Perseverance

Perseverance is the next quality that Brady and Woodward include in the Trilateral Leadership Ledger's factor of Tasks.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines Perseverance as: the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult.

Effective leaders keep trying and working until the job is done.  The word 'quit' is not in their vocabulary.  History is full of great leaders who persevered through very difficulty circumstances.

-- George Washington lost battle after battle after battle.  There were far more losses than victories until Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis: The war was won.

-- Abraham Lincoln lost numerous elections and failed at business before he was elected President of the United States and led the country through the Civil War and is one of the top ranked Presidents in history by Presidential scholars.

-- Harriet Tubman fled to freedom but was not satisfied with just her freedom. "I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home after all, was down in Maryland; because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there. But I was free, and they should be free."  She went on to be the most celebrated conductor in the Underground Railroad.  "I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."

-- Steve Jobs was fired from the company that he had founded and successfully built.  He then failed at other ventures only to return to his original company, which was floundering, and led it to new heights.  Subsequently, Apple grew into a multi-trillion dollar company.

There are countless more examples.  The point is that these leaders kept going and they didn't quit.

Effective leaders will continue with the task until the job is done.  They have perseverance!

 

Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward: "Launching a Leadership Revolution."  Business Plus. New York. p.97