Why is Patience Important in Leadership?
What makes a leader effective in all the efforts to make the teams succeed? Why does the patience in leadership play such an important role?
While many of us focus on different approaches and skill sets, we tend to forget the key driver behind the leader’s success. Is it true that leadership patience is a virtue?
I discovered patience at the height of my anxiety issues while switching career paths and industries. It may have been one of the most daunting tasks I have ever taken, and to this day, I still remember clearly every step of the way. Did you ever ask yourself is patience a skill or quality?
I have followed no particular guideline in practicing patience, nor was there anyone to nudge me in the right direction. Yes, I am one of those self-taught practitioners, but I invested an extensive amount of time in research and testing. I discovered that patience and leadership work dependently on each other.
I do not list the following reasons in any order, but they complete an entire picture if practiced together. Before we get to the list, think about this. Can you build patience as a leader? Do you feel that leadership and patience go hand in hand?
1. Gain and Show Respect with Patience
Nobody wants to work with someone they don’t know. After you do get to know the person or a team, it takes time and effort to give and gain respect from fellow team members and co-workers.
Since gaining and giving respect can’t be achieved overnight, leaders should employ patience. Being able to patiently approach people and in return gain their respect will be mutually beneficial to both leader and team member.
Respect combined with patience is a long-term commitment and it has to be worked on continuously. One has to understand that once you do get respect, you need to nurture it and encourage others to do the same.
2. Improve Productivity with Patience
Each team member can produce results at a certain pace. Likewise, the entire teams can be productive as much as the individuals within that team.
Rushing your team members can hamper productivity as it sometimes unnecessarily pressures them. Although leaders should encourage their team to perform and be more productive, approaching each member with patience can be more efficient.
Improving productivity with patience will be beneficial both short and long-term. It will also provide more confidence to your teams, as they will know that their leader is patiently stimulating productivity of each team member.
You can achieve better results with purposeful guidance and patience. Does it work in reverse? Will productivity amplify patience as a leader?
3. Provide more Freedom with Patience
While developing teams and individuals, you should consider providing room for improvement. If you lack patience to provide freedom for your teams and encourage progress, they might consider looking for opportunities elsewhere.
Since different people adapt at different speeds, giving them the freedom to process all the information, they will be more receptive to change. This does not mean that you will completely leave your team on their own. It just means that you will leave “breathing” space for them, which will cause more trust, and therefore, better team. This is how leadership patience can allow you to provide more freedom to your team.
4. Develop Positive Attitude with Patience
Being a leader means that you will be tested in a difficult situation, and your ability to be patient will be essential. During those times, as a leader, you will need to take action and develop a positive attitude.
That positive attitude will not only help you, but you will transfer it onto team and organization. Teams and individuals will sometimes depend on the leader to display positivity. At those moments, having patience will motivate your team and its members to be positive. This will further reinforce patience and leadership.
5. Improve Time Management with Patience
As a leader, you will need to be proficient in time management. It may tempt you to push things and people beyond their capabilities to meet deadlines. That can cause dissatisfied team members and ultimately a dysfunctional company.
You can improve time management skills of yourself and your team by applying patience when appropriate. Sometimes you need to slow down and maximize the time allotted, as it will produce more efficient results.
That will lead to team satisfaction and will encourage individuals to improve their own time management skills. Become a patient leader and improve your own time management.
6. Teams Grow with Patience
Building teams and individuals require appropriate time and effort. Leaders that don’t recognize this may have difficulty growing their teams.
With patience in leadership, the right amount of effort and by taking proper steps, you can strengthen your team.
This requires you as a leader to remain committed and be persistent. The key to this goes back to being patient.
Grow your team and encourage them to practice patience themselves. They will refine them as team members and it will grow the entire company. This is how you develop patience in teamwork.
7. Allow Recovery Time with Patience
Your team might comprise with top performers and achieve amazing results, time over time. Just consider and remember that your team members are still human and that they have certain needs.
Over-fatigue can be detrimental to individuals, teams, and companies. As a leader, you need to recognize when the time is right to provide some breathing room. This refers to allowing recovery time and rest, which is a crucial component of any successful team.
Even the top-performing athletes take time off to recuperate and heal, which will help them in the long run. Thus, your team members should be treated like top performing athletes. Have patience for your team members and allow them decent recovery time.
Be a patient leader and allow more recovery time.
8. Adapt to Change with Patience
Successful companies grow and change over time. Individuals and team members change and adapt at different speeds. Some teams may adapt quite easily, while others may take additional time to comprehend these changes.
Leaders must recognize the importance of adapting to change by applying patience in appropriate ways. Sometimes, individuals may be caught off-guard if the change was sudden and unplanned. Have patience for those who need more time to adapt and your team will develop more effectively.
In the end, be ready to adapt, to change yourself and grow as a leader, together with your team. It’s all achievable with adequate leadership and patience.
9. Build Reputation with Patience
Reputation is by definition an opinion or belief about someone or something. In leadership, reputation has to be built over time. It’s probably falling under one of the more difficult things to build upon.
You can be become a well-developed leader and differentiate yourself from the others through patience. Sometimes, reputation can be a fine line that some cross in the wrong direction. Be careful to build and maintain a positive reputation.
Your team will be more confident in your abilities if you are displaying the right attitude, which will ultimately result in reputation build-up. Building reputations will further enhance the importance of patience in leadership.
10. Achieve Greater Results with Patience
How many companies do you know achieved success overnight? As Eddie Cantor said: “It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.” We build results over time and make them a continuous process.
Your team can understand this concept better if you, as a leader, guide them appropriately. Some companies and their leaders believe that they can achieve greater results by developing the company culture. For that alone, you need to dedicate yourself and your team members to exercise patience.
Once you instill the importance of patience to yourself and your team members, your leadership skills will guide your team to greater results.
11. Make Better Decisions with Patience
Leaders need to make decisions. It is in their job description. Decision making can be one of the most difficult tasks leaders can encounter.
Lack of patience in making any decision can influence your team and company in a negative way.
That doesn’t mean it is impossible to make the right decisions. Leaders shouldn’t be making decisions during their inconvenient times.
If something is troubling you, take extra time before making that final call. Over time, you will learn to utilize patience and make better decisions. That will produce further growth for your team members.
12. Improve Listening Skills with Patience
Successful leaders have amazing listening skills. That is one of the main reasons why they are successful. If you recognize this and put it on your priority list, there’s a definite chance that you will grow as a leader.
Be careful to differentiate hearing and listening. It’s important to have the patience to listen to others as you will be able to fully understand what that person wants to say. Since communication is a 2-way street, it requires you to listen, understand and then respond to successfully communicate ideas with others.
Leaders can further develop if they improve listening skills with patience. Learn to be the active listener and a patient leader.
Importance of Patience in Leadership
Everything I learned about leadership was through patience. All successful leaders I met and spoke to practice patience every day. That gives me and my fellow leaders more energy to continue developing our teams.
While it may tempt you sometimes to decide faster, thinking it will be more effective, hold yourself back for a moment. Acknowledge that you are aware of the decision-making process and time it takes to decide.
Grow together with your team by dedicating enough effort for individual and team development. Don’t forget to take a breather occasionally and allow your team to recover. While doing that, maintain a positive attitude and be adaptable to change.
Build a reputation by infusing integrity into your daily routine and let it become your second nature. It will show respect to everyone in your team, including yourself. Do you understand why is patience important in leadership?
If you are looking to become the best you can be in leadership, recognize the importance of patience. Make purposeful decisions, take time and be an outstanding leader by having patience.
Ready to take the next step in your leadership journey?
30 Responses
Thank you for this enlightening piece on patience. As a leader, it is important to model the behavior and also integrate it in ones life. 👍🏼 Great points!
Thanks Evelyn. You’re right, modeling behavior can significantly speed up the process.
Thank you for sharing these insights John. I fully agree with these and as Leo Tolsoy said “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time”.
Indeed Shana, time is of the essence when combined with patience. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Useful post. I have taught leadership for most of the last twenty years so can relate to much of what you write.
Thanks Phill. I’m glad to hear thoughts from a fellow leader.
Love the different quotes! Gives me some ideas on how to better handle myself during leadership roles.
Thank you Greer. I’m thrilled to hear that enjoyed reading this article and found useful ideas.
These are all great tips for why patience is a virtue in business and in life. No one wants to be micromanaged so giving time and space for independent growth will help all be successful in the end.
Great to hear your thoughts Lauren. Micromanagement is a skill that true leaders should avoid as much as possible. Thank you for sharing positive thoughts.
Great leaders show their ability to remain patient even when the most hurried deadline approaches. This was a great read. Unfortunately, I feel that so many people become impatient at such a young age from modeled behavior or parents and caregivers. Patience truly is a learned behavior and strategies like these can help anyone improve their wait time.
Absolutely Jessica! Lack of patience among people is one of the reasons I work on sharing my knowledge with others and helping them regain the patience. It’s wonderful to hear that you can recognize the issue and address it the way you did.
Nice tips. Patience is essential in leadership
Thanks Sam, it is really essential.
This is a great post. quotes you have written in between are really inspiring. thanks for this great article.
Thanks Rupy, I’m pleased to hear that you found the quotes inspiring.
Patience is indeed an attribute every leader should possess. It’s importance can not be overemphasized because as a leader you tend to get exposed to different people, from different backgrounds with different ways of handling things. It takes patience no to quit on them. Thanks for sharing this.
It is great to hear that you are recognizing the importance of patience. Thank you for sharing your thoughts Gloria.
Patience is really very important everywhere because most of the time we don’t see results instantly. All we need to do is keep patience! Thanks for sharing this amazing post.
I’m thrilled to know that there are people who have the same viewpoint. Thanks for reading Harish.
Awesome post! I believe that having patience in everything is very Important.
Patience is indeed an important virtue that every leader should have. Sometimes it takes a while to get back results. The quotes in the post are quite inspiring.
Thank you Pujarini. It is a virtue and it can be learned.
Patience is such a huge virtue – never thought about it much until adulthood. 🙂
We should have patience always. Good post
Thanks Nikhil, for taking time to read and comment on this post.
True , patience is a blessing .It should be a unbuilt quality in every leader.
Indeed Hema, qualities like such are essential. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Without patience, no one can become a great leader. This is such informative post.
I appreciate your supportive words Simerbir, thank you.