What is GRIT?

A word that seems not widely understood nor used in speech, but packs a punch for leaders and other achievers.

GRIT comes down to a combination of passion and perseverance [and resilience]. Pursuing a dream, goal, or vision with uncommon commitment and stamina.

GRIT is less about talent and more about the amount of effort put into pursuing something believed in while overcoming obstacles and setbacks.

GRIT has been found to be one of the best predictors of who will succeed and who won’t—not only in business, but in the military, and in our schools.

Angela Duckworth did some of the most widely acclaimed research and found that two traits seem to predict achievement: grit and self-control. 

Duckworth states that, Grit is the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals (Duckworth et al., 2007). Self-control is the voluntary regulation of impulses in the presence of momentarily gratifying temptations (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Duckworth & Steinberg, 2015). On average, individuals who are gritty are more self-controlled, but the correlation between these two traits is not perfect: Some individuals are paragons of grit but not self-control, and some exceptionally well-regulated individuals are not especially gritty (Duckworth & Gross, 2014).

A study done of 11,258 cadets at West Point over a 10 year period (Duckworth and Matthews) found that grit provided the best predictor of which cadets would succeed or fail at the challenging academy. Click to read more: Inc.

Deliberate practice, operationally defined as studying and memorizing words while alone, better predicted performance in the National Spelling Bee than being quizzed by others or reading for pleasure. 

Deliberate practice mediated the prediction of final performance by the personality trait of grit, suggesting that perseverance and passion for long-term goals enable spellers to persist with practice activities that are less intrinsically rewarding—but more effective—than other types of preparation. Click to read more: Why Grittier Competitors Triumph at the National Spelling Bee.

Duckworth also researched the role of talent and found that effort played as big a role in a person’s achievement as did their inherent talent. She explains it in her book, GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, as follows: 

Duckworth asserts, “Where talent counts once, effort counts twice. Consistency of effort, through time, is the key ingredient to success.

Some of the best [and considered to be the most talented] achieving athletes in the world, like Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and Tiger Woods are also known to some of the hardest working.

Put another way, the success formula is described, as follows:

Click to read the article: Grit…The Official Formula for Success.

What does this mean for leaders? I believe it suggests two things:

• To become a great leader, add effort and perseverance to passion and talent.
• To assemble a high performing team, look for people who display great GRIT.

You cannot change the talent you have been born with, but you can surely increase your effort!

Show more GRIT and watch what happens.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.