Great leaders often fight an internal war against their own impatience.
Results-oriented leaders are notoriously impatient. They want results faster, bigger, better, and long-lasting. That impatience leaks out when others don’t deliver outcomes as quickly as they should.
When people sense the disappointment of impatient leaders or learn directly from them that their work is not coming along quickly enough, they feel accused. The direct or indirect blame aimed at them pierces like a knife of contempt. So, they bear down and attempt to pick up the pace, all the while feeling poorly about themselves and the leader who applies this pressure. Over time, the stress created by an impatient leader wears down those on the receiving end who then become defensive, resistant, and usually less productive.
The problem is not that leaders are impatient, especially regarding results. Good leaders keep the pressure for results on themselves and others, which is what makes them good in the first place. What is of issue is how leaders can sometimes express their impatience. Impatience can be about outcomes or about people. The best leaders always make it about the outcomes.
When leaders ask others why the results they expect are delayed or lack quality, they direct their impatience at people. Statements of Why express dissatisfaction with the people involved. Why is this late? Why haven’t you planned for this contingency? Why can’t we get there faster? Impatience with people is rarely the way good leaders push forward. They know it does little to improve results and a lot to promote defensiveness.
The same impatience can be directed at the outcomes instead. This turns the question and its focus from the Why into a What. What is in your way? What can I do to help move this along? What is creating the delay? What can we do about it? What resources do you need to deliver?
When impatience is about the outcome, people understand and appreciate the push. They collaborate to get things done without the resistance and defensiveness that accompany blame and accusation. This is a relatively easy move to make for leaders, but most haven’t thought deeply about the subtle influence of their role in their own impatience.
Going from Why to What and from You to We makes impatience more palatable and drives the point home in positive and reinforcing manner. Good leaders are conscious of this subtle shift in approach and derive the benefits of team members who become willing partners in their impatience for results.
Sometimes, the smallest shift in expression can make all the difference. As Macy’s CEO Tony Spring likes to remind people, “It doesn’t take a lot of baking powder to make bread but without it, you don’t have bread.” What do you need to make some bread?
