Be patient.

This is the last of the series on Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving. The previous posts have outlined the importance of developing discipline and concentration.

Leaders also need to enhance their practice of patience. According to Fromm, “…anyone who ever tried to master an art knows that patience is necessary if you want to achieve anything. If one is after quick results, one never learns an art.”

According to Wikipedia, patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties. All leaders recognize how important this can be when faced with the inevitable challenges, frustrations, and problems embedded in leading others.

In our world measured in nanoseconds, and when it seems to take forever (10 seconds) to get our cell phone on after pressing the start button, our patience is continually being tested..

It may take a lifetime to become the leader you are capable of becoming. The mastery of leadership is not achieved by doing a quick Internet search of leadership, reading two blog posts, and attending a motivational seminar. We must commit to our practice the same way all artists do who strive to achieve mastery of their craft. A leader who patiently practices the art of loving will transform leadership competencies into proficiencies and muddlement into mastery.

Adrian Savage provides this snippet on the importance of waiting in his wonderful blog: Slow Leadership

Waiting is hard sometimes. You’ll need to restrain any tendency to jump to conclusions or rush into a decision. You will be tempted to get a jump on events or set things in motion early, so you can transfer your focus elsewhere. …Use the time to plan, consider alternatives, and have second, or third, or fourth thoughts. Above all, keep waiting and watching events, so you can shift direction if they change. …Slowing down and looking ahead may seem tentative compared with the methods of the Action Man School of Management. You will sometimes be criticized for being too slow and cautious. You may face laughter and ridicule. You shouldn’t care. Getting it right matters more. When the high-speed, short-term, grab and go manager has crashed and burned, you’ll still be in one piece, able to show the results that he or she frittered away.

4 prescriptions for your patience:

1. Click here to read the following sections from an informative article on developing patience at Tools for Personal Growth. Determine 1 or 2 ideas you can take action on to improve your patience.

• What is patience?
• What are some negative consequences of impatience?
• How do people respond to impatience in others?
• How do you feel when you are impatient?
• What are some beliefs of people who lack patience?
• What new behavioral traits are needed for patience to develop in your life?
• Steps to develop patience in the pursuit of personal growth and change?

2. Click here to read and reflect on this collection of quotations on patience. Choose one quotation and place it by your desk as a reminder to keep focusing on patience.

3. Click here to read Joan Borysenko’s thoughtful article, Practice Patience. When you feel rushed and hurried be patient with yourself and the people you lead.

I once heard patience defined as impatience stretched to its limit. The implication was that most people have no idea what patience really is. In the name of patience, we often hold back like a pit bull straining against its leash. We are not present at all just trying to look pleasant while our blood boils. Inside, we’re wishing that the traffic would clear, that our child would go to bed, or that our colleague would shut up already. A lot of energy is used up in the name of this false patience.

4. Read, reflect, and take action on the perspectives, suggestions, and creative diagrams offered at Slow Leadership.

Find your genuine patience by practicing The Art of Loving in leadership. Thank you Erich Fromm for your legacy on love and leadership given to us 50 years ago in 1956. Your perspective and practices are timeless.

Please note: I will be away on holidays during August. Have a wonderful summer. Until my regular posts return in late August I encourage you to read the interesting blogs listed in the right hand column.

Technorati Tags : strength based leadership, Erich Fromm, patience, Zinger

The second practice in Fromm’s The Art of Loving is concentration. I am drawn to the focused archer on the cover of Lisa Haneberg’s new book, Focus Like A Laser Beam. Thank you Lisa for giving me permission to use this wonderful cover.

The archer has so much concentration that she has become one with the target. The cover of the book reminded me of Eugene Herrigel’s 1953 classic on Zen and the Art of Archery.

To lead is to lose sight of oneself as we unite with our people and our target.

To develop concentration Fromm maintained that a leader needs to be comfortable being alone without distractions. Fromm’s book was written 50 years ago and our distractions have increased exponentially with technological time savers transforming into technological intruders breaking into our nanosecond span of concentration.

Fromm encourages leaders to practice meditating to increase their concentration or mindfulness. The following quote from Fromm reminds me of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s current work on mindfulness: one must learn to be concentrated in everything one does…the activity at this very moment must be the only thing that matters… things assume a new dimension of reality, because they have one’s full attention.

Concentrate on these 8 leadership questions:

1. As a leader where is your focus?

2. Are you able to concentrate on this article or are you already thinking of linking away?

3. When is the last time you “retreated” from leadership to step back, reflect, and gain a sharper focus?

4. In a sentence can you state your organizational target with vision and accuracy?

5. Do you fully engage with each person you lead to create a high-quality interaction that energizes both of you and demonstrates active concentration on the person in front of you at this very moment?

6. Are you easily distracted by tasks that interfere with your central purpose in leadership?

7. Do you find yourself in two places at once as your head is bowed and you become a “thumbody” typing out messages on your blackberry – disconnected from what is going on right in front of you?

8. Are you comfortable being alone without distractions and can you fully give yourself to the art of leadership as your concentration fuses you with your target and followers.

Here are 3 sources to enhance your concentration:

1. Read this brief zen parable about archery when your concentration is challenged. Can you take the shot when your concentration is compromised?

2. Read Mike Stock’s brief sports psychology piece on The nature of concentration. What can we as leaders learn about concentration from elite athletes and their practice of sports psychology?

3. Tune into Lisa Haneberg’s webcast on focus and read her book, Focus Like a Laser Beam. Practice Lisa’s invitations to excite and energize, tune your dialogue, and zoom in.

Alan Watts wrote a line years ago that has always stuck in my consciousness: If you make where you are going more important than where you are, there may be no point in going.

May the force of concentration be with you…here and in the next moment of leadership.

Next article: Patience and The Art of Loving.

Technorati Tags : strength based leadership, Erich Fromm, concentration, Zinger