What is GRIT?
Grit as a term has been used in many ways. It’s often used to reference a person’s hardiness or their ability to survive through adversity. Today we will be discussing the OB definition, of Grit.
“The perseverance and passion for Long Term Goals” (Duckworth)
This definition was proposed by Angela Duckworth and her team while researching what individual traits allow a person to accomplish more in life when their intelligence is comparatively the same as those around them. In each field that they studied, they found top leaders possessed this quality they called grit. They defined Passion as “having an intrinsic interest in your craft, and from a sense of purpose…” (Lee, Duckworth), and perseverance as “resilience in the face of adversity as well as unwavering devotion to continuous improvement” (Lee, Duckworth).
Gritty individuals often possess a clearly defined hierarchy of goals that will help them achieve their overall goal. The lowest tier contains tasks and short-term milestones, goals that lead into each other and form the minutia of the overarching plot. The next tier contains higher order tasks, things that have less immediate consequences than the first order but are important in establishing groundwork for the next tier. The highest tier is the abstract, but most important aspects of the goal. These are what the gritty individual works towards and are the reason the lower tiers exist. (Lee, Duckworth)
After research on this topic, Duckworth redefined the colloquial term “grit” into an acronym, to best sum up the gritty individuals’ qualities.
G for Guts, or a person’s intuition
R for Resilience, a person’s optimism, and confidence in their own ability
I for Initiative, their ambition to achieve their desires.
T for Tenacity, their need to accomplish said goal despite the odds.
How can I use it?
There are a few ways a person can use grit in their life. My personal favorite way to use grit is by setting a long-term dream you want to achieve by a certain point in your life. In the article, “Grit – Character Lab”, Angela Duckworth says, “Think of goals as part of the journey, not the destination”, referring to the step-by-step process of how to use grit properly. Then, once you have written that dream out, you should break it down into short-term goals to help you feel a sense of accomplishment throughout the big-picture goal you wish to achieve. This also helps create a clearer sense of direction for you as well. (Duckworth)
You may be using grit in your everyday life without even realizing it. You could be studying for a math test in which you are practicing all kinds of different word problems and equations over and over again. You get one wrong, and you take the failure and you persevere through it by learning from your mistake and getting it right on another explanation. When doing that you are embracing grit by practicing perseverance, developing a growth mindset, and cultivating resilience. When you put those three elements together you are most likely going to be very successful at achieving whatever you are practicing for. For example, the study, “Grit: perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals”, says “In our final study, grittier competitors in the Scripps National Spelling Bee outranked less gritty competitors of the same age, at least in part because of more accumulated practice”. (Duckworth)
Why should I care?
We should care about grit because it is what distinguishes someone with only raw talent and potential versus someone who achieved success. Grit is persevering and succeeding despite facing adversity. Having grit shows you are a passionate person, and this can be applied in both our personal and professional lives.
According to Angela Duckworth, grit is a mindset that we should all care about obtaining. Her studies show that grit and success aren’t genetics, meaning anyone can be gritty and thereby be successful in what they do if they apply themselves enough.
Being gritty is what will set you apart from other candidates and people in your life. Employers prefer gritty employees because it shows that they like a challenge and will do everything they can to be successful in it. Having grit in your personal life can be seen as a type of hope and faith of having a higher purpose and this can elevate your life in different ways.
Despite how important grit is in our lives, like everything, anything in excess is bad. Too much grit (i.e., in the workplace, being a gritty employee) can lead you to miss opportunities, start better projects, and overall prevent you from achieving goodness in your life. In this case, it’s important to choose what will be good for your well -being. (Duckworth)
How can I apply it in the workforce?
According to Duckwork, GRIT is defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. In the workplace in any given industry, being passionate about what you are doing is imperative. Some might see this as a luxury, however if you are passionate and determined about what you are doing and the goals you want to achieve, it makes the process much easier and more enjoyable. Also, as stated in Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals, “the gritty individual not only finishes tasks at hand but pursues a given aim over years” (Duckworth). An employee with grit would go above and beyond to finish their given task, while also working on a way to possibly improve in the future or do more than what is asked. In a team setting, gritty team members would strive to push each other to reach their limits, as well as always be willing to step in if help or assistance were needed. This helps with keeping group members on the same page, as well as keeping a positive environment, communication, and accountability among all members.
Sources & Citation
Duckworth, A. (n.d.). Grit. Character Lab. Retrieved April 13, 2023, from https://characterlab.org/playbooks/grit/
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
Lee, T., & Duckworth, A. (2018, September 18). What gritty companies look like. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://hbr.org/2018/09/organizational-grit