When we talk about Resilience, we often use words which try to describe the qualities of what it actually is to be Resilient. Words like perseverance, doggedness, firmness of purpose, resoluteness, obstinate, steadfast and so on. However, these words either present a negative or stubborn view of approaching an adversity, or, they can suggest that we keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result.
Tenacity though is different. Tenacity in my view is the quality of balanced perseverance. By balanced perseverance I mean not taking no for an answer, held in check by the ability to discern when its time to adopt a different approach by weighing the cost of persevering against the benefit of the goal.
Tenacity therefore is certainly one of the most important qualities of senior executives, leaders and managers at all levels in today’s business environment.
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.
Theodore Roosevelt
What is important about the quality of tenacity, is what the focus of our tenacious efforts should be applied to, in order that we maximise our success. Goals and objectives are vital, but tenacity is far more effective when focussed on what we want. That is why all goals and objectives should be restructured to personal goals – this ensures we engage with them personally, they become our focus, they orientate our effort and resources and we can ultimately sustain these efforts until they are achieved. Ultimately, our goals become our passions.
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
Mary Anne Radmacher
Returning to the topic of balance though, all emotions (like passion for example) have the potential to tip over to the dark side! In 2003 for example, researchers have studied passion (Vallerand et al) have looked the idea of Harmonious Passion and Obsessive Passion. Tenacity when applied in the case of Harmonious Passion has been found to promote positive emotions, concentration and flow, whereas Obsessive Passion was found to associate with negative emotions and conflict with other aspects of one’s life. That is where our ability to take a top down view, to learn the skill of optimism, to be aware of our character strengths and to effectively regulate our emotions contribute to high resilience and sustained wellness at work.
So, how is tenacity Resilience in action? Essentially, highly resilient people have four key components – awareness, skills, knowledge and are action orientated. Tenacity works in all four of these quadrants; constant self-reflection (tenacity of awareness), commitment to life-long-learning (tenacity of skill acquisition), curiosity (tenacity of knowing) and the courage to act on the integration of these three elements (tenacity of purpose).
Tenacity therefore is Resilience in action, our ability to discern, to persist, to balance and ultimately to succeed without the sacrifice of obsession or burden. Further, the great news is that all of these components can be learned.
As Ernest Agyemang Yeboah is quoted as saying “it is not the oppositions a man face that determine his rise or fall in life but his tenacity to dare to soar and to pursue to higher heights”.
