The NPR podcast Hidden Brain uses science and storytelling to answer curious people’s questions and better understand the world. With the tagline, “A conversation about life’s unseen patterns,” the program host and science correspondent, Shankar Vedantam, strives to deliver insights that his audience can apply to their day-to-day lives. In the recent episode, The Power And Problem Of Grit, Vedantam interviews Angela Duckworth, psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, to understand grit and share how this personality trait can both hinder and help individuals in achieving greatness. This episode changed my perspective on the meaning of grit, and on the concept of deliberate practice to achieve goals.

Duckworth defines grit as the combination of passion and perseverance to achieve long-term goals. In this podcast, she examines “What makes extraordinary people successful?” Through her research, she found the personality trait “grit” plays a major role in an individual’s ability to achieve success. In fact, grit is a bigger predictor of success than sheer talent, genius or luck.

Even though natural talent or ability plays a role in a person’s success, it is usually in combination with hard work, practice and perseverance. However, others often do not see this hard work, practice and perseverance, and often attribute success to pure luck.

Starting at an early age, individuals receive pressure from families, peers, teachers and coaches to achieve success and grit can help them. Duckworth researched spelling bee winners and analyzed how participants trained. She discovered the act of “deliberate practice” would predict a student’s success in the final competition. Based on the research of K. Anders Ericsson, Duckworth describes deliberate practice as an intensive exercise that requires maximum effort and provides the least enjoyment, but is completed with the intention to master the skill.  Additionally, having and exhibiting grit best predicted how much deliberate practice one could achieve.

Duckworth strives to cultivate grit in her own children by establishing the “hard thing rule.” This rule requires that each family member choose an extracurricular activity that requires deliberate practice. Once the activity is completed or they give it up, they must have another “hard thing” planned.

This immediately reminded me of goal setting at Communiqué PR. During our annual review cycle, each employee establishes three goals to help his/her professional growth. Achieving these goals requires the art of deliberate practice and honing in on a weakness in order to transform it into a strength.

The concept of deliberate practice is one that colors driven people’s lives. In business, the amount of passion, hard work and hours an individual is willing to put into completing a presentation, report or proposal will correlate with how successful they are or how far they are able to advance in their career. For example, spending two hours verses three hours on an article, doing the extra research to make a press list more targeted, and spending an additional moment to personalize a pitch are few instances where PR professionals can flex their grit muscle and take an additional step toward achieving their goals.

So where does grit come from? And how can professionals exemplify grit in business? Below I have outlined the four psychological aspects Duckworth has seen in gritty individuals.

1. Interests. Gritty individuals know their interests. Once you know your passion, you’re able to invest the time needed to achieve greatness.
2. Capacity to do deliberate practice. Individuals with grit know the intensity required of deliberate practice and are able to withstand the struggle enough to make it into a habit. This aspect distinguishes good employees from great ones and hard workers from the truly dedicated. The ability to continue past the point of enjoyment on a project can be difficult but necessary in order to exceed expectations.
3. Sense of purpose. This is the ability to look beyond one’s self for the betterment of others. A sense of purpose can provide an individual with the motivation to practice or work when it is no longer easy or enjoyable.
4. Hope. At the intersection of motivation or optimism, this is the ability to keep going, even when the chance of success seems lost or slim. At a career standstill, or during a time of turnover or loss, keeping an eye on the silver lining and the ultimate goal helps gritty employees accomplish their goals.

Another example of how PR professionals can apply grit to business is by incorporating the same training practices as the spelling bee winners. Take preparation for a new business meeting, for example. Preparing is time consuming and can be difficult. It requires research, the development of a presentation and rehearsal of the presentation in order to be prepared. By taking these steps, we know we are more likely to secure additional business and develop new client relationships.

These four aspects relate to the second half of the podcast, the problem with grit. Individuals who possess high levels of grit may not do the rational thing because their grit compels them to keep going, even in the face of mounting obstacles. It is in situations like these where individuals must make strategic choices and understand when it is time to quit. Duckworth shares that often the difference between bad grit and stubbornness is not clear until after the result. Through applying grit and putting deliberate practice into action, individuals can reach greatness and achieve excellence.

Are you gritty?