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I’m busy, why do I care? Made popular by Angela Duckworth’s 2016 book of the same name, the quality of grit is a “special blend of passion and persistence” that lets people persevere through difficulties. There are times, though, when simply putting our head down and gutting through difficulties may not be enough. This post looks at one way to be better at grittiness.
These days are challenging for everyone. Even the luckiest of us lives in a world dominated by uncertainty, where getting it done is hard. And there’s no sign of it getting easier. Discouraging stuff.
Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness are the co-authors of the books The Passion Paradox and Peak Performance, and are all over the subject of how and why we perform at our best. A few weeks ago I was able to join a Zoom discussion they hosted on the subject of “grit.”
First, what is it? Not the African dust that gets in everything, grit is a quality popularized a couple of years ago by psychologist Angela Duckworth in a book of the same name. If you haven’t read Grit, the basic idea can be summed up 1 as:
Talent x effort = skill and skill x effort = achievement. Duckworth shows us that it is not nature or nurture that matters, but rather how we nurture our nature... [Grit is] the ability to hang in there and persevere when the going gets tough...
Fair enough, right? It seems clear that grit is an essential quality for anyone doing difficult work.
Grit has some important nuances and limitations. An example is the world of endurance sports. Aspiring marathoners who don’t have enough grit aren’t going to finish 26.2 miles. On the other hand, all competitive marathoners have the quality. So persistence and perseverance are necessary but not sufficient to be competitive.
For that, you need other tools. One which we discussed came from David Epstein’s bestseller Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World.2 Epstein is a fan of having a high level of something called “match quality” between you and your goals. Combined with grit, it’s a powerful tool.
Imagine that whatever task we’re working on is like a closed and locked door. Grit can be thought of like a crowbar: smooth and even. Match quality is like a key: jagged, with peaks and valleys where our skills are stronger or weaker. With enough leverage a strong enough crowbar can pry open any door with a lock. A key works with much less effort--but only in specific locks.
Both grit and match quality are active processes. Match quality competitors are constantly sifting different strategies and tactics, looking for the one that is the best fit with the circumstances and their own skills. Their grit shows not in one unending effort, but in having what it takes to disengage from unsuccessful attempts, and reengaging with a new approach, over and over.
Perseverance and persistence at hard tasks comes with fine print3. Research on athletes suggests emotional intelligence (aka “EQ”) is positively related to productive mental toughness. Although we celebrate the qualities, grit and persistence have a shadow side. Staying at an impossible task too long is just as bad as quitting something achievable too early. Left unchecked, persistence can morph into obsessive or dangerous behavior. All other things being equal, emotionally intelligent people will be less disposed to push things to excess.
For Leaders
Other research, again in athletes, shows that how challenges are presented matters a great deal, too -- athletes whose coaches helped them develop a high level of autonomy tended to be mentally tougher as well. This has implications for work:
Guide your people through difficult work with a light touch. Give encouragement coupled with responsible amounts of latitude. These will help grow your employees’ toughness and help bring them back, over and over, to tough work on tough problems.
Make it safe to disengage from approaches that aren’t working. Model greeting setbacks with a discovery mindset, rather than defensiveness.
Understand where your employees’ skills levels really are, and not just where the employees may think they are. No amount of grit will help someone overcome a challenge that’s simply out of their league.
Give real oversight. You are the best resource for keeping zealous but inexperienced employees out of trouble. Be the circuit breaker for excessive focus when the employee can’t do it for themselves.
How Can I Take Advantage Of This?
Let’s go back to the formula from earlier:
Talent x effort = skill and skill x effort = achievement.
We can grow our talent levels in many ways: practice, training, or being mentored all come to mind. To start, we have to recognize that we need to do better, and that sheer effort or willpower isn’t enough. Admitting that isn’t weakness; it makes us stronger.
No amount of talent or skill will produce achievement if the value for effort is zero. And that is also a choice, one that often has to be made every day and in the face of wanting to do easier things.
Not slacking off can be a struggle.
I face it all the time.
But it’s a choice.
Make it.
1 https://medium.com/@BStulberg/top-books-from-2016-2e97c0db163d
2 You can find Brad Stulberg’s review of Range for Outside magazine here: https://www.outsideonline.com/2397028/david-epstein-range-book-generalists
3 Not this fine print, though. (Sorry, a little footnote humor...)