Managing Chronic Impatience and Its Risks

Nick Vivion, Fractional Director of Communications, Content and Brand Strategy for Ghost Works

Chronic impatience directed toward other people in the workplace negatively impacts perceptions, judgments, relationships and reputation.

These behaviors communicate something unflattering about us, even if we often don’t realize it’s happening.

It can lead to damaged trust, collaboration quality and strength of influence and reliable persuasiveness.

Learning to overcome this communication behavior is a challenge.

“Communication is an everyday challenge even for us communications professionals,” says Nick Vivion, Fractional Director of Communications, Content and Brand Strategy for Ghost Works.

Vivion says his ADHD has led to his own impatience and impulsivity.

“The greatest challenge is always knowing thyself. That goes for me or anybody else,” he says. “It can be tricky to navigate because I must be especially careful to respond to stimulus in a way that is kinder to both myself and my clients and colleagues. I definitely remind myself to assume no negative intent and to carefully approach relationships with empathy and a bit of distance.”

This is aided, he says, by realizing that what he’s feeling in the moment might not be what is in fact, happening. He focuses on retaining or regaining emotional balance and exhibiting more reason than an emotional display of impatience.

“In other words, try to take things less personally and maintain as much objectivity as possible. That can be frustrating, because I am a believer in bringing your whole self to work. Some interactions at work are also inherently personal. It's a constant process to maintain that balance of calm objectivity and passionate engagement.”

Good intentions and focused effort can work yet are not foolproof. Mistakes can still get made and problems created or exacerbated due to impatience and impulsiveness.

“The worst situations are when you act without thinking,” Vivion says. “It's kind of a knee-jerk reaction. It's never good when those instant reactions are hurtful or don't actually serve a purpose.”

Learning to better, more successfully navigate these challenges to be one’s best self for goals — professional and personal — and lessen negative impact on other people is a significant task.

“Since I'm such an honest and upfront person, it's hard to cloak emotions in feigned apathy,” Vivion says. “I've learned to temper emotions with a little distance to give myself ample time to process before responding.”

This strategy and approach goes deeper for him.

“The key is to leverage your ability to respond quickly to situations with instinct turned into a superpower. With steady practice, I've learned to pause, process and plan, rather than just jump into an off-the-cuff response that's reactionary rather than proactive,” Vivion says.

Gaps might remain. Blind spots too. He says it’s important therefore to remain high in self-awareness.

“There's always room to improve,” Vivion says. “I try to take time to assess my reactions and performance periodically.”

Improvement is aided he’s found through the commitment to and skill of asking oneself smart, pointed, direct questions and responding truthfully

“I also check in with my gut, as well as my brain: how did that interaction make me feel? What could I have done better? Did my reaction serve my ultimate objective or distract from it?” Vivion says.

“That type of outcome-based thinking has been transformative in my personal and professional lives.”