Lean Quote: Grit is a Predictor of Success

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"We have to be willing to fail, to be wrong, to start over again with lessons learned."   —  Angela Lee Duckworth 

In this TED Talk, “Grit: The power of passion and perseverance,” Angela Lee Duckworth explains that a significant predictor of success is “grit” or “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.”

Before she was a psychology professor, Angela Duckworth taught math in middle school and high school. She spent a lot of time thinking about something that might seem obvious: The students who tried hardest did the best, and the students who didn't try very hard didn't do very well. Duckworth wanted to know: What is the role of effort in a person's success?

Now Duckworth is an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and her research focuses on a personality trait she calls "grit." She defines grit as "sticking with things over the very long term until you master them." Duckworth's research suggests that when it comes to high achievement, grit may be as essential as intelligence. That's a significant finding because for a long time, intelligence was considered the key to success.

It's not clear what makes some people grittier than others, but Angela Duckworth believes grit is something people can probably learn.

She says every human quality that has been studied has proven to be affected at least in part by a person's environment -- even intelligence. In addition, people change over time.

She believes grit can wax and wane in response to experiences. In addition, people might be gritty about some things and not others.

Angela Lee Duckworth cites an idea developed at Stanford University by Carol Dweck, PhD on growth mindset as the best idea she has heard about building grit.

“Growth mindset,” she says, “is the belief that the ability to learn isn’t fixed. It can change with your effort.” She shares Dr. Dweck’s work that when young people “learn about the brain and how it grows in response to challenge, they are more likely to persevere when they fail because they don’t believe failure is a permanent condition.”

Successful leaders are likely familiar with grit, perhaps without naming that characteristic. Good leaders demonstrate perseverance through many challenging circumstances. As leaders of various industries, when we adopt a growth mindset and put our passions toward pursuing our goals, we can develop grit.