Practicing Active Patience at Work

The Quiet Power of Strategic Pausing

In my last post, we explored the subtle tension between wasting time and giving time—a distinction that can define how effectively we lead, make decisions, and navigate change.

I got so many comments and private messages on this topic that, this week, I am taking a closer look at one of the most undervalued professional skills: active patience.

If you’ve ever sat on your hands during a heated meeting, waited for a colleague to connect the dots instead of spelling it out, or resisted sending that “one last follow-up” email—you’ve practiced it. But chances are, it didn’t feel like a skill. It felt uncomfortable. Maybe even risky.

Because patience at work is often misunderstood. It’s seen as passivity, indecision, or lack of initiative. In reality, active patience is one of the most strategic moves a professional can make—when practiced with intention.

What Active Patience Is—and What It’s Not

Let’s clarify what we mean by active patience:

• It’s not doing nothing. It’s doing the internal work of resisting the urge to control, fix, or accelerate something prematurely.

• It’s not avoidance. It’s a deliberate pause that creates space for something else to emerge—clarity, alignment, timing, or readiness.

• It’s not a delay tactic. It’s a confident move. It says, “I trust the process enough to not rush it.”

Put simply: active patience is presence plus discipline.

Where It Shows Up at Work

Here are some common (and often invisible) places where active patience can be a powerful asset:

1. In Team Development

You’re growing a team member’s capability. You want to jump in and fix their work, but instead, you pause. You ask a question. You wait for their thinking to evolve. You give them a chance to own the solution. That wait? That’s active patience.

2. During Organizational Change

Leadership shifts, restructuring, new strategies—all bring uncertainty. People look for immediate answers. But sometimes the best move is to acknowledge the ambiguity, stay steady, and let the dust settle before offering a path forward. That’s not inaction—it’s emotional steadiness.

3. In Conflict

You feel misunderstood in a meeting. The email rubbed you the wrong way. The Slack discussion took a weird turn, and you feel slighted. You want to react fast. Instead, you breathe, draft a response, and revisit it in the morning. You choose response over reaction. That’s restraint with power behind it.

4. In Decision-Making

Not every call needs to be made right now. When you give yourself a beat—to gather more context, to let your intuition catch up to your intellect—you invite wiser decisions. That’s the long game.

Why Active Patience Is So Hard

It goes against almost everything corporate culture rewards: speed, decisiveness, and visibility. “Move fast and break things” is an ethos that seems to have run amok.

Active patience doesn’t always look impressive on the surface. It is generally not performative. There are no instant results. It can feel vulnerable, especially in performance-driven environments. You might worry others will see your pause as hesitation.

And yet—it often leads to more lasting impact.

Patience allows trust to build, learning to deepen, and timing to align. It turns quick wins into sustained momentum.

How to Practice Active Patience (Without Losing Your Edge)

Here are a few practical ways to cultivate this skill:

Name the Pause

If you’re giving something time, articulate it: “Let’s let this breathe until next week” or “I’m intentionally holding off for more clarity.” Naming your patience signals intentionality to others. And it serves to remind you of your intentions.

Channel the Energy Elsewhere

Active patience doesn’t mean inactivity. Channel the urge to “do something” into something adjacent: listening more deeply, noticing patterns, offering support, taking factual notes, or preparing for when the window to act does open.

Use Micro-Reflections

Try journaling at the end of the day: Where was I tempted to rush today? What happened when I paused? What am I learning about my own pacing? Small reflections reinforce the value of patience over time.

Stay Anchored in Purpose

Patience is easier when you’re clear on why you’re waiting. Tie the pause back to a larger purpose: “This will allow the team to learn,” or “This gives space for buy-in.” Purpose turns waiting into leadership.

Patience Is an Executive Skill (and Too Rare)

If we rebranded patience as “strategic timing,” would we treat it differently?

The most effective professionals I coach know that not every moment is ripe for action. They’ve learned to hold the space between urgency and inaction. They don’t equate stillness with weakness—they see it as wisdom.

Active patience is not about doing less. It’s about choosing when to do what matters most.

In your next tense meeting, or the next time you find yourself hovering over the “send” button, ask:

Is this a moment to act—or a moment to wait well?

That one question could change everything.

Question: what’s an example of where waiting paid off for you? And do you have a counter-example, where you waited and regretted it?