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.
From the direct report perspective, when leaders have gotten impatient with me in the past it is usually for the following reasons: 1) Expectations - I didn't do a good enough job asking the questions I needed to understand the What's and the When of the project; and 2) Too much time has passed between when I've given the leader an update on the progress of the project - even sharing no progress or news is good to do.
It always frustrates me when a superior, peer, and/or subordinate gets impatient with the newbies. I have heard: "I've already told them twice how to do it," or "I've already showed them." There's not much of a problem with this approach, IF they have been working, in the industry, awhile. The problem is most of us forget about hindsight bias and mastery. The one's I have these discussions with, have put in hundreds, if not thousands of hours.
At all levels we must (if we wish to be responsible) remember it generally takes thousands of hours to master things (ten thousand seems to be the general consensus).
We should absolutely rule out laziness and incompetence. If it's not these, then be patient with them.
A helpful approach is four to six week action plans. These allow one to track their improvements. I have found this approach to be informative and fair.
I keep a tracker that I call big rocks. It has all the work I am involved in and then only the big rocks for my direct reports and their teams. As a leader, I track everything I am involved with for two reasons: 1) Transparency - I'm not above what I ask others to do, and 2) I'm starting to get team members asking me about Project X or Y and ask if they can jump in and help. All I ask my team regarding progress is: 1) Only work on a two or three things at a time, and 2) Focus on making progress a little everyday. I get on them when projects just sit there. Usually it is because they are working on too many things at once. I tell them we have two status for a reason - backlog and active. If you're not doing this, it helps a lot.
From the direct report perspective, when leaders have gotten impatient with me in the past it is usually for the following reasons: 1) Expectations - I didn't do a good enough job asking the questions I needed to understand the What's and the When of the project; and 2) Too much time has passed between when I've given the leader an update on the progress of the project - even sharing no progress or news is good to do.
Good morning,
Awesome points.
It always frustrates me when a superior, peer, and/or subordinate gets impatient with the newbies. I have heard: "I've already told them twice how to do it," or "I've already showed them." There's not much of a problem with this approach, IF they have been working, in the industry, awhile. The problem is most of us forget about hindsight bias and mastery. The one's I have these discussions with, have put in hundreds, if not thousands of hours.
At all levels we must (if we wish to be responsible) remember it generally takes thousands of hours to master things (ten thousand seems to be the general consensus).
We should absolutely rule out laziness and incompetence. If it's not these, then be patient with them.
A helpful approach is four to six week action plans. These allow one to track their improvements. I have found this approach to be informative and fair.
As always, thanks for your time.
My Ten Ps of Personal Success
1 Purpose 2 Passion 3 Professionalism 4 Preparation 5 Product Knowledge
6 Proactive Listening 7 Presentation Skills 8 Patience 9 Perseverance
10 Proper Follow-Up
I keep a tracker that I call big rocks. It has all the work I am involved in and then only the big rocks for my direct reports and their teams. As a leader, I track everything I am involved with for two reasons: 1) Transparency - I'm not above what I ask others to do, and 2) I'm starting to get team members asking me about Project X or Y and ask if they can jump in and help. All I ask my team regarding progress is: 1) Only work on a two or three things at a time, and 2) Focus on making progress a little everyday. I get on them when projects just sit there. Usually it is because they are working on too many things at once. I tell them we have two status for a reason - backlog and active. If you're not doing this, it helps a lot.