“Persistence” and “perseverance” are buzzwords you will find in almost every job description and in almost any interview. This article suggests that giving these words such stature and priority in the world of work is a mistake, since persistence alone may do more harm than good.
Persistence refers to the notion of continuing a course of action despite difficulty, setbacks, and failure. While this can be a positive trait, for instance when pursuing a challenging profession where it is necessary to face opposition without being dissuaded, demotivated, or deterred, mere persistence alone can also lead to bad decisions and poor outcomes if the path you are following is the wrong one. In other words, if your persistence is misplaced, such that you insist blindly on a particular career path or a particular solution to a problem, even when a balanced examination of reality would suggest to the contrary, you risk achieving a worse overall result than you would have done if you had no determination to succeed at all. The difference between positive persistence and blind stubborn headedness is perspective.
In a world that has never moved faster, it has never been easier to become engulfed in an endless array of urgent tasks, and lose sight of the bigger picture. Perspective is the primary way of distinguishing between good and bad courses of action. Being able to see both forwards and backwards, to the horizon and beyond in both directions, can allow you to spot events that may impact future performance, or to appreciate past scenarios that echo the present and hence create a precedent to guide your moves going forward.
Only after you have gained some perspective, and selected a well reasoned best course of action, does it then make sense to commit to your choice and persist with it. To do otherwise is to sail the sea with no compass for direction and no named port of destination. You can be convinced that a certain direction is the right one, and persist based on dead reckoning and the courage of your convictions, however without the guidance and perspective provided by a compass and map, and a clear idea of where you are headed, such continued insistence will only lead you further off course, with little chance of success, and no prospect of correcting course.
These kind of dangers are just as prevalent in the wider world of business as they are in the workplace. Consider Kodak, a company famous for its photographic film products. It persisted so much with its film-based business model that it failed to appreciate the opportunities and threats of digital photography, a technology that the company itself invented in 1975. Such a steadfast approach would ultimately lead to what has been deemed one of the most staggering corporate blunders (Forbes, 2012) and lead to the destruction of its film-based model. This is a primary example of what has been described above: the destructive force of persistence if applied in the absence of perspective.
Thus, persistence is a good trait, provided it is combined with perspective. Whilst the former is often referred to as a strength in its own right, it can quickly become a crippling weakness where a lack of the latter turns determination into disaster. Don’t disappear under the fast-moving waves of the present, float above them. Check the weather and chart a course, only then can you set sail and persist.
Sukhi R. is a graduate from Warwick Law School currently studying an MSc in Business with Consulting at Warwick Business School. She has a keen interest in the business psychology of consulting and plans to enter the industry in the near future.
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