Tenacity & Leadership (Part 2): What Anchors the Leader’s Tenacity!

What anchors Tenacity?

Three foundational forces

Tenacity may be innate for a few, but for most leaders it is anchored in three deep psychological and developmental forces.

1. Self-Esteem & Pride

Self-esteem is seeded early in life. Children build it when they’re allowed to make choices—to try, fail, correct, and find their own direction. Many well-off families, with the best intentions, tightly manage success — grades, prestigious colleges, blue-chip jobs. This creates high performers, but often individuals uncomfortable with uncertainty.

Contrast this with many Olympic athletes who rose from modest backgrounds. They had little to lose — but everything to prove. Their pride was tied to self-driven effort, not external expectation.

Organisations often promote individuals who excel at the known — functions, processes, domain expertise. But leadership lies in the unknown. When complexity appears, specialists often falter; their explicit knowledge offers no map. Self-esteem collapses, and tenacity evaporates.

If only they were coached differently…
If only managers were coached to coach…

Most organisations invest deeply in training — but overlook leadership coaching, which is where tenacity can be quietly built.

2. Anxiety — The Propellant of Leadership

The Zone of Complexity is filled with uncertainty and lack of agreement. Anxiety, surprisingly, is not an enemy here — it is the fuel.

Peter Koestenbaum said, “Anxiety reveals that I am vulnerable… I must make tough choices. But once I pass this phase, I feel powerful and self-made.”

Anxiety emerges when we care deeply about a Purpose or Vision. It pushes leaders to explore uncharted paths, innovate under pressure, and discover strength they didn’t know existed. Tenacity grows in this tension — not outside it.

3. Family Background – The Early Rudder

Howard Gardner’s study of creative minds revealed shared origins:

• Marginal or modest families
• Distance from city glamour
• Strict yet permissive environments
• Basic needs met
• Culture of values and hard work

This does not mean leaders cannot emerge from privileged environments. But if they grew up under constant evaluation and risk-avoidance, they may hesitate to enter complexity. Conversely, if they grew up with autonomy — freedom to choose, fail, correct, and try again — they often thrive as leaders. Organisations that mirror such environments — allowing talented managers to take risks, fail safely, and recover — consistently produce strong leadership pipelines.

Leadership Is Always a Forward Journey

Leadership is about leading towards something — always distant, always beyond known tools and techniques. If a goal is reachable through existing knowledge, it is not leadership — it is management. Leaders driven by incentives or fear are swept aside by the unknowns. Leaders driven by Purpose endure.

Tenacity: The Core of Leadership Practice

Productivity and efficiency can be trained.
Leadership tenacity must be nurtured.

And that requires a different kind of organisational maturity — one that invests not only in skills, but in the inner life of future leader!