I want patience right now!

“I think my impatience has helped me, but now it’s holding me back.” These are the introspective words of one of my coaching clients, recently promoted to a senior leadership role. His “sense of urgency,” which has been such an asset, is showing up as overzealousness and even rashness in his new role. He is moving so fast he is not bringing his people with him. 

I stood up from this Zoom coaching call and walked out to my corral to watch my son Joseph train our two-year-old colt, Gaucho. Talk about a great example of exercising patience. Joseph is a master trainer; this is the sixth one he has broken for me, most of them wild mustangs. On this day, he was focused on getting Gaucho comfortable with the saddle, and as you can see from the video, he seemed to be making great progress. I wanted him to keep going, but he looked down at his watch and said – “no, that’s all for today.” Joseph understands that knowing when to stop is key to training young horses. Their minds can only take so much change for one day.

Relentlessly driving to solve a problem no matter how long it takes may work as an individual contributor, but team leaders must be patient enough to slow down, step away, and revisit it later. The great horse trainer Buck Brannaman's advice applies equally to horses and humans: “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Rush a horse, and you’ll end up riding the wind—unintentionally.”