Grit in Leadership and Decisionmaking

We are leaders and decision-makers – at work, at home, with our families and sometimes with our church, sports and so forth. We exchange many words around leadership in our conversations … words like persistence, insightful, respected and tenacious; today, a relatively new and favoured term when considering the wisdom around leadership and decision-making is the concept of “grit”. So, let’s look at how grit can extend our capacity to make positive improvements in the way we lead and decide.

According to the Cambridge English dictionary, grit means courage and determination, despite difficulty. [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/grit accessed 20.06.2018]

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, grit means “firmness of mind or spirit: unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.” [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grit accessed 27.09.2018]

The term “grit” stems from the US Marines, clearly re-known for their tenacity of spirit where “can’t” is not in their vocabulary. Read the story of Tracy Garrett, the highest ranking woman general officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserves as written by author Shannon Polson, She’s Got Grit: What you can learn from the highest ranking woman Marine Corps general, published on Medium [https://medium.com/@ABorderLife/https-medium-com-shannonpolson-usmcleader-a782ec488e55 accessed 20.06.2018]

Garrett says: “Grit makes me think of mental toughness. I don’t think you just have it, but I’m also sure you don’t just get it at 22. You have to develop it young.

… It’s about developing skills, learning to support a group and learning to lead a group.”

“Grit” in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual's perseverance of effort combined with a passion for a particular long-term goal or end state which is a powerful motivation to achieve an objective. This perseverance of effort to an end state promotes decision-making and actions to drive forward – overcoming obstacles or challenges that lie on the path to accomplish the goal.

Grit expresses the determination to address something of absolute importance, endure the consequences and maintain self in the action of chasing a worthy path; furthermore, grit means to tenaciously steer towards being just and true, and to serve.

Though distinct, "perseverance", "hardiness", "resilience" and "ambition" are commonly associated concepts within the field of psychology to “grit” – they include a conscientiousness and need for achievement. These can be perceived as individual differences related to the realisation of achievements rather than viewed as talent or ability.

In 1907, a 19th century philosopher and psychologist, Williams James, brought into focus this distinction when he challenged the field of psychology to further investigate how certain individuals are capable of accessing richer trait reservoirs which enable them to accomplish more than the average person.

Psychologist Angela Duckworth and colleagues studied grit as a personality trait. According to Duckworth, a graduate of Harvard College in 1992 in neurobiology and then later a graduate from the University of Oxford in 1996 in neuroscience and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006:

When it comes to consequential life outcomes, grit has been shown to be at least as important as intellectual talent (IQ) or socioeconomic status. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Duckworth accessed 20.06.2018]

In Duckworth’s article, it states she observed that ‘individuals high in grit were able to maintain their determination and motivation over long periods despite experiences with failure and adversity’.

Margaret M Perlis in her Forbes article, 5 Characteristics of Grit -- How many do you have?, challenges aspects of Duckworth’s argument and suggests ways to contextualise the concept of grit:

Some of the grittiest people I’ve known lack the luxury to consider the big picture [long-term goals] and instead must react to immediate needs. This doesn’t diminish the value of their fortitude, but rather underscores that grit perhaps is more about attitude than an end game. …

Duckworth herself is the first to say that the essence of grit remains elusive. It has hundreds of correlates, with nuances and anomalies, and your level depends on the expression of their interaction at any given point. Sometimes it is stronger, sometimes weaker, but the constancy of your tenacity is based on the degree to which you can access, ignite, and control it. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/margaretperlis/2013/10/29/5-characteristics-of-grit-what-it-is-why-you-need-it-and-do-you-have-it/#7eb1b9fb4f7b accessed 27.09.2018]

Grit then refers to the action of pursuing and persisting. It means not folding to feelings of wanting to surrender, but rather pursuing with fervour the things that are essential in life and to sustaining life. Not surprisingly this term has been heavily pursued by many leaders in their business and personal endeavours.

Some of us have a natural ability to apply grit to our lives already; but, like all skills, it can be learned – sometimes through life lessons. Even when we possess the ability to apply grit, we need emotional intelligence to recognise which elements of life are worthy of a “gritty” approach. In Daniel Goleman’s classic book, Emotional Intelligence, the elements of emotional intelligence recognise a need to manage emotions well and develop insight and awareness to think, feel and then respond. We need to maintain an attitude of grit as we think, feel and respond to difficult decisions and through leadership struggles.

Each element – leadership, resilience, grit and emotional intelligence – are contained within each of us. The challenge is how we manage our emotions and how we nurture ourselves to support optimal functioning so that we lead and make decisions with an attitude of grit.

Written by Dr Amanda Jefferys, Clinical and Health Psychologist, and Roxanne Cooley, Organisational Behaviourist, Practical Health Consulting, Tamworth NSW Australia