You may have heard the saying ‘patience is a virtue’, and being tolerant of others is a great trait.
Patience is defined as “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.”
Interestingly the origin of the word patience comes from the Latin word “pati” which means ‘to suffer’.
HOW CAN PATIENCE BECOME YOUR ENEMY?
Patience applied at the wrong time when hiring and managing a new person could work against you and not help the new team member.
We hear Managers say they are going “wait and see”. Sometimes Managers continue to wait and give 5+ chances in the hope that this person will eventually take off… and find out that they never do.
If you think about the last time that you hired someone who does a really good job, how long did it take for people to know this was a valuable person?
Within the first week did you start to see them helping and start to see things moving better in the right direction? Did things start to improve?
It’s better to be impatient combined with the right way to effectively onboard a new team member.
UNDERSTAND AND HELP YOUR TEAM
STEP 1 The most important step pre-hiring and post-hiring is to ensure the new team member has a clearly defined key result that they need to produce in their role.
They could have milestones or activities that are measurable and show some sort of improvement and progress from when they start.
STEP 2 Make sure you know how different people learn and get established. Not understanding this could cause you to apply the wrong judgment and lose great people or be too patient with the wrong person.
People have different ‘lengths of runways’ when it comes to becoming established in their role and this has to do with their personality.
(Below are some sections of Performia’s personality evaluation)
Some people like stability and routine. They like to know everything about new areas of responsibility before they start as this is how they feel stable and in control. They like their routine, their structure and find comfort in their stable points.
These types of people can take much longer to get settled and reach the full level but once they do reach it, they are very, very happy to stay in that same role for many years to come as they love the stability that they now know everything and nothing new can surprise them!
Some others LOVE new things. They are happy to start without knowing much (in fact they prefer it), and they start to learn on the job very quickly…and in little time they can master the new level of knowledge.
These sorts of individuals can be ambitious, get bored very quickly and to keep them for longer, you will need to create opportunities for growth or NEW challenges. Doing the same thing over and over again will be torture for these people.
WHICH IS BETTER?
Neither of the above are right or wrong, neither is better than the other. However, it depends on what you need for the role.
Not knowing which type of person you have in your team can lead to mis-management and perhaps being too patient, or not patient enough! Even those who use the longer ‘runway’, still do increase their speed while on the runway and you start to see them lifting. Even though it could take much longer, you still ‘see’ them progressing.
If you truly want to build a motivated, aligned and successful team, it is wrong to continue giving chances to those who show no sign of any improvement and moving at the same speed, not delivering any sort of value.
Some Managers who feel a lot of empathy for others feel bad for the person and this becomes an issue when the necessary action is not taken.
The point to realise is that everyone else’s life will be much worse if you are too patient. While you are waiting to see if this person will finally get it and become productive, you could be letting down everybody else.
IN SUMMARY
It’s important to know ‘who’ you are getting before you make a hiring decision. Using Performia’s performance and personality evaluation, you will know whether you have someone who is going to be productive, and how their personality style will be – also enabling you in correct management of the person.
And when new team members start, ensure you are not being patient with someone not delivering any ‘product’ and sign of value. There has to be some progress in this area, and it is the only time when the right person will also feel good in their role.
There is a lot to know about how to effectively hire and build your team, which is covered extensively at Performia’s Build Your Team training.
Register for a Performia Discovery to learn more.