Patience is a leadership quality

Patience is a leadership quality that is severely under-rated in the world today. Leaders tend to be described as forceful, decisive, strong, but very rarely patient. I am continually inspired by animals, particularly horses and how they make choices so the whole herd survives and thrives. A lead stallion or mare is forceful when required and at other times adopts a softer, more patient approach.
Are you willing to be a patient leader who empowers your team to create a greater future? Patience isn’t passive or weak. As this example from my life about a horse named Willy shows.

Willy came into my life in a rather unusual way. My horse Salsipuedes had just died of a colic while I was living on the Lazy Double ‘D’ Ranch in Texas.  So my friend Andrew, who at the time had a stallion named Destino at the ranch, asked him to contribute to me. A day later, Destino broke out of his stall (he had never done that before or after) and got into the gelding pasture. Any efforts by the cowboys to catch him did not yield any success.
Finally, the ranch manager Cody said he would go and rope Destino, and I certainly wanted to be part of that adventure. We were all in the gelding pasture together to catch Destino when I noticed this horse I had not seen before. I asked Cody about him, and he said that he had bought him to be a pack horse for his trip in Colorado, and he was just hanging here. Cody asked me if I wanted him! That is where my story with Willy began.
Willy and I had a lot of fun while I was at the ranch in Texas. Later, when it came time for me to move to New Mexico, I asked Willy if he desired to move with me. I kept getting 'no' from him. He did not desire to move to that location so I didn't force him to either. Willy stayed at the ranch, hanging out with his buddies in the pasture. Since I am not there often, Willy did not have a lot of interaction.
Then the other day Cody asked me if he could have Willy to train him to pull a wagon with a paint mare he owned. I thought about it and asked Willy; now he is starting a new life on the ranch.

Look how well he is doing in his training! Go, Willy!