Grit is often praised in entrepreneurs. The persistent drive, focus, and passion is seen as necessary for the self-employed to reach their goals. These traits are less expected in employees however. Is this because they aren’t beneficial in traditional workplaces or is it simply because the traditional workplace doesn’t attempt to build grit in their practices? According to an organizational behavior research journal on Grit at Work, grit has several positive correlations with beneficial work outcomes such as higher job performance, work engagement, organizational commitment and retention. For these reasons, more workplaces should consider enforcing gritty behaviors.

Retention refers to employees staying with their jobs over a long period of time. This is most often caused by stronger organizational commitment, i.e. how dedicated one is to their job. Gritty people tend to be especially committed to jobs that align with their long-term values and goals. Grit will convince workers to keep a job even when they experience constant obstacles or stress. This is evident in nurses, doctors, and mental-health professionals who feel driven to help and heal. They remain committed to their tasks even as they face long hours, death, and violence. Grit has an inverse effect on work that doesn’t cross the threshold of “just a job” for the employee. They will leave the job the second an opportunity to pursue their goal presents itself, no matter how affective, continuous, or normative their commitment was. 

Gritty employees also tend to have stronger work engagement and job performance. They put effort into building their skills and completing their tasks outside of work hours. Improvement is always on their mind as a low-level goal in pursuit of their ultimate goal. Studies have measured that individuals with grit outperform their peers of equal ability or talent. Retention also helps these outcomes. The longer someone works at a job, the better they become at it. 

You may ask, how do I find employees with grit? According to grit philosophy, you’re on the wrong track. Instead of searching out individuals who already exhibit grit, you should change certain aspects of your workplace and culture to promote it:

• Provide a role model within leadership that uses authoritative management. Authoritative management creates an environment that is both supportive yet demanding. The employees will be continuously asked to complete more difficult and complex tasks while management focuses on providing them with the resources needed to be successful. 

• Take steps to build a foundation of  intrinsic motivation within employees. Grit is born from the satisfaction of reaching goals, not from the consequences of reaching said goals, monetary or otherwise.

• Invest in existing employees’ skill growth. Many workplaces make the mistake of valuing employees viewed as talented over employees invested in growth. This discourages grit. Talent is its antithesis because it is “natural” or “god-given”, unlike skills which can be developed.

•  Creating a work cycle around innovation and a growth-mindset can dispose of the “how we’ve always done it” ideology that plagues many businesses and employees. This also motivates employees to push themselves to find the next great solution for a firm. 

• Job design should center around employee specialization. Past tradition dictated that employees should be jacks-of-all-trade in order to get their tasks done. Grit doesn’t thrive in this environment because the tasks are too spread out for the employee to develop a burning interest in them.

Incorporating these changes in your workplace and in your attitudes will set your team on the path to gritty achievements in spite of difficulties along the way.