I play tennis every Saturday and today teamed up with a partner I have played a lot with. We won a club tournament a few years ago. The opposition today were good, and they took an early lead of 3 or 4 games in each set. However, we fought back and won each time. Looking back every time we play together this tends to happen. We lose at first and then claw our way back. What we seem to demonstrate in this sporting context is an attribute I suggest applies equally in the professional world – tenacity and a sense of hanging in there even when things are not going too well. It means “being persistent and determined in difficult circumstances.”
If you have had a bad day or even week at the office or working from home where everything seems to be a problem and little gets resolved, then this attribute becomes critical. Refusing to be beaten or downtrodden means your mindset is right and you are able to deal with the problems you encounter and live to work another day when seemingly impossible matters can be resolved to your advantage.
See this Forbes article Tenacity: The Ultimate Skill When It Really Matters which observes “Many factors contribute to career and organizational success: training or education; depth and breadth of experience; networking, connections, and mentorship. Yet when I ask leaders about their single greatest factor for success, I consistently hear some variation of tenacity
“Hanging in there.”
“Going toe-to-toe.”
“Sticking with it.”
Put simply, tenacity is that fierce blend of determination, persistence and grit.”
I also like this blog Tenacity in Your Professional Life which says “Being able to persevere when the going gets tough and sticking to a project, task, or deadline is one of the most desirable traits of an employee and business owner alike.” It has a good short video on the topic.
While this short blog Growing tenacity at work cites a Georgian proverb “A person can flower on a rock” and suggests “Firmness of purpose drives perseverance, persistence, and endurance. A clear vision of a preferred future reality engenders discretionary effort and energy invested in important strategic objectives.” However, it cautions that in a business context the cause or purpose has to be fully grasped and made one’s own. If your attitude is to clock in and clock out, with what happens in between just passing the time, there is little incentive to be tenacious.
Another attribute of hanging in there is perseverance – the sheer bloody mindedness to keep going and overcome obstacles. See this LinkedIn article Perseverance : A Personality Attribute to Be Successful! Which commences “The most significant aspect among the people who have successful careers is the quality of perseverance. One has to keep their efforts directed toward accomplishing goals if one aspires to be successful. It is also essential for career development. Learning from setbacks and obstacles is a critical trait for successful entrepreneurs.”
An alternative way of describing this characteristic is determination, refusing to lose a critical point in my tennis example and being determined to recover even when the game looks lost. This Harvard Business articleOrganizational Grit sums this up nicely. “Grit, a combination of passion and perseverance, predicts success in many demanding fields. A perfect example is health care, where the grit of individual doctors and nurses has saved many lives. But today providing superior care is so complex that no lone practitioner can do it all. Great care requires gritty teams that never stop striving for improvement and institutions that exhibit grit across entire systems of providers.” It proposes that this quality does not just apply at an individual level but an organisational one. “If gritty individuals and teams are to thrive, organizations need to develop cultures that make them, in turn, macrocosms of their best teams and people.”
Returning to my tennis analogy there are probably reasons why I and my partner play well together as a team; he is left-handed and I am right and we both don’t like losing and raise our game, adapting our approach as necessary and finding a way to win. I suggest that it is the same in an organisation which should recognise and encourage “hanging in there” and create an environment which rewards hard graft and tenacity as well as talent.
I found some great quotes on this topic you may like.
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“The longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will happen in your favor. No matter how hard it seems, the longer you persist, the more likely your success.” The American author Jack Canfield.
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” The American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe.
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” The French philosopher and author Albert Camus.
“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” Franklin D. Roosevelt.
If you have had a bad day or even week at the office or working from home where everything seems to be a problem and little gets resolved, then this attribute becomes critical. Refusing to be beaten or downtrodden means your mindset is right and you are able to deal with the problems you encounter and live to work another day when seemingly impossible matters can be resolved to your advantage.
See this Forbes article Tenacity: The Ultimate Skill When It Really Matters which observes “Many factors contribute to career and organizational success: training or education; depth and breadth of experience; networking, connections, and mentorship. Yet when I ask leaders about their single greatest factor for success, I consistently hear some variation of tenacity
“Hanging in there.”
“Going toe-to-toe.”
“Sticking with it.”
Put simply, tenacity is that fierce blend of determination, persistence and grit.”
I also like this blog Tenacity in Your Professional Life which says “Being able to persevere when the going gets tough and sticking to a project, task, or deadline is one of the most desirable traits of an employee and business owner alike.” It has a good short video on the topic.
While this short blog Growing tenacity at work cites a Georgian proverb “A person can flower on a rock” and suggests “Firmness of purpose drives perseverance, persistence, and endurance. A clear vision of a preferred future reality engenders discretionary effort and energy invested in important strategic objectives.” However, it cautions that in a business context the cause or purpose has to be fully grasped and made one’s own. If your attitude is to clock in and clock out, with what happens in between just passing the time, there is little incentive to be tenacious.
Another attribute of hanging in there is perseverance – the sheer bloody mindedness to keep going and overcome obstacles. See this LinkedIn article Perseverance : A Personality Attribute to Be Successful! Which commences “The most significant aspect among the people who have successful careers is the quality of perseverance. One has to keep their efforts directed toward accomplishing goals if one aspires to be successful. It is also essential for career development. Learning from setbacks and obstacles is a critical trait for successful entrepreneurs.”
An alternative way of describing this characteristic is determination, refusing to lose a critical point in my tennis example and being determined to recover even when the game looks lost. This Harvard Business articleOrganizational Grit sums this up nicely. “Grit, a combination of passion and perseverance, predicts success in many demanding fields. A perfect example is health care, where the grit of individual doctors and nurses has saved many lives. But today providing superior care is so complex that no lone practitioner can do it all. Great care requires gritty teams that never stop striving for improvement and institutions that exhibit grit across entire systems of providers.” It proposes that this quality does not just apply at an individual level but an organisational one. “If gritty individuals and teams are to thrive, organizations need to develop cultures that make them, in turn, macrocosms of their best teams and people.”
Returning to my tennis analogy there are probably reasons why I and my partner play well together as a team; he is left-handed and I am right and we both don’t like losing and raise our game, adapting our approach as necessary and finding a way to win. I suggest that it is the same in an organisation which should recognise and encourage “hanging in there” and create an environment which rewards hard graft and tenacity as well as talent.
I found some great quotes on this topic you may like.
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“The longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will happen in your favor. No matter how hard it seems, the longer you persist, the more likely your success.” The American author Jack Canfield.
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” The American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe.
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” The French philosopher and author Albert Camus.
“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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