Like it or not, roadblocks are part of life. You will have come across this at some point at work, in your early life at school, or even at home. So, when roadblocks come up and you aren’t sure how to approach them, how should you handle it?
In the workplace the easiest course of action a may be to take the issue immediately to your colleague or senior and ask for support. However, increasing their workload with concerns you could personally provide approaches for can cause them to become overburdened, creating a snowball effect which can lead to frustration, missed deadlines and burnout.
One of the eight core values of GRS is Tenacity. The quality of being very determined; to meet strain or difficulty with fortitude and resilience. The most obvious associations with tenacity are the long-term scenarios that require your time, effort and a strong helping of resilience: starting your own business, winning a basketball championship, conquering a mountain. This longer-term approach however, is only one way to display tenacity.
If we aim to exemplify tenacity in all areas of our lives, we must also demonstrate it in day to day opportunities in our approach to roadblocks. Tenacity in these moments can mean releasing our colleagues to perform their roles by engaging a capability to shift our own language from “I have this issue, what should I do about it?” to “I have this issue, here is what I am doing to tackle, here are the steps I am taking to find a resolution.”
Taking it to a colleague or senior can of course be the best course of action when it is a decision only your superior can make, or you need additional insight. However, discerning when you can take the initiative to find a solution alongside the problem can release your colleagues to perform work that reflects their purpose.
To practice tenacity, our first step must be to take initiative; informing our peers of issues, whilst ensuring we ourselves remain tenacious resolution seekers.
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