Greatness can be learnt, the gritty way
One of the oldest and still revent questions is — is talent more important or the hard work? The author says — it’s hard work, or as she calls it — Grit.
In this well researched and readable book, Prof. Angela Duckworth, a researcher at University of Pennsylvania, argues that when it comes to achievement, efforts matter twice as much as talent.
She depicts it in a very simple equation, which is, in fact, at the heart of the book:
Talent x Effort = Skills
Skill x Effort = Achievement.
In other words, without effort the talent remains dormant, and with further efforts only that the skills produce relatively superior outcomes.
She suggests that it is the combination of passion and perseverance that leads to superior outcomes, and yet, time and again we tend to like the naturals and continue to discount the amount of grit they have shown and continue to. In other words, it is the combination of direction and determination that makes it big, in the long run. Talent alone is no guarantee of grit, for often the potential can be inversely related to performance.
Picking examples from the US Military Academy at the West Point, the Spelling Bee contests, and several other realms of life, especially competitive sports, Angela brings to fore the importance of grit in the face of adversity. To test your own scores on passion and perseverance, she even offers a Grit Scale, which has shown to be reasonably predictive of how soon individuals give up on tough tasks.
Angela cites scores of researches on the topic of talent versus hard work, dating back to the work of Francis Galton, and William James, and picks up this incisive conclusion — “the plain fact remains that men the world over possess amounts of resources, which only very exceptional individuals push to their extremes of use”.
The author opines that grit is stamina rather than intensity. It’s about being at it, or as Woody Allen says ‘showing up’. Between passion and perseverance, the two components of grit, Angela says that perseverance matters more than passion, for enthusiasm is common, while endurance is rare.
One of the immediate questions you must have is — how do I know what my passion is? Prof. Angela has a method. She suggest one to identity one top-level goal which is like your life’s philosophy or your ultimate concern (for her, it is to use psychological science to help kids thrive). While you keep your higher-level goal, or purpose, in mind, you must be flexible with your lower-levels goals (or means), and if need be, drop some of those.
The thing about grit is that it grows with time. It is okay to not have a clear direction in the early days, but performance multiplies as grit develops with age, and with a clearer sense of direction (achieving higher-order goals).
Grit can either grow from inside-out (through deliberate practice, having a growth mindset, etc), or outside-in (by being in right company, culture and having mentors).
The author proposes a four stage model of how to develop grit, inside-out.
Interest → Practice → Purpose → Hope
As for the inside-out approach of becoming gritty, it all starts with having an interest in something, which often comes from interacting with the world outside, and which deepens with time. It then calls for deliberate practice, a kaizen-like approach of continuous improvement and pushing the limits by setting stretched-goals and with dogged persistence. Practice is mostly painful, while the performance is often a state of ‘flow’. It then helps identify purpose, or the calling in life, or the top-level goal, which must be both self and others-oriented motivated. Finally, you become hopeful that such efforts can improve your future state, and this calls for learned optimism and a growth mindset.
The outside-in approach of growing grit is equally possible. It mostly starts with parenting which must ideally be both supportive and demanding, and in her case- the Hard Thing Rule has helped the family foster grit. For kids, the role of structured extracurricular activities can’t be overemphasized, as following-through develops resilience and is a good predictor of how deligent the child grows up to be. At later years, one can be a part of a culture that is gritty, supported by mentors, seniors, and has the right language. Gritty teams have shown to bring about the best in individuals and prune the cohort over time.
It’s typically a combination of inside-out and outside-in approaches to fostering grit that seems to work.
A recommended reading to leaders and students alike keen to be gritty and shape gritty teams. Though the author becomes repetitive at times and picks up some very obscure examples from her local vicinity to drive home the point (looks like convenience sampling), but overall the message is strong and practical.
In summary — greatness is doable.