Serve, Coach, Lead Newsletter #14: Being a Tenacious Leader

When someone is described as having tenacity, what comes to mind? Let’s discuss what being a tenacious leader looks like, and how it can benefit those around you.

Having tenacity means being determined and focused in pursuit of achievement. Regardless of how a person feels on any given day, being tenacious in their daily actions can lead to long term success.

The difficult part about tenacity is that it takes discipline. It is easy to ride the highs and lows of a season of life. Those who find success are those that can keep their head down and work with focused direction.

As a leader, tenacity means bringing the same energy and attention to detail each day. Sometimes things are going to go your way (a close win, closing a business deal, high test scores in the classroom), and sometimes they won’t. Leaders who deny the urge to get discouraged by setbacks set a good example for the members of their organization.

A tenacious attitude can have a tremendously positive impact on those around us. Relentlessly pursuing excellence will create an environment where people want to improve. Members of our organizations will hold each other accountable, and maintain a forward-thinking mindset in difficult situations.

Here are a few applicable ways that we can model tenacity within our circles of influence:

1. Take responsibility for mistakes and move forward:

A good leader has the ability to admit their mistakes, learn from the experience, and guide their team forward by focusing on the next game/business deal/test. When making decisions, we can only utilize the information and resources available to us at that point in time. It is important to remember that regardless of the outcome of the decision, it is still the right one if we were prepared and used our best judgement. Helping our teams understand why decisions are made in certain situations creates buy-in and mutual trust.

2. Maintain composure throughout unfortunate circumstances:

This one is tough. There are going to be things that happen that are outside of our control. However, as mentioned above, a tenacious leader remains determined and focused on their pursuit of achievement. For coaches, the more we can control our emotions in high-leverage situations, the more likely our players are to be calm under pressure.

3. Have a specific plan each day:

A relentless pursuit of excellence involves being prepared to maximize the time we have to develop our people. Creating intentional plans, then evaluating and adjusting them to service the needs of our team will facilitate growth. The people within our organizations will buy-in to our processes because they will see the effort put into the plan.

*This applies to self-growth as well. To become the best version of ourselves, being dedicated to executing a daily plan will help us manage our most precious resource: time.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this week's newsletter. As mentioned before, I would love for this to be an interactive experience for each of us. Please share any comments, questions, or feedback that you may have. Also, if you know of anyone that would benefit from these emails, please send them this link to sign up.

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If you would like to reread last week's newsletter, you can find it here.

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to connecting with you all next week.

God Bless!