In past articles, we’ve highlighted the works of both Dr. Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania; and Dr. Carol Dweck, a psychologist from Stanford University.  These women are two of the most influencial leaders on the topic of grit.  Both professionals have a passion for researching what, in fact, we should be measuring with regard to propensity for success.

Johan Lehrer puts it this way in his recent article in the Boston Globe:

“One of the main obstacles for scientists trying to document the influence of personality traits on achievement was that the standard definition of traits – attributes such as conscientiousness and extroversion – was rather vague.

Duckworth began wondering if more narrowly defined traits might prove to be more predictive.  She began by focusing on aspects of conscientiousness that have to do with ‘long-term stamina,’ such as maintaining a consistent set of interests, and downplayed aspects of the trait related to short-term self-control, such as staying on a diet.  In other words, a gritty person might occasionally eat too much chocolate cake, but they won’t change careers every year.  ‘Grit is very much about the big picture,’ Duckworth says.  ‘It’s about picking a specific goal off in the distant future and not swerving from it.’”

In essence, Duckworth is suggesting that, rather than IQ level, what we should be measuring is a person’s ability to narrow and maintain focus on a particular goal.  Research confirms that this is a better predictor of a person’s potential than their intelligence and well-rounded background. 

If you’re a hiring manager, think about how you interview candidates…  Would this be a trait that you could measure during an interview by changing the types of questions you ask?  If so, you’d probably be more successful at predicting your prospective employee’s potential in your organization.

If you’re in a coaching role, you can also take advantage of the research in this area:

“While Duckworth and others are quick to point out that there is no secret recipe for increasing grit – ‘We’ve only started to study this, so it’s too soon to begin planning interventions,’ she cautions – there’s a growing consensus on what successful interventions might look like.

One of the most important elements is teaching kids that talent takes time to develop, and requires continuous effort.  Dweck refers to this as a ‘growth mindset.’  She compares this view with the ‘fixed mindset,’ the belief that achievement results from abilities we are born with.  ‘A child with the fixed mindset is much more likely to give up when they encounter a challenging obstacle, like algebra, since they assume that they’re just not up to the task,’ says Dweck.

Interestingly, it also appears that praising children for their intelligence can make them less likely to persist in the face of challenges, a crucial element of grit.  For much of the last decade, Dweck and her colleagues have tracked hundreds of fifth-graders in 12 different New York City schools.  The children were randomly assigned to two groups, both of which took an age-appropriate version of the IQ test.  After taking the test, one group was praised for their intelligence – ‘You must be smart at this,’ the researcher said – while the other group was praised for their effort and told they ‘must have worked really hard.’

Dweck then gave the same fifth-graders another test.  This test was designed to be extremely difficult – it was an intelligence test for eighth-graders – but Dweck wanted to see how they would respond to the challenge.  The students who were initially praised for their effort worked hard at figuring out the puzzles.  Kids praised for their smarts, on the other hand, quickly became discouraged.

The final round of intelligence tests was the same difficulty level as the initial test.  The students who had been praised for their effort raised their score, on average, by 30 percent.  This result was even more impressive when compared to the students who had been praised for their intelligence:  their scores on the final test dropped by nearly 20 percent.  A big part of success, Dweck says, stems from our beliefs about what leads to success.”

Could this change your perspective on how you coach those on your team?  It is so natural to praise those we coach for their natural abilities.  While this feels natural and right, the research shows it is counterproductive.

It may be better to just let the natural talents speak for themselves, and seek to praise someone for living out their values and displaying positive virtues.  Grit is one of these virtues, but there may be more.  It will be interesting to see what the research unveils in the future…

A couple of weeks ago, I had dinner with a real estate executive on the East Coast.  The topic of conversation turned to the difficulty his organization is having in recruiting experienced real estate agents from his competitors.

In the past, this individual had great success recruiting his competitors’ agents.  In addition, he was able to teach his first-line managers to duplicate his accomplishments.  That is, until recently…

As the real estate market initially soured and then remained stagnant in his area, he noticed the recruiting results of his managers start to diminish.  He coached and prodded his managers with little improvement.

Eventually, out of frustration, he picked up the phone and started making recruiting calls on his own, in an effort to determine the source of the problem.  His frustration grew stronger:

“I just can’t seem to shake anyone loose right now!  The agents in our market are just not willing to make a move no matter what you offer them.”

We discussed some strategies for growing his agent base outside of traditional techniques.  All the while, his mounting frustration got me thinking.  Why would agents be less willing to move during difficult times?  Wouldn’t people seek out better opportunities when things are challenging?  Not necessarily.

Lou Adler offers some insight into this topic in a recent article he wrote:

“As part of his ‘Hierarchy of Needs,’ Maslow suggested that while people consistently strive for personal improvement, they become conservative in difficult economic times.  During these periods, trade-offs are made where people protect their assets, including their jobs, avoid any unnecessary risk, and reduce their expenses.  This is why good people, who are fully employed, are reluctant to move during economic slowdowns.”

We all know what goes on in a person’s mind, has a profound effect upon his/her actions.  This sense of “hunkering down” is not easy to overcome.  In fact, it may be a waste of time to try to push against this kind of psychological perception.  There is no magic bullet.

Any results that are realized in this kind of environment will be gained through perseverance, grit, and acceptance that the conversion metrics are going to be much lower than they would be during better times.  In other words, to produce the same results you experienced in the past, it is going to take three times the effort!

Here’s the good news:  Things won’t stay this way forever.  Tomorrow, we’ll discuss what to expect when the economy begins to improve and people beginning exploring opportunities once again, and the penned up demand from the last couple of years starts to be released.  These coming changes could have a profound effect on your recruiting and the make-up of your current organization.