Leadership is like a muscle. It doesn’t grow just because you want it to. It doesn’t grow because you dream of it growing. Growth and skilled leadership take real work, hard work and most of all patience. Hard work means patience. Hard work means practice.  This combination of practice and patience establish the rhythm by which the leadership muscle is perfected.

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

James 1:5 (NKJV)

Me as a freshman at Hardin-Simmons University, 1995. An impatient outside linebacker.

Those Who Stay will be Champions 

I played five sports (football, basketball, baseball, wrestling and soccer) in high school and in all of them our practice-to-game ratio was a combined average about 3:1 or 4:1. That means we practiced 300 to 400% more than we played games! And that was during the season. Each season before the first game, we practiced nearly a month before the first game. That means before our first significant test, match or game it was a nearly 20-25:1 ratio –2000-2500% more  practice before the first game!  I think when you start to break down hours spent in practice versus hours spent in game time, the ratio is probably much more pronounced. I would go on to the next level. Little did I know as you advance in athletics, in life, in relationships and especially in leadership, the next level always requires more patience. I watched many players start with a lot of talk, but grew impatient quickly and quit.

Higher levels = more practice. I discovered this playing NCAA III football at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas under Head Coach and West Texas legend, Jimmie Keeling, who loved to practice. He’d say things like “Men, this is where we get better” as you had sweat pouring in your eyes in the 116 degree West Texas oven.  Nearly, every day in team meeting he would say “W-I-N. What’s Important Now?” and he would go on to say things like, “Practice, men, practice…” in his west Texas drawl with a sly smile and a twinkle in his eye. Too many developing leaders view practice as a waste of time. This does not allow for healthy development in leadership acumen.

Always one to value my personal time, I calculated that between three-a-days (three practices a day in summer), working out, watching film, meetings, actual practice time, team meals, extra work and logistics, I spent anywhere from 80-100 hours some weeks for a 3 hour football game of which a starter would be on the field 20-30 minutes of actually game time. With the average play lasting only 6-8 seconds, college football is primarily a game of preparation for a split second of execution. Just like leadership, many decisions have to be made in a split second.  That’s why in football, you drill, drill, drill and more drill. Many leaders don’t think that what they are doing when they are waiting matters. They couldn’t be more wrong! There is not a wasted play or wasted practice in leadership development. Preparation finds its identity in practice. Practice it’s perfection in repetition. Patience and practice have a way of weeding people out.  Coach Keeling with an astounding combined college and high school coaching record of 368-144-11, used to always say “Those who stay will be champions!” He meant if you lose sight of the goal and get impatient, then you will never achieve what you started out after. He meant patience is the key to success.

“Those who stay will be champions!” 

Former Hardin-Simmons Head Football Coach and one of my Heroes,

Jimmie Keeling

Leadership is Perfected in Practice 

Leadership is not a game. It is a continual, commitment that requires and demands practice. Leadership is perfected in and only in practice. Great players didn’t come out of the womb great. They came out gifted. It’s the combination of practice and patience that fostered greatness.

An impatient leader is a poor leader. Zeal and enthusiasm are important in leadership, but single-handedly they cannot produce growth. But, they can sure produce a lot of frustration. Impatient leaders don’t produce good followers, more leaders or greater inlfluence. Impatient leaders produce the fruits of frustration and exhaustion. The reality is impatient leaders produce anxiety, accelerate stress and create a climate of more impatience.  Impatience is water running downhill. It erodes and the quicker it moves the faster it erodes.

Patience is not a barrier. Barriers are concrete objects that prevent progress. Barriers have to smashed. Leaders do little smashing and lots of chiseling. Patience is a boundary. Boundaries can be rescinded or extended. A boundary gives you space to operate in and grow in.

Patience Means Sometimes You Walk Away

Wise leaders establish boundaries, organize the work and walk away. This is not the walking away of irresponsibility, but the walking away of patience. Your followers will never grow if you don’t give them room. But this is room inside the boundaries. There is a time where mature leaders must walk away and allow their immature, developing  leaders the opportunity to learn patience. Even among millennial leaders (who demand constant feedback), I intentionally give them more space than they are comfortable with. Now, a wise leader walks away to an elevated position of observation, but not so far away they are unable to engage in a moment of need.

The Lesson of the Lifeguard

Like the lifeguard stationed at the deep end of a pool, take up a position that allows you to observe the confidence, competence and judgment of the leader you just let loose.

When they start to overexert themselves, let them sink a little. This requires patience on their part and your part. Sometimes,  they thrash violently, but then regain equilibrium. Leave them alone at this point. But, when their sinking is causing others to go under or everyone starts getting out of the pool, then decisively, directly and without discussion dive in the pool and rescue them. It takes patience to sit and watch a young leader struggle, but they will not grow without patience, both their own and yours.

The half-drowned swimmer looks at the lifeguard and says, “You almost let me drown. Why did you wait so long!?“

The lifeguard smiles and replies softly, “Are you sill breathing? Now, get back in there and do it again.”

(c) Alex Vann, 2017.