I was in Melbourne recently and caught up with a friend of mine we'll call Tina. When I saw Tina her arm was in a sling and she was wincing in pain. You see Tina had been out early 10 days ago on a typical cold Melbourne morning walking her dog across a park in St Kilda. She tripped on a tree root, slammed into a fence and broke her arm in four places above her elbow.

She had trouble getting up and persuading the dog that it really was time to go home. Fighting incredible pain she limped home, woke her husband and he drove he to the hospital, where she was eventually diagnosed. She spent two days in hospital and learned that the arm could not be put in a cast, it would just be held in a sling, she would have to manage walking, sitting, sleeping without any splint and every small unusual or even usual movement would involve excruciating pain in her arm. She was given pain killers and sent home.

The story goes on and on, you get the idea. I rang Tina today to see how she was getting on, it's now been four weeks since the injury and she is still suffering. Here's where it gets interesting,Tina runs a training brokerage business and has hardly missed a beat, well she has been hampered severely by her injury and has been forced to slow down a little, though she still goes to the office every day. Her husband drives her and she openly admitted she has been unbeaable to live with, though she perseveres. She persists because she is fiercely independent and determined to keep going, she is determined to succeed and to get better and to keep running her business despite her physical setback.

There are many stories of persistence and perserverence in books and magazines around the world, some with far more trying circumstances than this, though this woman is still an inspiration. She demonstrated how easy it can be to lay down and admit defeat, sit back and let someone else do it for us, or perhaps to take a few weeks off because "I" deserve it. Success comes to those who persevere, those who face their challenges and meet them head on. They recognise that sometimes they can be hard to live with and persevere anyway.

Being a leader in an organisation can sometimes be just as challenging as breaking an arm and suffering pain for 20 out of 24 hours, it can be damn inconvenient,it can get in the way of our personal enjoyment of life and above all it can throw up unexpected challenges we absolutely have to deal with.

Do you have the ability to persist?

Lindsay Adams

Labels: leadership, perseverance, Persistence