Obviously, the energy that we use in giving, (sometimes considerably stretching ourselves emotionally), needs to be replenished.
It is not the responsibility of the people who receive help to replenish this energy; it is ours.
If we want to be tenacious we need to take this responsibility seriously.
So, in our organisations, we can design in tenacity by fostering high morale, good health, adequate support and supervision, (internal and external), good boundaries, meaningful training, a spirit of generosity, a trust in autonomy, and indeed, permission to be creative.
But it will be always be an uphill battle to build tenacity if we feel insecure, tired, under pressure to react/explain, afraid we’ll be blamed, defensive, etc., and any tenacity experienced by someone in distress will probably be a characteristic of one (or a small number) of our team rather than the norm.
Above all, tenacity ensures consistent attendance to the difficulties encountered as the relationship matures and the issues increase in complexity.
In a final note on tenacity it is worth remembering that people who we might deem to be successful have just as many failures in ventures that they embark upon than those who we would deem to be unsuccessful.
But when they do fail, they don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that there’s anything wrong with them.
They view failure as a life experience from which to learn something new about themselves.
Of course, it takes courage to accept that the something new that I learn might be that I am in the wrong job for me – because then I have to make a choice about whether or not I stay in it or make a bold move into what might be the unknown.