Grit!–Part 1
Fresh from getting a neurobiology degree from Harvard, Angela Duckworth was hired by consulting firm McKinsey, which waged a “war for talent” with emphasis on a person’s “intrinsic gifts.”
McKinsey is the firm of choice for many graduates, who were supposed to use their smarts to advise conglomerates on problems deemed hard to solve.
As Duckworth recounts in her bestseller “Grit,” as she was putting together slides of recommendations for a client, “really, I had no idea what I was talking about. There were senior consultants … who may have known more, but there were also more junior consultants who … surely knew even less.”
“Why hire us, then, at such an exorbitant cost?”
Many reasons, but primarily, “hiring McKinsey meant hiring the very ‘best and brightest’—as if being the brightest also made us the best.”
McKinsey advises companies to “aggressively promote the most talented employees while just as aggressively culling the least talented,” justifying gigantic differences in pay.
But several companies endorsed by McKinsey did not do well afterwards.
Enron, for instance, whose CEO Jeff Skilling was formerly from McKinsey, took pride in firing the bottom 15 percent of employees even if they did well. An Enron documentary, entitled “The Smartest Guys in the Room,” showed such a cutthroat environment led to deception, fraud and bankruptcy.
Despite the perks, Duckworth decided her calling lay elsewhere. After a master’s in neuroscience in Oxford and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, she has made it her mission as a psychologist to help people achieve and thrive.
After conducting hundreds of studies on business, the military and the academe, Duckworth concluded one factor differentiated successful people, companies, and cultures: not IQ, not even EQ, but grit.
Staying in love
There is nothing wrong with talent or intelligence. Some people learn some things easier and faster than others.
But when reality shows prefer “naturally-gifted” performers, or we believe that math prowess is inherited, or business founders anoint “born entrepreneurs” their “natural” successors, then we send the mistaken message that what counts are the fixed talents we are born with, and without the right genetics or ability, there’s nothing much we can do to improve.
If we believe ability is inborn or innate, then we will tend not to work hard at a difficult task. We lose interest and flit on to the next project.
After Duckworth gave a talk at the Wharton School of Business, a student described how he had spent sleepless nights to raise thousands of dollars for his startup.
Duckworth congratulated him, but added that “grit is more about stamina than intensity.”
Hopefully he would still be working on the same task with the same energy after a year?
Not really. He would probably be on another project.
Fine, but hopefully he would be on a related field, pursuing a similar path?
He’d probably move around a lot, but he would be working very hard.
Would this count?
“There are no shortcuts to excellence,” Duckworth told him.
“Developing real expertise, figuring out really hard problems, it all takes time—longer than most people imagine. And then … you’ve got to apply those skills and produce goods or services that are valuable to people. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it.”
“It’s doing what you love,” the student replied.
“It’s doing what you love, but not just falling in love—staying in love.”
Prioritize
To develop grit, first figure out what your ultimate mission is, and then ensure that your middle- and lower-level goals lead up to it.
Duckworth tells a story about multibillionaire Warren Buffet, who taught his pilot how to prioritize. First, list 25 career goals. Second, reflect on the list and choose the five highest goals. Third, look at the other 20 goals you did not choose, and avoid them altogether, because they use up time and effort, distracting you from your ultimate goals.
To Buffett’s three-step process, Duckworth adds a fourth: Think about how your goals serve a common purpose, so you can focus your passion.
Do the exercise above for your family business. You’ll likely end up with lots of goals, mostly middle or low-level. How then can you focus? Reflect and decide which goals to prioritize, which you can pursue with grit.
“Grit” by Angela Duckworth is available in National Bookstore branches.
(To be continued)
Queena N. Lee-Chua is on the board of directors of Ateneo de Manila University’s Family Business Development Center. Get her book “Successful Family Businesses” at the University Press (e-mail [email protected]). E-mail: [email protected].
