Leadership Trait of the Day: ENDURANCE

Made it - 14 Leadership Traits, that's Endurance!

Endurance is our 14^th and final Marine Corps Leadership Trait.  It is appropriate that Endurance be the last of a string of 14 traits – it takes a little bit of Endurance to stay the course in this analysis.  More importantly, Endurance impacts all of the other traits – you have to have the staying power to exhibit the other 13 traits day after day after day. 

            We all know what Endurance is, but how to we define it?  I love the Marine Corps definition of Endurance: The mental and physical stamina measured by the ability to withstand pain, fatigue, stress, and hardship.  That sentence almost completely captures the essence of being a Marine – the ability to withstand ______ (fill-in the blank.) 

Just kidding - it's a party!

          Now, there are not too many jobs out there that are going to require you to “withstand pain” and other physical hardships, but all Leaders still need Endurance – mental endurance.  Leadership is a marathon, not a sprint.  You do not show up and “lead” in a day.  It takes hard work day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.  Leadership is best measured by how you finish, not how you start. 

            In this regard, Endurance, will vital, is an often overlooked aspect of Leadership.  Great Leaders – just like great athletes need Endurance to achieve lofty goals and to change their organizations.  How many of us have seen a good, maybe even great Leader jump in and tackle a problem like the Tasmanian Devil, only to peter out and grind to a halt?  It is difficult to overcome institutional inertia – as they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  If you do not have the fortitude and Endurance to keep plugging away, your initiatives will likely fall flat. 

            Endurance is what separates the truly successful Leaders from the short-term successes. Leaders with the ability to see their teams through the difficult times are the ones that grow the most.  Endurance allows growth and provides a strengthened resolve to get you through the hard times. 

            We all know how to build physical endurance – such as lacing up the running shoes and hit the pavement – but how about mental endurance? 

Turns out, you can build your mental stamina and toughness as well. 

Click through for some methods to make yourself mentally tougher.

 The Marine Corps is all about driving to the end and accomplishing the mission – this requires Endurance – physical and mental.  Marines are great at training our bodies – ask any Marine you know to tell you some stories about a 20 mile forced march, and you will hear all about our physical endurance. 

We have also learned how to make ourselves mentally tough – Marines pride themselves on being able to push through anything – we are proud of our physical capabilities, but Marines all know that mental toughness will beat physical toughness any day. 

Some of these may seem “non-Marine,” but trust me, they work:

Think Positive Thoughts: You need to believe in yourself and your team.  Self-confidence is the biggest boost to mental toughness.  When you tell yourself “I can do this,” it is not as daunting.  When you believe you can do something, you can.  Sounds simple, and it is. 

Visualize: Picture your mission complete and you with your feet up.  When you close your eyes see yourself accomplishing your task, the task becomes less daunting.  There were many a 20 mile forced marches where I started closing my eyes and envisioning a cold beer around mile 15.  It made the last few miles less painful to picture the end state. 

Expect and Handle Setbacks:  Bad things happen.  Deal with it.  More importantly – pre-deal with it.  Have a contingency plan in place to handle set backs and problems.  If you have thought about problems earlier, they will not derail you when they occur – even if the problem that arises is different from what you planned for, the fact that you thought about how you would revise your plan, will make it easier to absorb the set back and move on. 

Manage Your Stress: Stress isn’t always bad – sometimes stress pushes you to maximum performance.  However, if you are constantly stressed out, you will soon burn out.  You need to be able to prioritize and determine what issues are important and what are not.  If you find yourself stressing over the non-important items, you need to learn to be more adaptable.  If you are a stressful person, you need to learn how to take five minutes to shut your eyes and calm down.

Take Care of Your Physical Being: If you do not take care of yourself physically, you will break down mentally.  You need to make sure you get enough sleep, eat properly, and exercise.  If you sit at a desk 14 hours a day driving yourself, you will burn out.  Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Find Your Happy Place:  Have a positive, upbeat attitude.  Let me tell you, deployments – especially combat deployments, suck.  You miss your family.  Sometimes you live like an animal.  And sometimes people get hurt or killed.  The only way to make it through a grueling deployment is with a smile.  Get up every day and force yourself to be happy.  If guys in Afghanistan can smile, you can. 

           

Remember, the path of leadership is littered with those that have started well yet lacked the Endurance of a truly great Leader.  Leadership is a marathon, and a marathon takes Endurance.  It takes overcoming pain, facing difficulties and struggles, if they are to carry it to the end, to finish well.  

Anyone can start well, yet very few know how to finish well.  No one will remember how you start. 

Will they remember how you end?