Cultivate Grit, But Go Slow on High-stakes Measures

Grit Gets You Through Tough Times, But There’s No Marshmallow Test for When the Stakes Are High

Grit is the ability to persevere when times get tough, or to delay gratification in pursuit of a goal.

Misty Copeland provides a wonderful example of grit as she describes her path to becoming the first African-American principal dancer in New York City’s American Ballet Theater.

“I had moments of doubting myself and wanting to quit, because I didn’t know if there would be a future for an African-American woman at that level,” she said. “At the same time, it made me so hungry to push through.”

Researchers suggest that grit enables people to succeed in school and work. Grit is associated with school success and general achievement in and out of school for kids; in medicine, such as in surgical training programs; and even for female attorneys in the legal world.

Grit has even captured the attention of employers who see it as a way to screen potential hires.

Do you wonder how much grit you have? You can take this University of Pennsylvania survey to find out!

Grit Is Good, But Hold off on Measuring It

Should we make decisions based on our perceptions of other people’s grit, especially in high-stakes situations?

The issue isn’t the value of grit. We know it’s good. But so far, research suggests that the enthusiastic embrace to make big decisions based on measuring grit may be premature.

This is because a lot of “grit” research is based on self-report. Self-report is asking someone to rate themselves. For measuring grit, self-report may take the form of asking people to rating their level of agreement with statements such as, “I stick to tasks and don’t give up.”

This may work okay for ivory-tower purposes, but when the stakes are high, such as in hiring decisions, it may be premature because people’s perceptions don’t always match their performance. For example, most people underestimate the number of calories they consume and overestimate their activity level. And, we tend to answer surveys in ways we think will please the surveyor.

In high-stakes situations, self-report simply isn’t reliable enough.

The Marshmallow Test: Prove It!

Angela Duckworth, a leading researcher on the topic of grit and self-control, cites the famous marshmallow test in which 4-year-olds were given a choice between eating one marshmallow at the moment or two marshmallows later. This is an example of a “performance task” — a real-life demonstration, proof, of self-control. It turns out that in follow-up studies years later, the children who were able to wait longer ended up doing better in school, earning more college diplomas, and achieving healthier body weight. Duckworth’s recommendation is to create performance tasks for grit when decisions about grit really count.

The take-home message is that grit is a very valuable trait to cultivate as an individual because it will help you achieve difficult or long-term goals. However, the methods to measure grit and then use those measurements in decision-making situations still need to be developed.

For Wellness Coaches, helping people cultivate grit is important because it’s a factor in being able to sustain and enjoy the benefits of healthy change.

Let us know how you feel about grit and or share your own stories. We would love to hear from you. Just jot your thoughts in the comment form below.