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Feb.16, 2024
Dear Reader,
Welcome to another edition of our Inclusive Leadership Spotlight newsletter. Last week, we focused on bridging high-performance skills with Inclusive Leadership. In this edition, we will discuss a quality of top performers that might hinder their leadership: reactivity turning into impatience.
Let's explore the significance of patience and its impact on creating a supportive and inclusive work environment. Our approach will involve developing self-awareness, enhancing leadership skills, and emotional and cultural agility to cultivate patience within ourselves and our diverse teams. I will keep it brief!
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the foundation for cultivating patience within ourselves. Take a moment to reflect on your tendencies toward impatience.
- Reflect on Reactions: How do you typically respond when faced with delays or setbacks in work-related tasks or projects?
- Observation of Communication: Do you find yourself interrupting others or finishing their sentences when engaged in conversations or meetings?
- Evaluation of Decision-Making: When making important decisions, do you feel a sense of urgency to reach conclusions quickly, potentially overlooking diverse perspectives or alternative solutions?
- Assessment of Team Dynamics: How do you react when team members require additional time or support to complete tasks, especially when deadlines are tight? How do you react when an interlocutor struggles to bottom-line their interventions?
- Reflection on Feedback Reception: When receiving feedback, do you tend to become defensive or impatient, or do you take the time to understand and consider the perspectives being shared?
- Cultural Awareness: How do you assess the cultural differences regarding patience, bottom-lining, or meeting tight deadlines?
These questions aim to help you recognize any tendencies towards impatience in your leadership approach. By reflecting on your responses, you can identify areas for growth and development in fostering a more patient and inclusive work environment.
Augmented Leadership Skills
By leading with patience, you set the tone for a supportive and inclusive work environment where diverse perspectives are an asset to creativity and resilience in a fast-changing environment.
Self-leadership
- Embrace Flexibility: Recognize team members' different working styles and task approaches. Embrace flexibility by allowing individuals to work most effectively as long as deadlines are met and quality standards are maintained.
- Suspend Judgement: Take the time to truly hear your team members' concerns, ideas, and suggestions without interrupting or rushing to judgment. Notice your reaction - and possible judgment -breath, and listen.
- Cultivate Routines: Routines provide structure and predictability, which can help tame impatience and reduce anxiety and frustration, allowing you to approach tasks and challenges with a calmer and more open mindset. What is your preferred one: journaling, sports session, or yoga class? Any other?
Leading a diverse team
- Lead by Example: Demonstrate patience in your actions and interactions with team members. Model the behavior you want to see by remaining calm, composed, and understanding, even in challenging situations.
- Set Realistic Expectations: Set realistic deadlines and expectations for tasks, considering your team members' diverse skills and capacities. Avoid overloading individuals with unrealistic workloads that may lead to stress and burnout.
- Celebrate Progress: Recognize and celebrate the progress made by team members, even if it's not perfect or exactly as planned. Acknowledge their efforts and contributions, and encourage them to continue learning and growing.
- Provide Constructive Feedback and Guidance: As mentioned in my Wednesday video, offer constructive feedback and guidance to help team members improve their performance, meet deadlines, or communicate more effectively. Focus on specific behaviors or actions that can be adjusted rather than criticizing individuals.
Patience is crucial for inclusive leadership because it promotes collaboration, understanding, growth, and empathy. Contrary to popular belief, it is a skill that can be learned through practice and… patience!
Emotional and Cultural Agility
Emotional and Cultural Agility are essential in developing patience within ourselves and our teams. It's important to acknowledge that individuals may have different communication styles, cultural backgrounds, and ways of processing information.
While patience is a universal concept, its interpretation and significance may vary across various cultures. Many cultures see patience as an inner strength associated with social cohesion. In comparison, other cultures focus more on efficiency, productivity, and quick results.
Avoid clichés and stereotypes and be open to the fact that an approach different from yours may have merits. Stretch your preferred traits and, as aforementioned, help your team members become more agile.
By fostering Emotional and Cultural Agility, you create a workplace where differences are celebrated and patience is a guiding principle.
Wishing you a week full of patience,
Until next time,
Catherine
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🗣️ Remember, Inclusive Leadership is not a destination; it's a continuous evolution.
Let's create Constructive Frictions where Diversity delivers!
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