How to Lead with Patience and Not Get Walked On

You were born exasperated and impatient.

Patience emerges after we learn that we aren’t the center of the universe. In other words, when you know and accept your limitations and frailties you become able to practice patience.

Lazy dog. 

Patience with people who lack aspiration is frustration.

Lead with patience without getting walked on:

#1. Patience with people.

The tender side of patience centers on people.

  1. Patience allows mistakes to become growth. Patience that prolongs and enables weakness is poison, but patience that encourages growth is energy.
  2. Patience accepts poor performance or failure in the pursuit of improvement. Leaders who only accept the best have low standards. You failed this time, what will you do differently next time?

Patience with people who lack aspiration is frustration.

Aspiration gives value to patience. Patience respects aspiration.

Patience doesn’t passively tolerate weakness or failure. It never pretends that failure is success.

Without aspiration, patience is weakness disguised as virtue.

#2. Patience in difficulty.

The gritty side of patience matters when you want to quit.

  1. Patience presses forward in the face of resistance, difficulty, and adversity. The gritty side of patience is fuel for success. Everything worthwhile requires grit.
  2. Patience is love in action when the path is steep.
  3. Patience looks beyond difficulty. You might hate current difficulties, but the city on a hill calls you forward. Leaders who focus on difficulty and pain will quit soon.

Patience is tenacious.

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” Lois Pasteur

Tenderness without toughness is an invitation for abuse.

(Assess your grit with this 10 question assessment.)

#3. Patience with kindness:

Angry tolerance isn’t patience.

Kindness elevates patience to virtue.

Kindness is:

  1. Doing what is useful, even if it isn’t convenient.
  2. Seeing life from someone else’s point of view.

Reflection: Someone was patient with you while you were learning. Who needs your patience today?

What does leaderly patience look like to you?