wisdom
A question was asked: Is patience a desirable leadership trait?
Here’s my response: Patience is the ability to experience a situation and not be compelled to react to it emotionally. It gives the opportunity to chose how to respond to a situation rather than react. Such patience is not passivity. Patience includes balancing action and inaction. A patient person may act instantaneously, by choice. The difference is that when a patient person acts, s/he does so from clarity rather than from emotional compulsion. Patience is a strength. Nothing is lost by having the strength of patience and much is gained. A patient person can time his/her response for the most effective moment; a patient person is able to stay at peace internally, which grants clarity of mind, and leads to better choices; a patient person can act from her/his best motivations rather than worst.
If a leader is truly patient, the results will reflect the intelligence that went into the choice. A truly patient leader is more able to give credit to others, to listen, to resolve differences when it is possible to do so rather than fight.
Patience is the wisdom to wait for planted seeds to sprout and put shoots above ground rather than digging them up to see if they are sprouting. Patience is waiting for the cake to rise rather than opening the oven and causing the cake to fall. A martial artist patiently awaits the perfect moment to move, to block, to punch. Patience is more about what happens in the inside of a person than on the outside. A patient person’s actions and those of one who is impatient may look, externally, the same in a situation. However the patient person’s heart is at peace while the impatient person’s heart is agitated.
