Getting ready to be a company leader

She is a senior executive who works on a project base. She will be promoted next month. With her new role, she will have an additional six managers report to her. She wants to prepare herself to be in charge.

''Khun, Kriengsak I want you to coach me to be patient,'' she says.

''It won't be easy, Khun Sunee. Since you are talented and like to get things done quickly, impatience is in your nature. However, you've volunteered to learn how to be patient, so you are aware of yourself,'' I say.

''Based on my experience, people like you always think about quick implementation. In most cases, you perform faster and better than others and get it right the first time. There is a dilemma: we do not have time to do it right first but we always have time to make the correction _ to solve the problem,'' I say.

''What do you mean?'' she asks.

''Let me give you my experience. I have a maid to do housework once a week. During the Songkran festival, she went back home. So, the maid asked her friend to replace her for two weeks,'' I say.

''On the day that the new maid came to work, I spent two minutes in the morning telling her about equipment and my expectations. I wanted to spend a couple more minutes coaching her but I thought I didn't have time _ I was too busy worrying about other things that I thought were more important,'' I say.

''What happened after that?'' asks Sunee.

''That night, I came back home. I inspected the work. All neat and clean,'' I said. ''Great, wasn't it?'' Sunee asks.

''Not really. She was so good in many things, in particular cost-saving. In fact she was too good. She wanted to save the cost of my plastic garbage bag. She carried the plastic bag out and loaded the garbage into the garbage bin. Then, she brought back the plastic bag to recycle it. Usually, I put all garbage in one big black plastic bag. Then, the maid wraps the bag and puts it into the bin in front of my house. The truck only takes the plastic bags and leaves the rest. So, that night, I had to spend 20 minutes putting the garbage back into a bag.

''The lesson for me? If I'd spent two more minutes in the morning, I could have saved 20 minutes at night,'' I say.

''I get it. I have lot of situations similar to your story. What should I do?'' Sunee asks.

''You have to remind yourself that saving time is about saving all the time, not saving only in the beginning,'' I say.

''I will. What else you can recommend to me?'' she asks.

''Remember that although your tenacity is powerful, it may intimidate some people. Your talent will be most effective when you have earned others' trust and loyalty. Don't jump the gun too quickly. If you really are impatient, remember this.'' I pause.

''What?'' she asks.

I pause for another 10 seconds.

''That's 10 seconds,'' I say. ''Remember this moment. Treat other people like you just did me. Allow 10 seconds to get hold of yourself. Counting from one to 10 in your mind is a good way to hold your thought. If you really want to get something done quickly, be quick in building trust and relationships first,'' I say.

''How can I establish a relationship and trust?'' she asks.

''Some people use observations in the first few weeks, listen to their team, ask them what style works best for each individual, what are each individual values, talents and motivation factor. Fortunately, there is a quicker way that you might be interested in.''

''What is that?'' she asks.

''You can assign your six managers to do an online questionnaire called strengthsfinder. If you buy the book Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, you will see a password. Then, you go to www.strengthsfinder.com and use that password to register for the test. One book has one code for one person. You need to buy six books for them.

''Once each person finishes the test they will learn their top five talents. Inside the book there are 10 ideas for action for each talent. Then, I will hold a session for you and each individual member. Each session we will spend two hours walking through the guidelines in the book.''

Kriengsak Niratpattanasai provides executive coaching in leadership and diversity management under the brand TheCoach. He can be reached at coachkriengsak