We love to talk about decisiveness. About boldness, charisma, vision. We glamorize āmove fast and break thingsā leadership like itās the only kind that works.
But thereās one leadership skill that rarely gets any spotlightāpatience.
Itās not sexy. It doesnāt make great TED Talk soundbites. But in my experience, patience is one of the most underrated, overused, and completely necessary tools in a leaderās arsenal.
Letās unpack that.
1. Patience is Not Inaction
First, letās kill the myth that patience means doing nothing.
Patience is deciding to do nothing right nowābecause the timing isnāt right, the information is incomplete, or the person in front of you needs room to grow. Itās restraint with intention.
Sometimes thatās the hardest kind of action.
2. People Donāt Grow on Command
You can give someone the clearest task and the best toolsāand theyāll still fumble.
The instinct? Step in. Fix it. Move on.
But if you do that every time, youāre not leading. Youāre just babysitting.
Patience is what turns mistakes into lessons. Itās giving space for growth, not just efficiency. Leadership isnāt about showing how capable you areāitās about building capability in others.
3. Waiting Can Be a Power Move
There are times when Iāve held off on making a decisionāsometimes for days, weeks, or longerābecause I sensed the team wasnāt ready yet. Or because the situation still had room to shift.
And it usually did.
Patience lets you observe the undercurrents. The politics, the stress signals, the emerging patterns. Sometimes by simply waiting, you see truths that wouldāve stayed hidden if you acted too fast.
4. Patience Builds Trust
Nobody likes a knee-jerk boss.
If your team knows you wonāt overreact at the first sign of trouble, theyāll bring issues to you earlier. If they see you take time to understand before acting, theyāll feel heardāand that earns you loyalty.
In a world obsessed with urgency, patience is a signal: āIām steady. Iām not going to flinch. Iāve got your back.ā
That kind of leadership is rareāand incredibly powerful.
5. Itās Hard, and Thatās Why It Matters
Patience doesnāt come naturally to most of us. It definitely didnāt for me. I had to unlearn the instinct to fix, jump in, rush. I had to sit with discomfort, uncertainty, silence.
But every time I managed to hold space instead of fill it, I noticed something: things unfolded better. Smarter decisions. More capable teams. Less emotional whiplash.
So no, itās not glamorous. But it works.
Final Thoughts
If youāre leading a team, youāre not just making decisions. Youāre shaping growth, culture, and characterāstarting with your own.
And that takes patience.
Not the passive kind. The active, gritty, intentional kind. The kind that says, āI trust you. Iām here. Iām not in a rush to prove anything.ā
The kind that makes space for real leadership.