Good leaders are naturally impatient people.
They are action-oriented and results-driven. This compels them to reveal or express their frustration any time an outcome doesn’t come to fruition quickly enough or with the quality they expect.
That’s not the problem. How they do it is.
They presume that directing their frustration and intolerance for delays and unrealized expectations toward all those involved will light a fire and increase their urgency and attention to detail.
In reality, it has the opposite effect. Team members interpret a leader’s impatience with results as an accusation. They hear the leader blaming them. Even for matters out of their control.
As a result, team members become defensive, resistant, and less trusting.
They rush to avoid the leader’s agitation but become less motivated to do a quality job. They interpret the leader’s continual restlessness for results as an insult, not as a challenge.
Once insulted, blamed, and accused, they become unmotivated to do their best work. What impatient leaders believe will light a fire actually douses the flame.
The problem is not that leaders are impatient for results. The issue is all about how they communicate it.
Leaders have a choice. They can make their impatience about other people, or they can make it about themselves.
You read that right.
Leaders who make their impatience about themselves express their frustration with results, not people.
Think about these statements of impatience directed at team members:
- “Why did you miss the deadline?”
- “Why can’t you get the project finished by Friday morning?”
- “What is going on with the team that they produce such low-quality work?”
- “I need this done faster and better.”
- “The team needs to move more quickly if they are going to meet their goals.”
In each case, the team member is likely to feel as if they are the source of the leader’s frustration. While this might improve urgency on a short-term basis, long-term this is a recipe for resistance and demotivation.
The best leaders flip this script and turn their impatience inward, aiming it at themselves.
- “What can I do to get the project finished by Friday morning?”
- “I must be doing something that is resulting in low-quality work from the team.”
- “What resources do you need to get this done faster?”
- “My leadership needs to motivate the team to move more quickly to meet our goals.”
In these examples, the team member understands the leader’s impatience is with the results but doesn’t interpret their frustration directed at them.
Leaders who believe such statements and questions to be inaccurate or too indirect miss the point. The leader and their leadership always play the central role in producing timely and high-quality results.
Whether the leader chooses to make themselves the primary source of their expressed impatience is up to them.
Leaders who direct their impatience at themselves communicate the importance of outcomes without the accusation of blame.
The end result is a team motivated to act with urgency and quality.
