Why Perseverance is an Essential Quality to Possess in the Workplace
Perseverance is an essential a quality in the workplace, just as it is in any other part of life. Determination, to succeed and to get things done, is necessary, if you are to build a successful career. Those without perseverance will give up at the first setback, and be deterred from ever trying again.
A child does not begin life walking, he learns to roll over, to sit, to crawl or shuffle, and only then begins the unsteady process of getting to his feet to stand against furniture initially. Then one day he takes a step, he will probably fall over at first, many times, but he will not give up, but will continue until he can run all over the house, getting into mischief and exploring the world. Learning to walk is a process, usually not a steady or fast process, but babies do learn to walk and do not give up trying to do so. Learning to walk is like a career.
Just as some babies do not crawl but shuffle or do something else to begin moving around in the stage before walking, sometimes in your career, you will have to think laterally and creatively. Thus you can find a way around a problem or difficulty to achieve your original object, in a different way to that which you originally envisaged.
For example, if you want to be an engineer, but your family cannot afford for you to attend university, you do not give up the idea of being an engineer. You try to find a way that you can study. You might enquire whether any of the universities, which run courses for the qualification that you require, have bursaries, scholarships, or other funds, to help engineering students or whether you could study part time and hold down a paying job. You might also look around different companies, to see whether any would be prepared to train you, in a formal apprenticeship, or other arrangement, and pay for your studies whilst paying you a small wage. You might take a job and go to night school to study for your qualification. If you have perseverance, the fact that your family cannot afford to send you to university will not deter you from your objective of being an engineer, you will find another way to do it.
Perseverance helps you throughout your career. When unexpected events happen in the workplace, such as the workplace suddenly being extremely busy, you do not run away screaming. You persevere and cope with the busy period.
A London Telephone Exchange, years ago, (before huge television screens were commonplace) had the usual small Saturday staff of telephone operators on duty; the exchange served a business area. The Football Association Cup final was showing live on television. No one had realized that many big city companies had hired huge televisions to allow workers to come and watch the match, thousands had taken the opportunity.Initially, the afternoon was unusually quiet. At half time, in the football match, suddenly the exchange lit up, people were ringing friends and family to talk about a surprising, exciting incident during the match. The system was over-whelmed and so they had all rung the exchange for assistance. Operators could not take the calls fast enough. They filled their own switchboards and moved to empty ones to take more, every switchboard was full. There was no equipment to answer more and operators had to wait for calls to finish.
Despite the onerous telephone traffic, operators remained calm, persevered, and thought creatively how to get the traffic down, even to the extent of standing in the middle of the room, the better to see when calls finished and running all over the room to connect more. Their calm perseverance paid dividends; the telephone traffic eventually subsided and the match resumed. Every operator received a letter of apology, thanks and commendation, and an entry on her employment record, which helped, when she later applied for opportunities within the service.
The quality of perseverance is an essential quality in the workplace. Whether it helps you to think creatively to achieve a career aim or helps you cope with the unexpected in your work, or any of the many other obstacles that everyone faces at work, determination and perseverance will take you far.
