When persevere is not enough. In the collective imagination, the ideal leader is a marathoner of the will. The one who, at all costs, advances, crosses obstacles, is bent. The biographies of large entrepreneurs are full of anecdotes where the tenacity is a cardinal virtue. However, simple raw perseverance is not always a guarantee of success. Too much relentlessness can lead to denial, blindness, even sinking.
Conversely, yielding too quickly, abandoning the first obstacle, often condemns a promising project. Between these two extremes is a subtle balance: that of controlled perseverance. An art which consists in maintaining the course with consistency while knowing how to adjust its effort, reassess its choices and recognize the moment when obstinacy becomes counterproductive.
This article explores this paradoxical but essential posture, through analyzes, testimonies and concrete examples, in order to offer managers a practical reading grid to embody this lucid perseverance.
Persevere: the founding engine of the entrepreneur
Behind each business creation hides a story of persistence. Mount a project, convince its first customers, find funding: so many tests that require holding good despite refusals and doubts.
According to a study by the Harvard Business School, nearly 65 % of entrepreneurs say that perseverance is the first factor that has enabled their business to survive the first two years. It is also a psychological engine: to continue, despite the difficulties, it is to assert oneself against the opposite winds.
This conviction is found in the emblematic figures of figures. Elon Musk wiped three launch failures before SpaceX succeeded in his first orbital flight. Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, was refused by more than 200 investors before finding its first funding. These trajectories tell the same thing: without endurance, no project reaches maturity.
But this heroic vision can be misleading. Because to persevere without discernment, it is also risking to head in a way dedicated to failure.
The dangers of relentlessness
A leader is not only a “effort sprinter”. It is also a strategist. However, the border between perseverance and stubbornness can be thin.
Several researchers in organizational psychology speak of “climbing bias of engagement”. This phenomenon occurs when a leader continues to invest time, money and energy in a faulty project, simply because there has already been invested too many resources. It is a logic of justification a posteriori: “I cannot abandon, because I have already devoted so much efforts to it”.
The examples are legion. Kodak, convinced that argentics would remain unbeatable, has persisted for too long in an outdated strategy, missing the digital turn that she had nevertheless invented. Nokia, in the 2000s, stood out on her house operating system, refusing to adopt Android, until she was marginalized.
In these cases, perseverance was no longer a virtue, but a cognitive prison. It led to rigid decisions and, ultimately, to failure.
Controlled perseverance: a dynamic balance
So how do you persevere without getting blind? The answer lies in the concept of controlled perseverance. It is not like an opportunistic abandonment or blind stubbornness, but to a permanent adjustment between conviction and adaptation.
Three pillars allow it to be embodied:
1. Vision clarity
To persevere controlled is first to know what deserves to be prosecuted. Having a clear vision, a strategic CAP, makes it possible to distinguish what relates to temporary obstacles (which require tenacity) and what is structural dead ends (which require pivot).
2. The art of adjustment
The persistent controlled leader is the one who adjusts his effort. He tests, measure, redirect. He does not give up on the first setback, but he does not persist indefinitely in a sterile path. This posture presupposes a flexible relationship to failure: each error is information.
3. Emotional control
Gross perseverance is often fueled by the ego: wanting to prove that we were right. On the contrary, controlled perseverance requires an ability to put your ego aside. Recognizing that we were wrong is not a weakness, but a survival competence.
Testimonials: when to persevere controlled changes the situation
The entrepreneur who pivots without giving up
Frédéric Mazzella, founder of Blablacar, often tells that his first idea was not long -distance carpooling, but a platform for optimizing journeys for vehicle fleets. In the absence of sufficient interest, he knew how to redirect his project while keeping the same vision: to make movements more accessible. This strategic pivot perfectly illustrates controlled perseverance: he did not give up his dream, but he agreed to change his way.
The leader who persists over time
Isabelle Kocher, former director general of Engie, led the group’s transformation to renewable energies for several years. Faced with internal and external resistances, she kept the course with persistence, but constantly adapting her arguments and alliances. His approach was less relentless than flexible persistence, taking into account political and economic balances.
The metaphor of the tightrope walker
To understand controlled perseverance, a metaphor is essential: that of the tightrope walker. On his thread, he must move forward, step by step, with an unshakable constancy. But each step also requires micro-adjustments. An imbalance does not lead to the fall if it is offset in time.
The leader, similarly, advances on a thread stretched between two abysses:
- On the one hand, premature abandonment.
- On the other, blind obstinacy.
His art consists in maintaining the momentum without falling into none of the two flaws.
Practical tools to cultivate controlled perseverance
How, concretely, can a manager integrate this posture into his daily life?
- Set up objective indicators
Too often, decisions are based on intuition or emotion. Putting clear success criteria (turnover, adoption rate, customer satisfaction) makes it possible to decide rationally if a project deserves to be continued or reoriented.
- Set back
The manager’s daily life pushes permanent action. However, controlling your perseverance requires stopping regularly to assess the relevance of the CAP. Quarterly “strategic committees”, for example, can serve as re -evaluation points.
- Encourage contradiction
Stopping is often born from the lack of counterpowers. Surrounding yourself with people capable of saying “no”, challenging the strategy, is a way of not falling into self-blind.
- Emotional discipline
Meditation, sport, coaching: whatever the method, but keeping emotional stability is essential to distinguish rational perseverance from affective obstinacy.
When to know how to stop?
Controlled perseverance does not exclude stop. On the contrary, knowing how to put an end to a project is sometimes the best proof of lucidity.
The risk of venture capital investors is enlightening: they know that out of ten projects, seven will fail, two will survive modestly, and only one will become a major success. Their wisdom is to “cut losses” early to release energy on viable projects.
For a leader, stopping an unprofitable activity is not a failure, but an intelligent reallocation of resources. This is the condition for persistence to apply where it is useful.
Controlled perseverance, a posture of the future
At a time when economic, climatic and geopolitical uncertainty is becoming the norm, controlled perseverance is more than ever a necessary art. The transformation cycles are rapid, the crises follow one another. In this environment, only one who knows how to combine consistency and flexibility can hope to last.
A Japanese proverb says, “Falling eight seven times”. The modern wisdom of the leader could amend it as follows: “Falling eight seven times … but not always in the same place. »»
