Persistence, When It Becomes a Weakness

Persistence becomes a weakness when you are beating your head against a stone wall, and:

You're beating your head against the wrong wall
Somebody took the wall away, or moved it, and didn't tell you
You haven't looked up lately to see if you are headed toward the wall
Another wall of greater importance has been created and you haven't adjusted

- and/or-

You continue to do things the same way and expect a different outcome

When was the last time you persisted in meeting a goal, or keeping a promise you had made to yourself or to someone else, only to find that it no longer had the importance it had when the commitment was made?

Have you ever had a salesperson just keep calling and calling, and then finally you buy - or, more likely, don't buy. If you are in sales, have you ever vowed to yourself that you were going to close a particular sale, and you persisted, and did, and never got another order from that person?

Have you ever pressed on in the face of feedback that changing course should be considered, but you just kept going - convinced of the rightness of your way?

There is a fine line between persistence and obstinancy - or obsessive behavior - or bull headedness, whatever you want to call it. And knowing when that line is crossed can be very difficult.

We've all been told that quitting is bad - and it is. We've all been told that success is only 5% away - and it may be. We've all been told that persistence is a strength - and it is. But we've also seen persistence end up in frustration and failure

Persistence is a strength, but it's use is very much situational. An example is the saleperson selling a transactional item - one that is a single buy on a single sales pitch, as opposed to a salesperson in relationship selling - selling a big ticket item to an organization where the decision to buy is made at the end of a lengthy discovery and planning cycle. A transactional salesperson better not make 15 calls on one person to sell - better to spend the time in prospecting for additional transactional customers. The relationship salesperson, on the other hand, may find a hundred calls to seventy five different people in a single company over a period of years to be necessary. In the one case persistence is defined in prospecting, in the other persistence is defined in building relationships over time. The thing both salespeople have in common is working through discouragement, delays, bad news, competition, unforeseen circumstances, to reach their goal - sales revenue.

How can we know when we have let our persistence get in the way of our success? For many people, the answer is easy - "You'll know it when you see it" That's not always true.

I suggest you ask the following questions - of yourself and others, at defined steps in whatever project or endeavor you are in - even the ones that seem to be going well.

1 - Do we have a stated, commonly agreed to goal for this project, and do we regularly examine it , refine it, amend it to meet realities - (If you don't have the goal, don't go any further until you get it)
3 - To what extent can we measure our progress toward our goal ?
4 - Does this project represent a worthy goal for the organization - today?
5 - Have things changed since this was started that may affect outcomes and requirements - have adjustments been made to reflect the changes ?
6 - When's the last time we evaluated this goal, and its value to the organization?
7 - What are the positive outcomes as a result of meeting this goal?
8 - What are the consequences of not meeting this goal - personally and organizationally?
9 - What changes can we make to the goal, or to the actions to support the goal, to be successful?
10 -Does everyone working on this goal agree this is a worthy goal?
11 - Is how hard we work - measured in time, used to measure success? If it is, can we change that so results are the measure of success?

There is no score for this set of questions. The answers will tell you when you have crossed the line from persistence to spinning your wheels, and help you get back on track. And if you don't have a clear goal, get one or look other places to use your persistence.

Written by Andrew Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group LLC

4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail:andycox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: www.coxconsultgroup.com

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