Tag Archives: slow yourself down

Throwing Your Wait Around

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

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

Sitting Bull Close-upSloooowwwwww 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: Continue reading