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Leaders, how well do you understand employees? Or do you confuse their patience for inactivity and laziness? It matters when you are leading morale. The feedback you give them, the accusations you mistakenly make, the labels you pin on them, ruin your leadership and morale. Let’s look at how to prevent this.

Understand Employees: Leaders, Do You See Patience or Inactivity? Image by Admitter via Flickr Commons License.

Image by Admitter via Flickr Creative Commons License.

Understand Employees: The Difference Between Patience & Inactivity

Leaders, to understand your employees, observe their everyday patterns and talk with them. This will stop you from projecting your personality type and expectations on them. If you are an extroverted driver, you may fall into the trap of confusing their patience with laziness and inactivity.

So, what is the difference between patience and inactivity/passiveness? Well I like Jay Shetty’s take on it: “Patience follows initiative and pursuit.” When employees take initial steps toward goals and some follow-up actions, they then must wait for other’s responses, contributions, feedback etc… So do not expect all employees to be in constant motion or pushing others toward the end goal.

Tangible Steps to Take With Employees

1. Observe how they work. Do they show initiative at the start? What follows? Do you see it as being lazy/passive?

2. Ask them what obstacles, if any, are slowing progress on the project? Listen carefully to their response.

3. Discuss ways to get things moving faster if that is what you want/need? This can be a wonderful communication session and can prevent you from seeing them as lazy.

4. Be specific when you offer suggestions. Give examples after you make a statement to illustrate the changes you would like to see. Likewise, ask them for specific examples when they offer their ideas.

5. Highlight their natural talents and how it helps the team and the business. It’s important that they see how they contribute and what they can do to contribute more.

6. Show them respect and treat them with dignity in every interaction. This is how you lead morale. Everyone wants to be valued for who they are even if they are different from you. They can modify behaviors and actions toward goals with your guidance. Yet they will be unwilling to do this if they think you don’t value them for who they are.

Related Post:
Use Leadership Gratitude Power to Engage Employees & Lead Morale

©2025 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Tags: active, assertiveness, communication, emotional intelligence, employee morale, Leadership Development, leading morale, morale, passive, patience, people skills, proactive, understanding