Leadership Toolbox 7: The Secret Sauce to Tenacity

Times like today call for someone with grit to navigate the dense forest of complexity and construct a path novel enough to breakthrough.

“A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.” — Jim Watkins.

A leader with tenacity demonstrates the following behaviors.

• The leader maintains humility in the pursuit of their goals or visions, and receives feedback and inputs from others.
• The leader is determined and finds joy in the journey of pursuing the goals, and at the same time, stays focused on the destination, fine-tuning the vision as needed.

Humility in your Goal Pursuit

Stubborn is NOT Tenacious

So being stubborn is a good thing? There is a difference between tenacity and stubbornness that bears exploration. Stubbornness is tenacity without humility. So once again, that base value of humility appears to be critical. We all have experienced the stubborn person, and know from direct experience that stubbornness gradually causes a person, no matter their brilliance, to be marginalized by the group and therefore to become less effective in bringing forth innovation.