Organisational Grit: Succeeding  with Adversity Quotient

“We live in uncertain and adversity rich times, therefore, leaders are required to possess and lead with exceptional grit and resilience to produce impressive results in such challenging contexts- Dr Paul Stoltz”

Why do some individuals achieve more than others when their intelligence and talent match? It is a question that has puzzled many. Angela Duckworth based her research on this phenomenon. There is a reason why many people with higher Intelligent Quotient and Emotional Intelligence still lag behind their colleagues who are probably not as talented and smart as they are.  Over the years, parents have “idolized” their children who possess great IQ. This makes kids compete frantically to attain academic excellence without which it is perceived that their future will be bleak. This scenario is also true with employers who believe that high performing employees are only those with high IQ and Emotional intelligence. However, in this age of constant disruptions, high EQs and IQs may not suffice to achieve tremendous success. It may be for this reason that some organisations are able to achieve monumental breakthrough and success above their competitors given the same talent pool, resources and operating environment?

Dr Toby Cosgrove: A Dyslectic with Resilience, Determination and Direction

Dr Toby Cosgrove, the renowned heart surgeon is dyslexic and he was not diagnosed until he was in his mid-thirties. In spite of the disability, he had the ambition to become a medical doctor, however, of the 13 medical schools he applied to, only the University of Virginia managed to accept him.  In an interview with Dr Thomas Lee and Prof Angela Duckworth, he said; looking back, dyslexia reinforced his determination and persistence. This difficulty compelled him to work more hours than the rest in order to get the same result. He joined the US Airforce where he worked as a heart surgeon until 1975 when he moved to Cleveland Clinic. An Interesting part of his narrative was when he decided to become a heart surgeon, taking his disability into consideration, many of his friends and associates counselled him against such ambition. However, he relied on his inner strength, passion and perseverance to realize his dreams. He retired in 2006 having performed more than 22, 000 heart surgeries, much more than any of his colleagues. He published over 450 Journal articles, pioneered lots of innovative procedures including the now popular minimally invasive mitral valve surgery. He rose to and occupied the position of the President/CEO of Cleveland Clinic from 2004 until 2017. He successfully managed the 43,000 staff strength hospital, growing their revenue from $3.7 billion in 2004 to $8.5 billion in 2016. The total number of annual patient visits also increased from 2.8 million to 7.1 million and much more, he popularized the “patient first” concept. The only things that made Crosgrove excel beyond his situation, in spite of being labelled as the least talented student during his residency program is his high Adversity Quotient.

Are you Gritty?

Uncertainties and complexities in our world are a terrible source of stress, however, a resilient spirit is required to rise above adversity. This is applicable to individuals and organisations. To be gritty means an individual possesses both passion and perseverance. Organisations can only become gritty when they are made up of a cohesive team of people with vision, passion and intensity. The absence of these traits makes individuals and organisation to only be in motion but without making much progress. There will be absence of courage, conscientiousness and tenacity to see things through. For the individual, the effort will only be to get the job done without the tenacity to succeed at the job.  Resilient organisations are known to be flexible, to be reliable and to practice a culture of respect and trust. They are known to promote and provide for the mental and psychological needs of their employees.

Gritty people are relentless in their determination to succeed regardless of their environment and situations.  As noted by Dr Thomas H. Lee and Prof Angela Duckworth in their article on organisational grit, “High achievers have extraordinary stamina. Even if they’re already at the top of their game, they’re always striving to improve. Even if their work requires sacrifice, they remain in love with what they do. Even when easier paths beckon, their commitment is steadfast.  This is what grit entails, it is that strength of character, that is informed by passion and perseverance. Angela Duckworth, in her book on the subject, described Grit as  “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.” This is what Dr Cosgrove did that made him overcome his challenges and rose to an enviable position which some of his colleagues with higher IQ can only imagine but not achieved.

Adversity Quotient: the intelligence for sustained success

Dr Paul Stoltz, the president and CEO of PEAK Learning, coined the word Adversity Quotient. Stoltz studies have conclusively proven that possession of a high Adversity Quotients is a critical skill needed to rise above misfortune. He observed that people with high AQ exhibit three major traits:

• They do not blame others for their adversities or setbacks.
• They do not blame themselves neither do they see setbacks to be a poor reflection of themselves.
• They believe the problems they face are limited in size and duration and can be surmounted

The level of your adversity intelligence says a lot about you and your drive against obstacles, and life, and how resilient you’ll be during vexing situations.

Overcoming AQ Deficiency  

An interesting finding from Dr Stoltz’s research shows that AQ can be learned and improved upon. Rather than focusing on adding what one does not have the subtraction strategy model of cure encourage the victim to remove those things that they do not need. Stoltz called this unburdening (subtracting) your low-AQ assumptions, such as helplessness, self-doubt, perceived inability to overcome your problems, self-blame or guilt. In his book, New Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr Maxwell Maltz, studied people diagnosed with very serious diseases.  He observed there are two categories of people: Those who accepted and surrendered to their situation and those who realised their situation but refuse to bow to it.  Those who easily succumb their problems and chose to live with it often times see themselves as helpless and are full of blame, shame and guilt. They blame themselves for being weak, blame God for their destinies or others including close relation for being responsible for their situation. What makes them different is their ability to come out strong, inner strength, education and active research to deepen their understanding of the situation The other group of people, though maybe in worse situation than the former group they, however, refused to blame others or themselves for the situation. They have unwavering faith that they will come out strong out of the situation. They help themselves through active research that will deepen their understanding of the situation. They have reasonable expectations and are not in the business of comparing themselves with others because they understand that such is a major source of weakening our adversity quotient.

Through the Lenses of AQ

AQ is made up of four major lenses:

1) Control: what is the extent to which you are able to positively influence your situation and the extent to which you can control your own response to a situation?

2) Ownership: to what extent do you take personal responsibility for improving your given situation, regardless of its cause? Remember if you don’t take ownership of the situation you cannot control it;

3) Reach: how extensively do you allow a kind of adversity you face affect other areas of your work and life; and

4)  Endurance:  what is your perception of how long the adverse situation will last? All these Stoltz has developed the Adversity Response Profile to measure these four dimensions of a person’s response to difficulty.

Conclusion

Every leader should strive to recruit gritty employees, harness their talents and use it to build a gritty organisation. Every individual should equally learn to be gritty, it is never late to learn this and it is a major intelligence required for success beyond talent and resources.  It has been shown repeatedly that in our adversity-filled world, success is not just a function of IQ and EQ but Adversity Quotient of an individual is also a critical factor for success.

As Lee and Duckworth observed, to attract employees, build teams, and develop an organizational culture that all have grit, leaders should personify passion and perseverance and provide a visible, authoritative role model for every other person in the organization.

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Olukunle A. Iyanda, Ph.D., FCA, MBA
Founder/Chief Executive Officer, BROOT Consulting
iyanda@brootc.com

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