During the Christmas holidays, my daughters and I packed up the car and drove to the Gold Coast for a week of theme parks, sunshine, sugar highs, and the kind of fatigue only rollercoasters and overstimulation can produce. It was magical, loud, exhausting, and full of queues. So many queues.
Queues for rides. Queues for food. Queues for bathrooms. Queues for queues. If there is one thing I can say with absolute confidence, it’s this: I do not like waiting in line. I am a strategic planner, an efficiency enthusiast, a woman who likes momentum. Standing still while time drips past me like a leaky tap is not my natural state.
And yet, there I was. Standing. Waiting. Smiling. Talking up queues as if they were some kind of character-building luxury experience.
Because here’s the thing: leadership isn’t about what you like. It’s about what you model.
Somewhere between our third ride of the day and our fifteenth queue, I realised I was doing something I’ve done my entire career - reframing discomfort into development. I found myself telling my daughters that queues are actually brilliant. That waiting teaches patience. That sticking it out build’s resilience. That staying in line, even when it would be easier to walk away, is grit. That the best rides, the ones worth screaming about afterwards, require effort, time, and persistence.
I sounded very convincing. Almost inspirational. Internally, I was calculating wait times and questioning my life choices.
But the message landed. They waited. They didn’t whine (much). They chatted to strangers. They played games. They learned how to manage boredom, disappointment, and anticipation, all without a shortcut, a fast pass, or an instant reward.
And that’s when it hit me: queues are leadership in disguise.
Every leader I know wants results. Quickly. Efficiently. With minimal friction. But real leadership, especially when you’re leading people and teams, is rarely a fast ride. It’s a queue. A long one. With unclear timing, occasional breakdowns, and moments where everyone wonders if it’s actually worth it.
Teams queue for change. People queue for growth. Organisations queue for culture shifts.
And the leaders who struggle the most are often the ones who hate the waiting.
In leadership, you don’t get to skip the line. Trust takes time. Capability takes repetition. Confidence is built through experience, not announcements. You can’t rush someone into readiness any more than you can rush a rollercoaster operator into letting you on before your turn.
What you can do is shape the experience of the queue.
At the theme parks, the best queues weren’t the shortest…they were the ones with distraction, engagement, and a sense of progress. Movement matters. Communication matters. Knowing what’s coming matters. The same is true at work.
Great leaders don’t pretend the wait doesn’t exist. They acknowledge it. They explain why it matters. They help people understand what they’re learning while they’re waiting. They create momentum even when outcomes aren’t immediate.
They also model behaviour.
My daughters watched me choose patience over frustration (externally, at least). They saw me regulate myself. They learned that discomfort doesn’t equal disaster, and that effort is part of the deal.
Our teams are watching us the same way. They notice when leaders complain about the process while demanding resilience from others. They notice when we rush, shortcut, or disengage because progress isn’t instant. And they absolutely notice when we preach grit but demonstrate impatience. Leadership credibility is built in the queue.
By the end of the week, my daughters weren’t just talking about the rides, they were talking about how long they waited, how they coped, and how good it felt when it was finally their turn. The reward was sweeter because they earned it.
That’s the lesson. Good things don’t just happen because we want them. They happen because we’re willing to stay the course. To stand in line. To keep showing up. To invest time and effort even when it would be easier to bail.
Leadership isn’t glamorous. It’s not always fast. And it definitely doesn’t come with a fast pass. But if you can lead well in the queue, if you can teach patience, build resilience, and hold the line with humour and humanity, you’ll earn something far more valuable than a quick win. You’ll earn trust. And trust, like the best rides, is always worth the wait.
Add comment
Comments