Perseverance has many layers. It may be required when a task you thought would be relatively easy proves to be more difficult. It may be required when the result you are looking for is delayed for reasons outside your control.

Perseverance may be needed when your own attitude shifts or your abilities are stretched. It may be needed because you are relying on someone else, and their attitude or abilities are making it difficult to succeed.

Your ability to persevere may be tested when difficulty or delay is present, but the expectations placed on you remain unchanged.

In my first supervisory role, I stepped into the position in the middle of a project implementing a new Accounts Payable system. It was not going well before I took the position, and it did not improve for a time, either. Getting the system’s detailed report to match the balances in our accounting system was imperative, and time was running out as we were coming up on an audit.

Working with the team, we matched every line item of detail on the reports through the accounts on the ledger and found no errors. Yet the total on the report did not match the ledger account. Eventually, I decided that the report total simply had to be incorrect. So, late into one night, I literally took out a trusted tool from back in the day – a 10-key calculator with a tape output – and I proceeded to add up the details of the report. As my memory serves, and trying not to embellish, the report was something like 150 pages with 50 lines on a page. Sure enough, the total I came up with did not match the total at the bottom of the report, but it DID match the accounting system! Next morning, I verified with the programmers that the total on the report was being pulled from an incorrect source rather than simply adding up the lines of the report itself. Perseverance won the day.

That example is a relatively simple problem that ultimately had a simple solution, yet weeks of delay and stress for several people had resulted. Many of you face problems way more complex with way more at stake. Yet the solution remains the same – persevere. Often you will have to break complex issues down into smaller pieces to find the one problem that is blowing up the whole project. Often you will have to re-prioritize work so that the books can be closed at the end of the month, or product can be produced & shipped, or construction can continue, all while still working to bring resolution to problems.

Perseverance must be seen as an attribute used in conjunction with the other attributes we’ve been exploring in this series. While perseverance builds confidence, it also requires humility. It takes both confidence and humility to look squarely at the possibility of failure and yet persevere until success is achieved.  And occasionally, a problem doesn’t have a solution. In that case, discernment will make it obvious that perseverance would be tantamount to banging your head on the proverbial brick wall.

Learning this attribute of perseverance while you are a follower will ultimately make you a better leader. Challenging people and encouraging them at the same time is an ability borne out of having persevered yourself.  It’s never too late because we are always followers – so practice perseverance!