed with me. He said, "I have found that if I give problems enough time they take care of themselves".

This caught my attention as he was talking about being less reactive. Should an issue really need his attention, it would be obvious. But, he knew most of the solutions would be found without him trying to 'fix' everything that came across his virtual desk. This reminds me of Pareto's Principle which states one gains 80% of results through 20% of one's efforts. It is also a wonderful execution of patience. Being able to hold back and allow situations to breathe without hurrying or rushing into a reaction. It tends to take more diligence and discipline than it sounds. During Simon Sinek's Infinite Game tour he spoke about the situation of a boss answering emails while on holiday and how this sends a signal of self-importance and a lack of trust in their people to take care of business during their absence.

Pareto’s principle can help us when thinking about practices which yield results and those that yield little. If impatience yields little, why would we practice it as a leader?

Learn more: Pareto’s Principle

But, we are not talking about email management here. We are talking about our mentality as leaders, teams and even as a community. Often, professional sporting coaches and players speak of their work as being in a 'results driven industry'. This is particularly true as new managers and coaches are hired to improve results but are given little time to instill their strategies, methods and build relationships before their head is on the chopping block. There is little job security in professional sport. This impatience is justified by the commercial realities of any sporting organisation. If you don't win you don't get prize money. But, more importantly, you don't get as much television coverage. Meaning less sponsorship and less money to invest in facilities, coaches and the best players money can buy. It becomes a vicious cycle every sporting organisation is trying to overcome. It breeds impatience, anxiety and creates an environment of pressure which inhibits performance rather than improve it.

Modern workplaces are all too similar. Monthly, quarterly and half yearly results rule our lives. For those in charge of projects, the clock is your enemy and every delay and rework feels like a kick in the guts. It can be waring and fatiguing. The constant feeling of being rushed and rushing others undermines productivity and can strain relationships (How Busy Colleagues Spread Secondhand Stress, WSJ). But, taking a break or a chill pill doesn't remove the urgency or stress of tasks and problems piling up while the clock ticks down. I don't know about you but I'm getting anxious just writing about this!

Implementing patience while keeping workflows ticking along is an attribute I am keenly interested in. Patience does not mean passive or to stop working. The tortoise didn't win the race by not moving at all.

After reading extensively on this subject and being notoriously impatient (particularly with myself and those close to me), it seems there are a few practical ways to be more patient and simultaneously gain better productivity out of yourself and others. All start with our immediate reaction to a stimulus. Something I have found to be helpful is to zoom out as quickly as possible (and as far as one can within relevance).

An example may be that Robert sent a report with an error to a client. Instinctively, we may want to ask forcefully why this happened and why it wasn't double checked before being sent. We may want to call the client immediately and apologise or beg for forgiveness. But, if we zoom out first we can contextualise the situation. Elements such as Robert's learning and development come into play. The overarching relationship we want Robert to build with this client raises in relevance. Our problem solving mindset can begin as we figure out how to get the client what they need from the report as quickly and proficiently as possible (the whole point in the first place). And, we may come around to discussing how this can be avoided again by adding an extra layer of process into how these things are done. In this case, we may talk with Robert in a supportive and assertive tone, agree for him to call the client with specific steps and to report back to us with the outcomes.

A small teak in our response can make a significant difference. Ryan Holiday's passage below says it quite elegantly:

Ego is the enemy, Ryan Holiday

Berating people, interjecting ourselves or huffing and puffing under our breathe are all legitimate emotional reactions in the face of challenge. Usually coming from a genuine want to do well. But, by zooming out we can take the focus off the immediate trauma and associated emotion and, switch our mindset to what we are really trying to achieve. As leaders I believe we are working to get the job done, increase our people's capacity and advance the knowledge of our profession.

Without patience, I feel for the Roberts of this world (as well as their bosses!) By building patience we grow our humility muscles as a leader and our words and actions become ever more powerful. Role modelling patience may be one of the toughest traits to master in the face of moments, but a world with more of this may create a world with more calm, open dialogue, and less wasted energy on conflict.