By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to focus your thinking more clearly. Reading time: 1:45

Sloooowwwwww Down!

Historians tell us that Sitting Bull earned his name for his deliberative thinking style. Once the Sioux Indian Chief made up his mind- once he completed his “sitting”- he would ‘bull” ahead unwaveringly.

Indeed, sitting quietly –slowing down— enhances the precision of command. That’s why the most effective leaders throw their WAIT around. They slow down to counter-intuitively speed up their performance.

And they more directly engage followers With impact, insight and intensity. Their patience breeds precision in the leader as a thinker and a writer.

Yet patience is one of the toughest behaviors to modify in can-do, will-do, result-driven leaders a.k.a Get-er-Done Guardians.

Even three seconds is too long for nearly 90 percent of leaders to stand still. At least that’s the experience in one horse training exercise specifically developed to teach executive leaders to wait for others to fully grasp their intention. The ground exercise goes like this:

The executive holds a rope-called aptly a” lead line” to the horse. The executive stands about 4 feet in front of the horse. The executive is supposed to stand still for a full three seconds so the horse has enough time to learn exactly what the executive intends the horse to do.

The horse is trained to react only after three seconds of non action. Half of the executives start pulling on the lead rope within 2 seconds. Meanwhile most of the other half of over eager executives step back to the starting point. Fewer than 1 in 10 learn how to appropriately throw their WAIT around.

Lesson learned: Intentions take more than a second or two to be communicated, understood an acted upon.

Give yourself a break. And a brake. Become your own Sitting Bull. Throw your Wait around.

And Sloooowwww Doooowwwn!!!.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Slow down to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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