This year has been a struggle for employers and employees alike.
The COVID-19 pandemic has required all of us to live with a wide range of uncertainties, at work and at home. Changes to working conditions, like new health and safety protocols or restricted hours, has required businesses and employees to continually adapt, often week-to-week. While at home, many have had the added pressures of home schooling, longer working days, or feelings of isolation.
Such conditions can negatively impact the health and wellbeing of staff and puts added pressure on business owners and managers to support the needs of their teams while also keeping the business afloat.
There are no easy answers for how to cope during such challenging times, but leaders can help build both individual and organisational resilience by cultivating grit.
What is grit, exactly?
Psychologist Angela Duckworth coined the term grit and gave the concept prominence in her TED Talk, where she defines grit as “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals”.
“Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out – not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Duckworth explained in her talk.
According to Duckworth, another way to think about grit is to consider what it’s not. “Grit isn’t talent. Grit isn’t luck. Grit isn’t how intensely, for the moment, you want something,” she said.
“It’s having the emotional stamina to keep going, despite failures, even when others have given up”.
The good news, for employers and employees alike, is that grit is something we can cultivate, in ourselves, our staff, our teams, and our organisation.
How can you cultivate grit in your team?
Employees who demonstrate grit are more determined, more motivated, and ultimately, more resilient people. They also make great teammates in the workplace and tend to be successful in the pursuit of both personal and professional goals.
To help cultivate grit in the workplace, business owners and managers should take a positive and active interest in the growth of their staff.
Begin by having a conversation with your team about what grit is and why it’s so crucial. Forward them this article, play Duckworth’s TED Talk in your next team meeting, and discuss how grit can help them overcome both personal and professional challenges.
You could even motivate staff to think about how grit could be useful in achieving their annual performance targets, or simply refer to grit when discussing challenges being faced by the team in their role or on certain projects.
When discussing grit in a work setting, it’s important to be clear on team goals and how you will work together to achieve them. Leaders who dictate goals without seeking genuine input from their teams often fail to secure long-term commitment, so ask your team explicitly to commit to shared goals at the outset.
If the end goal is a long way off, set smaller, clearly defined interim steps to keep your team on track, and be sure to celebrate milestones and successes. Remember, when the goal is clear and achievable, it’s easier for your staff to maintain resilience.
So, keep track of progress, communicate it regularly, take the time to highlight even small gains, and frame any hiccups as an opportunity for learning. Such an approach will help maintain momentum, keep your team engaged, and direct attention towards positive outcomes.
Finally, when you can, help your team to identify moments when they have demonstrated grit. This will give them evidence that they can persevere, and it will reinforce that grit is an integral part of the company culture that can be built upon in future.
If you or your staff members are interested in finding out how much grit you have, you can take a quiz here.
Why is it important to build resilience among your employees?
As all business owners and managers know, talent, intelligence, knowledge and skill are critical factors of success, but they are also not sufficient. To truly thrive, employees need the ability to persevere—not just professionally, but personally, too.
By cultivating grit, business owners and managers can equip their teams with important life skills that can be drawn upon, over and over again, in a range of situations at work and at home.
In doing so, team members will develop trust in themselves, be confident in their work ethic, be more motivated over the long run, and will help foster positive company culture and a more engaged workforce overall.
Would you like to measure the wellbeing of your team or workplace? The Wellbeing Lab is running a survey to see how your levels of thriving and struggle are currently shaping your wellbeing and performance. Take the survey here.