CHAPTER 1

Passion, Persistence, and Patience

Long time ago I adopted passion, persistence and patience as my motto. Perhaps because everything I did in my life needed to use, develop, and sustain those qualities. I was born in a Spanish family, not a rich one, but with the support I needed. I was constantly observed and the center of attention of my relatives as I was growing up, had a happy childhood, attended a good school and learned French as my second language. I always was passionate about reading, learning, and researching on new subjects. My scores at the primary school were very good, so my parents always supported me when I asked for a book, training course or something related to learn. In fact, my father was always very supportive on that subject, he believed that I needed to be well prepared for my future and he encouraged me to be focused on being trained and educated to get a University degree.

Everything was great during Primary and Secondary School but when I started to study at the University, I started to fail some times and I learned from failure to failure. I did not pass the first time in some subjects, so as I had the enthusiasm to move forward and, needed to use my persistence and my patience to progress in order to obtain my degree. That was not a path of roses, it was challenging and difficult but I was determined to do it. My degree consisted of five calendar years plus the final degree project. It took me seven years because I got a job at the third year of my studies, so I had less time to study and needed to develop my discipline and persistence to keep going on. It was the first time I was conscious of when you have passion about something, persistence and patience need to be cultivated to achieve your goal.

After a couple of years working for a multinational organization in Spain I discovered that project management was my passion. I believe passion is a priceless quality that makes everything different in our lives (Bucero 2010). Professional life is always difficult and challenging but when you have passion for your profession, that enthusiasm raises your excitement and interest to move forward. It has happened to me during my whole life. And that is the main reason why I am writing this book. I strongly believe that you need to convert your dreams into reality. You can do it without any doubt only if you believe you can. That is the principle I have been following as a professional during the last 37 years and it worked for me, so why not for you. I hope my real stories about my 3 Ps will help you to reflect and learn to build up a better future.

Passion

I truly believe passion makes the difference between success and failure in our lives. In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple after a 12-year absence. The company he had cofounded was running out of cash and close to bankruptcy. Jobs held a staff meeting and explained the role passion would play in revitalizing the brand:

The simple phrase—“people with passion can change the world” (Entrepreneur Network July 2015)—holds the secret to entrepreneurial success. Many times your body language shows your emotions (Figure 1.1). Several years later, in 2005, Jobs returned to the theme in his famous commencement speech at Stanford University. “You’ve got to find what you love,” Jobs said. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you have not found it yet, keep looking. Do not settle. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it.”

What Passion Can Do for You?

Passion is very important. Following your passion is the secret to overcoming the setbacks all entrepreneurs face and it builds strengths and resistance against the inevitable naysayers who will question your vision. I still remember when I left Hewlett-Packard in 2002 many of my colleagues told me sentences like: “where are you going Alfonso, you have a safe job here” or: “It is raining cat and dogs outside, business is very difficult to be able to survive,” or “you are bad on sales, you will fail.” My answer was “I love you too.” I started a new company focused on my passion (project management). So, I did not care of the “naysayers” and I survived, I achieved my vision and created a Project Management Consulting company where I am still working for sixteen years ago. It is also an essential ingredient in successful communication. If you are not passionate about your ideas, nobody else will be. I believe that every professional needs to have a purpose (Englund and Bucero 2012), my purpose is: “to help organizations to change their attitude to achieve better project and organizational success”

Figure 1.1 Passion for project management

When I created my own company on 2002 I reflected about the “why.” I mean, why did I need to start up a company working on project management? My answer was: because I needed to help companies to understand better the project management discipline in order to manage better and better projects for organizational success. I had passion to do that, I worked on designing and implementing a portfolio of products and services every year. On 2010 the financial crisis affected my company results and I lost some money. My passion for project management was there, I understood that I needed to make a difference on the market. Then I defined my company purpose as: To help organizations to develop and sustain a positive attitude managing projects for organizational success.

As an entrepreneur I am passionate—but not about the products I sell and deliver to my customers, but about purpose and mission. I am passionate about changing the world or disrupting an established category. For example, Steve Jobs was not passionate about computer hardware. He was passionate about building tools that would help people unleash their personal creativity. “Someone who is passionate will immerse themselves in a field. They want to know everything they can about it,” says Francisco García, the founder of-A-Hair Stylist Workshop. In a recent conversation, Francisco told me how much he admired Steve Jobs as someone who followed his passions, wherever they would lead.

Francisco said that passion is a fundamental trait he looks for when deciding who to hire for his business. He listens carefully to the words people use. There’s no rush to create a business you’re not passionate about just to be rich, he said. It will not work in the long run. You need to have your heart in it. The heart is what’s going to drive you to make the most money. Follow your passion and make a difference.

I do this passion activity all the time in my workshops, projects, and events (a picture of me talking and smiling is shown in Figure 1.2). I get on stage and I speak and facilitate with excitement, energy, and passion. One of the exercises I do, in order to demonstrate that passion is important, is just to change my communication style for a while. I become dull, bored and show a true lack of passion and energy. It is amazing to see everyone’s reaction in the room. They hate it! I do this to demonstrate why passion matters. We have something called Mirror Neurons. We automatically pick up the emotions of others.¹ Have you experienced sitting in your office and someone who has had a crap morning has just walked it and literally lumped it all over the office. They have been cranky, down or upset; and the whole energy in the room has changed. I am sure you felt it.

Figure 1.2 Alfonso Bucero showing his passion in a public talk

Passion is about believing in what you do, inspiring others to believe in it, and loving why you do what you do. Simon Sinek who wrote one of my favorite books “Start with Why”² said—“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” And I verified that on the delivery of my services as a PM consultant. I always take care of the people around me to get across the message of enthusiasm on everything I do. I do not need to make any special effort because it is natural, is coming from my mindset.

What Inspires Your Employees or Project Stakeholders?

Everything is about people—us, the individuals. Everyone needs to get personally inspired. Having a clear, common dream and purpose that every employee can identify with is the best way to motivate. Passion requires courage, even young-like energy, to keep your eyes on your goal and do all you can to achieve it.

This is exactly how you need to see your staff: as individuals and, first of all, human beings. As a leader, your task is to inspire and encourage positive attitude rather than to be a mere supervisor, as cited in Figure 1.3. Ask your people to smile more. I remind them that every day in the morning when they are brushing their teeth the need to smile and repeat “I am excellent.” Please smile more and more every day and you will enjoy much more moments in your life. Furthermore, you will show your happiness to anybody else and be contagious.

Figure 1.3 Smell the inspiration

Why Should You Measure Passion?

What you cannot measure, you cannot lead! (Zak 2009). This well-known fact also applies to passion. If you want to see enthusiasm as one of your goals, you also need to decide how you will measure it.

One main reason to measure your passion is that it inspires the whole staff to rethink their level of passion. When the staff’s focus is on passion and on how to increase it, the level will increase for sure. Soon the whole staff will start to think new ways to strengthen their enthusiasm or passion together. Passion is contagious. Please ask yourself:

The answer to those questions will give you some clues, about what is the amount of passion you are putting at work. Measure your passion temperature and you will always discover some ways to improve.

How Can You Measure Your Passion?

The aim of a passion survey needs to focused on the following subjects:

Measuring passion needs to be attached to already existing processes. In practice, this means that measuring is continuous, results are followed in some common meeting and the points for improvement are actually put into practice.

Every company can decide the most suitable cycle for their measuring. It is important, however, that measuring is continuous. In general, the survey is worthwhile to complete at least once a month to actually keep track of how things are going. As the whole staff answers the survey once a month, the survey should not be too long. And the questions need to be considered precisely.

What to Ask?

The target of a survey is always an individual—that is, the survey measures every individual’s passion separately. Good themes to cover are individual’s passion for their work tasks, and their sense of freedom, responsibility and inspiration.

Some suggested questions are:

When the results are ready, the first thing to focus on needs to be the factors increasing passion: the ones that are best fulfilled and are considered to be the most important factors by your staff. You need to try to focus on understanding why those factors have such an impact on passion.

When you have the facts on which factors increase passion, and why, it is time to consider the obstacles standing in the way of inspiration. You need to choose one or a maximum of two challenges and aim at solving the reasons for why they decrease passion.

The best way to gain true understanding is to have a discussion about the results openly with all of your project stakeholders. The discussion needs to be held in an open and trusting environment without blaming anyone. It is the only way to make progress and take steps forward, as a one motivated, harmonious and enthusiastic team. Now, it is time to measure your staff’s passion.

How to Assess Your People Passion

The following questions will help you to assess the level of passion you or you people have:

The crucial thing here is to watch where the person lights up/comes to life which is often indicated by faster speech, eyes and body language and so on. Also, when they over talk, it can indicate a subject they are passionate about. If you are dealing with more of an “analytic” as opposed to a more “expressive” person this can be a little harder to gauge.

I want to share a funny story with you that illustrates how significant is to show your passion when are interviewed for a job position. I still remember that interview when I needed to hire a new software programmer for my project team. He was a little bit nervous but very assertive in his answers to my questions but, when I asked him: what do you dislike earlier in the morning? He said the main think I do not like in the morning is to get up to go for work. He made me laugh, I could not avoid it. He was not passionate about his potential job, so I decided not to hire him.

Persistence

One of the definitions of persistence is the fact of continuing in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition (Mukwevho 2013). Others define it like the fact of persist or the quality to insist. Being persistent is a skill that can help you to achieve a goal, get what you wish and can even be a means by which you assert yourself in the face of stubborn or difficult people.

The application of persistence to any task, interaction or goal is often what distinguishes between those who are successful and those who fail in any endeavor. Indeed, a lack of persistence or “giving up too soon” is one of the most common reasons for failure in any endeavor. We are complex creatures. Hope and anguish can coexist and still create something truly amazing. Persistence is the ability to maintain action regardless of your feelings. You press on even when you feel like quitting, until you achieve that important goal. I surprise myself every day.

People give up too soon because they have wrong expectations of themselves and the outcome. They expect the way to be easy, and they are surprised when they find the reality to be the opposite. Their enthusiasm quickly melts and they lose heart. Then, start your journey with the right expectation. And don’t underestimate the amount of time required either.

Let me share with you one of examples of persistence: I am PMP (Project Management Professional) certified but I did not pass the PMP exam the first time. I was so arrogant my first time and thought that I did need not study just because I had 15 years of project management experience and, thought it would be enough to pass but it was not. I tried again a second time because I had it as a clear professional objective to be certified, but I was managing a project far away home and started to study very late every day, getting fall sleep most of the days, so I did not pass the second time I tried it. Finally, I passed the exam the third time because I studied enough and, dedicated effort and time (winners never quit as showed in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4 Winners never quit

Remember, there is no such thing as cheap success. Expect a hard way, not an easy one, and you will be mentally prepared when you encounter the reality. The size of your commitment should be proportional to the size of your desire. You will be blown away by what you can achieve if you don’t lose hope in yourself. Einstein persisted and stayed with problems longer to make sure he found exactly what he was looking for. He once said “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

What Persistence Can Do for You?

Being persistent can contribute to personal and professional success, but you need to be sure that you are dealing with achievable objectives. Persistence, has a lot to do with your success in life and business. Persistence is omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge once said “The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Talent and genius cannot take the place of persistence. The value of persistence comes from a vision of the future that’s so compelling you would give almost anything to make it real.

Persistence of action comes from persistence of vision. When you’re super-clear about what you want in such a way that your vision doesn’t change much, you’ll be more consistent—and persistent—in your actions. And that consistency of action will produce consistency of results. Every obstacle is an opportunity to improve.

When you work on any big goal, your motivation can wax and wane. Sometimes you’ll feel motivated; sometimes you won’t. But it’s not your motivation that will produce results—it’s your action. The decision to persist. To make progress even when you don’t feel like it. Persistence allows you to keep taking action even when you don’t feel motivated to do so, and therefore you keep accumulating results.

On March 2006 I started my studies to get a MSc in project management by the Zaragoza University. It took me three years instead of two because I am a business man always travelling across the oceans, but I had a clear objective of accomplishing my goals and used my persistence spending one more year than planned to achieve my MSc, and I got it by the end of 2008. By the end of 2009 I decided to study to obtain my PhD but I was not able to be registered at the University because of a big workload that year. On 2010 I was registered as a PhD student and I defended my project on July 2011, then I got the license to research on 2012. During 2013 and 2014 I tried to advance on my research but my thesis supervisor did not give me enough or right support, so I got lost and demotivated. Every time I met my supervisor he told me: “Alfonso you will never achieve your PhD because is not your first priority.”

That situation forced me to move to another university (MU). Then I restarted my research at that University on 2015, it seemed that I would get the support I needed. My mentor was better, I continued traveling outside my country of residence and I was not able to advance as much as I wanted. Finally, by June 2017 I had to present my thesis report but I did not get enough data from my surveys according to the University requirements. I was frustrated because I had worked a lot on that and I felt much more focused on my objective. Then that University did not allow me to continue. For a couple of months, I was demotivated but I reflected upon, contacted some colleagues who already have a PhD and I am now registered in ISM University.

In only two months my concentration, understanding and focus have changed positively. My supervisor is encouraging me all the time and now I know that I will achieve my objective. It is clearer now, so what I need is hard work and good supervision to achieve my goal. After four months with that supervisor I was able to submit my first research paper to an International Research Conference, and two months later I was notified that my paper was accepted thanks to the support and encouragement received from him. He made a difference because he explained very clearly how to write a research paper. It took me some time because my background is not academic but I did it.

What Inspires Your Employees or Project Stakeholders?

People who persists no matter the obstacles, sooner or later are bound to succeed. Despite the setbacks, it’s in your best interest to turn obstacles into stepping stones. Don’t choose to complain, or worse, to just give up (Bucero 2010). These choices do nothing to get you across the finish line. When your team members or other project stakeholders have clear objectives and expectations giving up is not an option. If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being highly related with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. A lack of persistence or “giving up too soon” is one of the most common reasons for failure in any endeavor. A little more persistence, a little more effort is sometimes what you need to get closer to the goal. Once you create a belief that there is an obstacle you cannot overcome, you stop looking for solutions.

The greater the achievement you seek, the more likely you will persist to achieve it. I always defended that “ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” Persistence in the service of a higher goal calls out many other virtues in you. You will push yourself to beyond what is comfortable to achieve your chosen goal. And you should know why you want your goal in the first place. And your why must be bigger than the obstacles. The bigger your “why” the better. Persistent people have a goal or vision in mind that motivates and drives them. Reaching this goal becomes the focal point of their life and they devote a greater percentage their energies and time toward reaching it. To stay persistent, break that big goal down into smaller pieces. Smaller pieces are easier to manage and easier to accomplish, and they’ll give you a feeling of accomplishment sooner.

In one project I managed in Granada (South of Spain) I had fifteen project stakeholders. Several of them were resistant because nobody informed them about how the change that project was provoking would be affecting them in their jobs and positions. As a project manager I needed to get as many allies as possible to be successful in that project. Then I used my persistence explaining to them one by one how much their organization needed the contribution of everyone. I found resistance because of political interests among some of them, but again I spent a lot of time with them treating them for dinner or having some Spanish tapas from time to time. It was very hard at the beginning but after a couple of months everybody was understanding that all of us were doing a special effort in the benefit of the project. Using my persistence in this real case was one of the keys for project success. Most of my project stakeholders were business unit managers and finally through my persistence I got them working as a team.

Why Should You Measure Persistence?

Because many people give up so soon. Then you need to measure how many times you are still pursuing your goal, failing and trying it again.

Persistence is important in your life as a project practitioner and you need to measured (see Figure 1.5). It will mark how well you accomplish tasks that you set for yourself. It will determine whether you are going to finish or quit before you have actually reached your goal (Vujicic 2011). You may have many great ideas for your business, projects or personal life. However, if you do not have persistence to see them through, it is a waste of time to get started. Do you know how to measure your degree of persistence? Before beginning any task or setting a goal, you need to understand your level of persistence and commitment. It is not exactly easy to measure your own persistence. If you are going to be honest with yourself, the only way to measure your persistence is during a task. Then you can measure your persistence level based on when or if you give up. This could take days, weeks, months, and even years. Most people do not have that much time to waste just to find out their persistence levels. Instead you can ask yourself a few questions that can help you figure out your level of persistence.

Figure 1.5 Measuring persistence

How Can You Measure It?

Cal Newport over at Study Hacks, wrote an interesting article where he claims that “getting started is overrated” (Newport 2008). He argues that too many people get started without commitment. As a result, they waste valuable time and energy on pursuits that they will give up after a few months of haphazard effort. Action without persistence is a waste of time. Continuing from Cal’s idea, I think it’s useful to ask yourself what your level of commitment is to a project or goal before starting. Measuring persistence is not easy. The only true way to know your persistence level is to work on a project and see when you give up. If you quit a goal after two years, your degree of persistence is two years.

Unfortunately, most of us do not have years of our lives to waste just to measure the level of commitment to a new project. Although it won’t measure the real thing, I think there is a thought experiment that comes pretty close to pinpointing the actual value. Are you willing to work forever? Pick any goal you want to measure your persistence for. Now, ask yourself how long you would be willing to work on the goal, without any positive feedback. How long would you be willing to work on a project, without being able to see any results from your efforts?

That length of time, I believe, is a rough estimate of your commitment to a project. Notice I didn’t ask how long you would be willing to work on a project. Instead, I asked, how long you would be able to work in a vacuum, devoid of any knowledge that you were making progress. If you want to get in shape, ask yourself how long you would be willing to go to the gym every day, if you didn’t lose a single pound, didn’t increase at all in strength, or didn’t look any different. How long would you be willing to last?

If you want to start a business, ask yourself how long you would be willing to keep experimenting and producing without earning a single dollar of revenue. Or receiving any indication that your business would continue. Persisting Forever is Stupid (Young 2016). Obviously, working forever without any results means you’re doing something wrong. Either you’ve picked an impossible pursuit (try flying by flapping your arms) or your approach is completely broken.

However, as a thought experiment, this question is still valuable. There are going to be periods in the pursuit of any goal, where you will completely lack positive feedback. You won’t have any motivational fuel to encourage you forward. The question is based on how long you feel you can continue in spite of this total absence of results.

How to Assess Persistence

In order to evaluate how persistent, you are, ask yourself the following questions:

Let’s just be frank here for a moment. Being persistent is not easy. In fact, very often it is hard. It’s often so much easier and sometimes more appealing to give up. Think about the last time you went on a fitness kick. You’re doing really well … then winter arrives and the allure of the warm done and an extra half hour in bed is so much more inviting than the wet, dark and cold morning. Those who persist (and yes, I admire you) end up with the health, fitness and vitality that we were striving for in the beginning when the motivation was high and the weather warm.

Patience

What is the meaning of patience? It can be defined as the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like. I also found it as an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.

Many good things really do come to those who wait. Having patience means being able to wait calmly in the face of frustration or adversity, so anywhere there is frustration or adversity we have the opportunity to practice it (see Figure 1.6). Yet patience is essential to daily life—and might be key to a happy one. Having patience means being able to wait calmly in the face of frustration or adversity, so anywhere there is frustration or adversity—for example, nearly everywhere—we have the opportunity to practice it. At home with our kids, at work with our colleagues, at the grocery store with half our city’s population, patience can make the difference between annoyance and equanimity, between worry and tranquility. Religions and philosophers have long praised the virtue of patience; now researchers are starting to do so as well. Recent studies have found that, sure enough, good things really do come to those who wait. Some of these science-backed benefits are detailed in the following, along with three ways to cultivate more patience in your life.

Figure 1.6 Patience

The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a series of studies on “delayed gratification” in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at “Stanford University. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately or two small rewards if they waited for a short period, approximately 15 minutes, during which the tester left the room and then returned. (The reward was sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie). In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes. A replication attempt with a more diverse sample population over 10 times larger than the original study failed to support the original study’s conclusions and suggested that economic background rather than willpower explained the results.

As a project practitioner I found that the organizational environment factors may also help to increase or decrease your patience as a project manager.

What Patience Can Do for You?

This finding is probably easy to believe if you call to mind the stereotypical impatient person: face red, head steaming. And sure enough, according to a 2007 study by Fuller Theological Seminary professor Sarah A. Schnitker and UC Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons, patient people tend to experience less depression and negative emotions, perhaps because they can cope better with upsetting or stressful situations. They also rate themselves as more mindful and feel more gratitude, more connection to mankind and to the universe, and a greater sense of abundance. I thank God every day for being healthy, having a great family, or even for not gaining a customer proposal but learning from it.

Patience comes in many different stripes. One type is interpersonal patience, which doesn’t involve waiting but simply facing annoying people with equanimity. Another type of patience involves waiting out life’s hardships without frustration or despair—think of business generation, I have a small company but we need to generate some sales every month to survive in business. There are some months where sales are not coming but we continue seeding and then the flowers grow up, I mean, some sales come. Unsurprisingly, in Schnitker’s study, this type of courageous patience was linked to more hope.

Finally, patience over daily hassles—I usually go through traffic jams several mornings per week—seems to go along with good mental health. In particular, people who have this type of patience are more satisfied with life and less depressed.

These studies are good news for people who are already patient, but what about those of us who want to become more patient? In her 2012 study, Schnitker invited 71 undergraduates to participate in two weeks of patience training, where they learned to identify feelings and their triggers, regulate their emotions, empathize with others, and meditate. In two weeks, participants reported feeling more patient toward the trying people in their lives, feeling less depressed, and experiencing higher levels of positive emotions. In other words, patience seems to be a skill you can practice—more on that next—and doing so might bring benefits to your mental health.

Patient people are better friends and neighbors: In relationships with others, patience becomes a form of kindness. Think of the best friend who comforts you night after night over the heartache that just won’t go away, or the grandchild who smiles through the story she has heard her grandfather tell countless times. Indeed, research suggests that patient people tend to be more cooperative, more empathic, more equitable, and more forgiving. “Patience involves emphatically assuming some personal discomfort to alleviate the suffering of those around us,” write Debra R. Comer and Leslie E. Sekerka in their 2014 study.

Evidence of this is found in a 2008 study that put participants into groups of four and asked them to contribute money to a common pot, which would be doubled and redistributed. The game gave players a financial incentive to be stingy, yet patient people contributed more to the pot than other players did.

This kind of selflessness is found among people with all three types of patience mentioned earlier, not just interpersonal patience: In Schnitker’s 2012 study, all three were associated with higher “agreeableness,” a personality trait characterized by warmth, kindness, and cooperation. The interpersonally patient people even tended to be less lonely, perhaps because making and keeping friends—with all their quirks and slip-ups—generally requires a healthy dose of patience. “Patience may enable individuals to tolerate flaws in others, therefore displaying more generosity, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness,” write Schnitker and Emmons in their 2007 study.

On a group level, patience may be one of the foundations of civil society. Patient people are more likely to vote, an activity that entails waiting months or years for our elected official to implement better policies. Evolutionary theorists believe that patience helped our ancestors survive because it allowed them to do good deeds and wait for others to reciprocate, instead of demanding immediate compensation (which would more likely lead to conflict than cooperation). In that same vein, patience is linked to trust in the people and the institutions around us.

Patience helps us achieve our goals: The road to achievement is a long one, and those without patience—who want to see results immediately—may not be willing to walk it. Think of the recent critiques of millennials for being unwilling to “pay their dues” in an entry-level job, jumping from position to position rather than growing and learning. In her 2012 study, Schnitker also examined whether patience helps students get things done. In five surveys they completed over the course of a semester, patient people of all stripes reported exerting more effort toward their goals than other people did. Those with interpersonal patience in particular made more progress toward their goals and were more satisfied when they achieved them (particularly if those goals were difficult) compared with less patient people. According to Schnitker’s analysis, that greater satisfaction with achieving their goals explained why these patient achievers were more content with their lives as a whole.

Patience is linked to good health: The study of patience is still new, but there’s some emerging evidence that it might even be good for our health. In their 2007 study, Schnitker and Emmons found that patient people were less likely to report health problems like headaches, acne flair-ups, ulcers, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Other research has found that people who exhibit impatience and irritability—a characteristic of the Type A personality—tend to have more health complaints and worse sleep. If patience can reduce our daily stress, it’s reasonable to speculate that it could also protect us against stress’s damaging health effects.

What Inspires Your Employees or Project Stakeholders

Patience is connected to trust, hope, faith, love and good character. I found ten Bible verses showing some of the aspects of patience. Being humble, gentle and patient are good skills. You need to be tolerant with your team members but at the same time you need to demonstrate them you have enough authority.

I managed a large project for the Ministry of Work in Spain. I was the project manager who worked for an important multinational firm but all my team members (35) were subcontracted and with a low level of experience. However, all of them had a great attitude and were committed to learn. At the beginning the team performance was really poor. Then I needed to apply my patience with them, listening to them as my first priority. I learned a lot from them about their feelings, as they worked for other company outside their home office and having me as a project manager from a multinational company.

It took me at least three months to start working as a winning team. I allowed them to fail some times because I understood they were unexperienced people, but I gave them feedback every week in a sustained way and they became good team members. I was patient with them understanding that their motivations were not mine. I talked to them face to face so frequently, organized some parties from time to time to tell jokes and laugh for a while together. The project was 18 months long, and by the end of the project I became their real boss because I earned their trust. And the best reward for me was when my team said: “we want to work with you again in the next project.”

Why Should You Measure Patience

Obviously, patience has a limit, so you need to measure it, understand what your level is, and prepare a plan to move forward. You need to know the elements that affect your patience to keep it under control. If you, as a project manager, are getting nervous you may affect the level of patience of your team.

As a leader you need to keep your project in control, so you need to develop a high level of patience to manage your project team members and stakeholders.

How Can You Measure Your Patience

In yourself and others, impatience, is easier to determine afterwards. A few instances of not meeting deadlines, and consistently rushing at the last minute, to be somewhere or do something when you have had more than ample time to prepare for it, indicates a chronic lack of patience.

The psychology behind these actions is usually rooted in some sort of internal “impedance”³ like a fear of failure, or total disinterest and lack of curiosity in the event or thing to be done, or the past experience of finding the thing boring beyond human endurance. If you or another is a very patient person then you are by your natural temperament, already inclined thru genetics, or you have made mental adjustments to the failures you have no doubt experiences when you were not patient, or you have a strong desire to have a very successful outcome in all respects. Pouncing, knee jerking, and other instant reactions, stimulus/response reflexes, are a sure indication of a dearth of patience in our behavior.

One of the dangers I have to lose my patience is when as a project manager I am communicating among my team by oral and written communication and I do not obtain any response. I usually give a couple of days to respond my messages but after that when I do not get any news or response I am getting nervous. My reaction is usually trying other method or communicating to other people around it in order to get my message received but it get me crazy some times.

How to Assess Your Patience

I found several questionnaires that try to address how to evaluate your patience. Some of them are very focused on stressing situations and they relate patience with the level of stress you can manage.

As a project manager you need to cultivate your patience with your team members, your manager, your project sponsor, your customer. In any case you need to take into account that you need always to work on the benefit of the project. I want to share with you some questions I recommend you in order to assess your patience:

Chapter Summary

I would like to remind you some important ideas shared in this chapter about Passion, persistence and patience.

Passion

Persistence

Patience

References

Bucero, A. 2010. Today is a Good Day: Attitudes for Achieving Project Success. Ontario, Canada: Multimedia Publications.

Englund, R.L., and A. Bucero. 2012. “The Complete Project Manager: Building the Right Set of Skills for Greater Project Success.” Paper Presented at PMI^® Global Congress 2012—EMEA, Marseille, France. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Mukwevho, A. 2013. Burning Desire. Grooming Man Human Development. Mandino, O. 2007. The Greatest Salesman in the World. Jaico Publishing House.

Mischel, W., and Ebbesen, E.B. 1970. “Attention in Delay of Gratification.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 329-337.

Vujicic, N. 2011. Life Without Limits. Australia and New Zealand: Allen & Unwin.

Young, S. 2016. 7 Must-Know Strategies to Learn Anything Faster. E-book

Zak, P.J. May 19, 2009. The Moral Molecule. Gruter Institute Squaw Valley Conference 2009: Law, Behavior & the Brain. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1405393

¹ Totterdell, P., K. Niven, and D. Holman. 2010. “Our Emotional Neighbourhood—How Social Networks Can Regulate What We Feel.” The Psychologist 23, pp. 474–77.

² Sinek, S. 2009. Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action. New York, NY: Portfolio.

³ Impedance. [im-peed-ns] Electricity. the total opposition to alternating current by an electric circuit, equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the resistance and reactance of the circuit and usually expressed in ohms. Symbol: Z. Impedance | Define Impedance at Dictionary.com
https://dictionary.com/browse/impedance