Patience

Patience is both difficult to master and essential to good leadership.  As a team member, you may remember having wondered why the team leader didn’t make what you saw to be obvious and logical decisions in a timely manner.  As a leader, you will need to change your perspective.  Making a quick unilateral decision, even if it is the correct one, can leave the team feeling disenfranchised.  The team needs to work through issues and reach decisions that they understand and thus support.  Note: Even if some members don’t support a decision, they need to understand how it was reached.  Having the team work through it as a group will help here.


Patience can also have the benefit of letting issues resolve themselves.  Many personnel issues, especially those that are grounded in personalities and not policies, tend to play out over time with little collateral damage.  Unhappy employees, and some of the issues they cause, are often addressed without leaders stepping in.  You may find that in the end your team appreciates your letting them resolve such matters themselves.  You may also find in many cases that the problem goes away with the problem child.

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