Article: Are you patient enough for your job?

Life @ Work

Are you patient enough for your job?

Luckily, since patience is a virtue, and you are just human, you can learn to develop and inculcate it in your personal and professional lives. Heres how
Are you patient enough for your job?

We all know patience is a virtue. But how many of corporate denizens can claim to be patient enough for their jobs? Irrespective of what we’ve been taught, and what we’ve experienced, most people often overlook the importance of patience in their personal and professional lives. Some even believe that impatience is a sign of result oriented professionals. But the truth is, it is a shroud for other serious problems and can lead to severe long-term consequences.

Luckily, since patience is a virtue, and you are just human, you can learn to develop and inculcate it in your personal and professional lives. Here’s how.

Start with being courteous

When you are impatient, it shows in every interaction you have with people around you. You interrupt, ask people to hurry up and get to the point, finish off their sentences at the slightest hint of hesitation, etc. All of this makes you look intimidating and irritating to people around you. 

Do a little introspection and see when and how you indulge yourself in such behavior. Learn to respect other people’s opinion and their abilities. Let them finish talking even when you do not agree with them fully. Remember, you will get respect when you show respect for others.

Manage your body and facial expressions

Your body language and facial expressions are often dead giveaways of your impatience in any situation. Introspection may not yield the best results in learning to manage your body language. So enlist the help of a close friend and try to eliminate the weak points in your non-verbal communications at the earliest.

Do away with arrogance

Success often takes you to top where you are pretty much alone. It often breeds arrogance and you begin to devalue the contributions of people around you in your success. Learn to listen more, and listen to understand. Listening merely to respond is a telltale sign of arrogant people and you don’t need to be that. When you listen only to respond, you become a preacher. When you listen to understand, you are perceived as a teacher who is ready and able to solve real problems and you earn the respect of the speaker as someone who genuinely deserves to be successful.

Trust people around you

A leader must be able to put his trust in the people around him. When you trust them to deliver the best results for tasks assigned by you, you empower them and train them to make better decisions. If you keep checking in for progress every few minutes, your impatience will not only irritate people, but also prove to disruptive and wastes their time.

In the end, being successful and feeling successful are two very different things because the definition of success, the goalposts can always be pushed further, higher. However, irrespective of how much success you have accumulated over your career, impatience is the one factor that can leave you wanting for more and yet never allow you to reach your full potential. Having said that, if you feel you are a little impatient, and you want to change that, then the truth is that it’s all in your hands. All it takes is a little resolve and a little patience with yourself.

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Topics: Life @ Work, Culture

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