Should a leader ever do nothing?
They say patience is a virtue. It is connected to so many other attributes of great leadership. In my experience, it comes with wisdom and this comes from experience over time. (It is not one of my best attributes even to this day, but I am always working on it, having learnt the hard way.)
There is a time for decisive action. There is a time for stillness.
Knowing when to do nothing is one aspect of great leadership, which I suspect some might find challenging!
In my experience, many leaders learn this over time – later on in their careers – rather than when starting out in more senior roles.
It is really quite hard for high performers to do nothing!
When I say “do nothing” I mean be patient.
I am not referring to being paralysed by reasonableness – which could be a whole other article. (I will get on to that!)
Our world is a place of constant change, which is happening at a dramatically increasing rate. We all have to get used to this and learn to be effective at adjusting quickly to new opportunities and evolving technologies. (I doubt I am alone in feeling a bit anxious at times about keeping up.)
In the midst of this, there is a requirement for reflection and focus.
People need time to be their best selves. That includes leaders and the people reporting to them.
When I started my first Management Training Programme, back in the 1980s – at GEC Avionics in the defence manufacturing sector, one of the realisations that hit me was that the fighter jets flew at such vast speeds that the pilot had no time to look down at his flight deck. Too much ground would have passed underneath him in those few seconds that by the time he lifted his head back – up the aeroplane would have moved hundreds if not thousands of metres. So GEC Avionics helped to develop the F16 Fighter Head Up Display helmet. The technology projected the readings from the control panel directly onto the pilot’s helmet visor. He had no need to move his head down and risk crashing into the surrounding obstacles which could have appeared nearby.
Lately, I have been reflecting on the speed of change and how this affects leadership.
The ability to stop and think for a while can feel impossible. Speed is important but so is thinking.
We do need time to think. Perhaps it matters more now that things move much faster than they did before.
We need to notice the little things more, not less.
Dr John Blakey’s book “The Trusted Executive” talks about the TNTs – tiny noticeable things. These really do matter.
So many things in our lives are becoming automated, transactional, and devoid of human contact.
The interactions we have human-to-human are now so much more precious.
So “doing nothing” as a leader to me feels much more important. Putting space in the diary to be thoughtful, notice things, care and pay attention to the humans in the organisation and be patient with people is a true quality.
Yes. I think sometimes it is important to do nothing as a leader. Do nothing other than be present.
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