BCG Blog

Patience or Accountability

Too patient and you become soft, a pushover.
Too strict and you become cold, a drill sergeant.
Neither is a good recipe for an effective, transformational leader.

I’ve found the best leaders to balance patience and accountability masterfully. They seem to have an innate ability to know just when to push a little more and when to allow space - when to demand and when to forgive. 

When we allow excessive time to reach the standard, we are also saying the standard isn’t that important. Passivity, relaxed, cool doesn’t produce excellence.

Likewise, a tyrannical drive to the standard dismisses the process we all must pass through in order to reach new heights. Suppressing creativity, working through mistakes, and remaining focused only on yourself doesn’t produce excellence either.

There must be an appreciation for the dichotomy between the two.

Why Should We Care?
Whether we aspire to excellence as an individual, or for our team, we soon realize both patience and accountability are required. The question becomes, how do we know what we need when?

The first concept to understand is that excellence requires friction. And, friction requires time to work through. We all know nothing significant is accomplished without overcoming many obstacles. Hard work, persistence, and a positive attitude are all necessary. Patience is too.

The second concept to understand pertaining to excellence is that you get what you accept. You don’t get what you want. You don’t get what you ask for. You get what you accept from yourself or those you lead. The standard of accountability you establish within your team will determine your team’s performance level as much as anything else. 

Notice both of these concepts are centered on the process, not the result. Trusting the process means being patient and realizing excellence will not come immediately. And, our accountability applies to how we go about our work also. By taking care of the process, we give ourselves the best possible chance to achieve the desired result.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Executing this balance between patience and accountability is much more of an art than a science. It requires emotional intelligence along with a high level of self-awareness. Here are a few ideas to help you walk that line.

• Stay Patient 
  • Put your head down and work - set the process, then trust it; you don’t need to check the scoreboard or results all the time; doing so just pulls you further away from the process
  • Fight comparison - run your race, without comparing it to someone else’s; focus on your values and your contribution to those around you; appreciate what others bring without becoming envious
  • Practice gratitude - maintain a thankful attitude for the opportunities you had in the past, have now, and will have in the future; gratitude is the best medicine for a lot of things - entitlement, complacency, and selfishness to name a few

 

• Hold Accountable
  • Be vulnerable - you need to have a genuine relationship with the people you need to hold accountable; the only way to do that is to build trust; and, the only way to gain real trust is to make yourself vulnerable - admit mistakes, say you’re sorry, sacrifice for others, share what’s on your heart
  • Challenge the accepted - people striving for excellence want to be challenged; they want to grow and become the best they can be; as a leader you serve these people the most by challenging what they accept from themselves
  • Consistency rules - few things are worse than a leader that is inconsistent with their accountability; few things are more powerful than a leader that unwaveringly upholds high standards

Patience and accountability should not be looked at as opposite ends of the spectrum. They are both tools in your bag as a leader. The best, most impactful, leaders know which tool to pick ... and, equally as important, when to use it.

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com. 
We would love to know how we could help!

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