Grit - A Predictor of Success
Abhishek Mittal
Global Talent Management & Organizational Development Partner at Google
Over the years, I have been fortunate to work with a great many talented individuals - both colleagues and clients. And some of them leave me in awe of how they think, feel and act. They are special - very competent, successful and they have something extra. When I reflect upon what is this something "extra", I realize that it is not about deep technical skills, visionary thinking, perceptual acuity, magical oratory skills etc.
One thing stands out for me - Grit.
All of these exceptional people I know are driven by a sense of purpose and they have the grit, the endurance to follow through and move towards achieving their purpose - even in the face of massive setbacks. I chanced upon the work of Angela Lee Duckworth (video link). She has conducted research with schools, corporations and military to understand what factors predict success. And here is what her research showed:
"In all those very different contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn't social intelligence. It wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't IQ. It was grit."
"What I do know is that talent doesn't make you gritty. Our data show very clearly that there are many talented individuals who simply do not follow through on their commitments. In fact, in our data, grit is usually unrelated or even inversely related to measures of talent."
So, what have I learnt from gritty people I know? I think all these individuals had a fine balance between the following:
- Sense of control: Firm belief in their ability to influence situations; belief in "turf expansion" rather than "turf protection"
- Sense of expectations: Expecting success in uncertain situations and motivating others
- Sense of challenge: Seeing the most challenging situations as the biggest opportunity to make a mark, rather than seeking comfort in stability and familiarity
What have you learnt from your network? What have gritty people taught you?
Project Management | Monitoring & Evaluation | PMP | Agile | EY | ex SAP | Singapore Management University (SMU) |IE Business School
7 年Thanks for the thought-provoking idea Abhishek Mittal. To a large extent with the idea fo 'grit' as defined by you. I have seen from personal experience how talent and intelligence are not enough to get you where you want to reach professionaly. This is especially the case in the long term (over the course of our entire career).
Management Consulting | Talent Management | Workforce Strategy | Organisation Development & Transformation
7 年Made me think of a sort of continuum of 'not giving up' - from plain obstinacy(trying the same thing expecting better results) to persistence(trying different things until success is achieved) to sheer grit(not giving up knowing success is a matter of time and effort). If you think about it, it is that sense of control/direction/purpose you talked about that is basically progressing along this continuum. A couple of things I found interesting - 1. You seem to use 'talent' to refer to an achievement orientation - as related to current or future success. On the other hand, Ms Duckworth seems to refer to the term as innate/acquired skill-sets. It would be interesting to compare talent vs grit as predictors of success but even more to study grit alone as a predictor of success - and to read real stories! 2. It would be interesting to study this as a behavioral competence - grit would be different from persistence due to the elements of courage/risk taking, in the face of challenges/obstacles. It would be more relevant to entrepreneurial roles while persistence would have a wider ambit.
Leadership & Culture Advisory | Coach | HR & Talent Advisory | Transformation | Future of Work
7 年Thanks for this Abhishek. I completely agree, the core for me comes from the meaningfulness and purposefulness that drives people to do what they do. To go the extra mile again and again. We all need to think and feel about what drives us, our passions. This is the foundation of your 'gritty' characteristic that you articulate so well.