Patience may be a virtue, but can it become a skill?

From Chip Espinoza, co-author of Managing the Millennials:

One of the self-reported challenges Millennials say they have in the workplace is a lack of patience. They are keenly aware that having limited experience stymies the pace at which they desire to advance in their careers. One of the Millennials I interviewed commented, “From a cognitive perspective, I know that I am young and shouldn’t have such grandiose expectations of how fast I will move up, but emotionally it makes me crazy that I have to wait … just for waiting sake.”

Waiting is something the Millennial generation isn’t accustomed to. They have grown up in a world in which they can get virtually anything from anywhere within 24 to 48 hours. More importantly, they have learned that they can advance in most things at the pace they want. They master video games from level to level on their own clock and take Advance Placement classes in high school to accelerate their education and learning at their own pace. They are — to some degree – in control of the speed of their own progress.

Interestingly, patience is usually defined by impatience. That is to say that when we talk about “being patient” we are talking about not being something else. So what does it mean to practice patience? Research suggests that patient people differ from impatient people in three key areas:

1. The ability to evaluate why they are having to wait.
2. Understanding other people’s responsibility for delay.
3. Taking responsibility to adapt to the situation.

As I mentioned previously, Millennials are used to moving at their own pace. The key for Millennials to practice patience is to take responsibility for adapting to the situations in which they find themselves! Patience requires the ability to see delay as a necessary step towards a desired end. So what’s my advice to Millennials frustrated by this sometimes necessary delay?

• Try to understand your manager’s point of view.
• Keep being persistent in your efforts.
• Consider the waiting period as time you can use for mastering your current responsibilities.