FF#15 - The Power of GRIT: Pushing Through Challenges to Achieve Success

Welcome to the new revamped Empowered Leader email newsletter. While our Linkedin posts focus on bitesized insights and lessons and our Linkedin newsletter focuses on a Monday 1 quote, 1 lesson and 1 challenge, our email newsletter deep dives into a framework or tool that is aimed at helping us become better leaders. 

Today, we're diving deep into a quality that's essential for any leader's success: GRIT. But we're not just talking about the colloquial understanding of grit as toughness or resilience. We're exploring a powerful framework that can transform your leadership approach:

• G - Goal
• R - Reflect
• I - Improve
• T - Thrive

This GRIT framework encapsulates the essence of perseverance in leadership and provides a structured approach to achieving success. Let's unpack each element and discover how you can apply this framework to elevate your leadership game.

Understanding GRIT in Leadership

Before we dive into the framework, let's establish what we mean by GRIT in the context of leadership. GRIT isn't just about being tough or pushing through hardship. It's a mindset and a set of behaviors that enable leaders to set meaningful goals, learn from experiences, continuously improve, and ultimately thrive in their roles and organizations.

Leaders with GRIT don't just weather storms – they harness them to propel their teams and organizations forward. They understand that success is rarely a straight line from A to B, but rather a journey of continuous growth and adaptation.

Now, let's explore each element of the GRIT framework:

G - Goal: The Foundation of Achievement

Setting clear, meaningful goals is the first step in demonstrating GRIT. Without a clear destination, perseverance becomes aimless struggle. As a leader, your ability to set and communicate compelling goals is crucial for your own motivation and for rallying your team.

Key aspects of effective goal-setting:

• Clarity: Your goals should be specific and well-defined. Vague aspirations lead to vague results.
• Alignment: Ensure your goals align with your values and your organization's mission.
• Challenge: Set goals that stretch you and your team. Comfort zones don't foster growth.
• Measurability: Define concrete metrics to track progress. This provides motivation and allows for objective evaluation.
• Time-bound: Set deadlines to create urgency and prevent procrastination.

Personal Experience: When I set my sights on joining Westpac early in my career, I didn't just have a vague notion of wanting to work there. I set specific goals: to secure a position in the Strategy and M&A team within two years, to excel in the interview process, and to bring unique value to the role. This clarity of purpose fueled my perseverance through multiple rejections and a grueling six-round interview process.

Leadership Insight: As a leader, involve your team in the goal-setting process. When people have a say in defining goals, they're more likely to be committed to achieving them.

R - Reflect: The Power of Mindful Evaluation

Reflection is a critical yet often overlooked aspect of GRIT. It's not enough to simply push forward; we must take time to evaluate our progress, understand our challenges, and learn from our experiences.

Key aspects of effective reflection:

• Regularity: Make reflection a habit. Schedule time for it daily, weekly, and after significant events or milestones.
• Honesty: Be truthful with yourself about your successes and failures. Sugar-coating doesn't lead to growth.
• Holistic View: Consider not just outcomes, but also processes, behaviors, and attitudes.
• Questions: Use probing questions to guide your reflection. "What worked well?" "What could I have done differently?" "What did I learn?"
• Documentation: Keep a reflection journal. Writing down your thoughts can lead to deeper insights.

Personal Experience: After each rejection from Westpac, I took time to reflect deeply on the experience. I reached out to interviewers for feedback, analyzed my performance, and identified areas for improvement. This reflection was crucial in my eventual success.

Leadership Insight: Foster a culture of reflection in your team. Implement after-action reviews following projects or significant events. This not only improves performance but also builds a learning organization.

I - Improve: The Journey of Continuous Growth

Improvement is where reflection meets action. It's about taking the insights gained from reflection and turning them into tangible changes in behavior, skills, or approach.
Key aspects of effective improvement:

• Action Plans: Develop specific, actionable plans based on your reflections.
• Skill Development: Continuously work on enhancing your skills and knowledge.
• Feedback Loop: Regularly seek and act on feedback from peers, mentors, and team members.
• Experimentation: Be willing to try new approaches and learn from the results.
• Persistence: Understand that improvement is often incremental. Keep pushing, even when progress seems slow.

Personal Experience: Between my Westpac applications, I focused intensively on improving my interview skills, deepening my industry knowledge, and enhancing my strategic thinking abilities. Each rejection became a stepping stone for improvement.

Leadership Insight: Create an environment where improvement is expected and supported. Provide resources for learning and development, and recognize efforts to grow and enhance skills.

T - Thrive: Reaping the Rewards of GRIT

Thriving is the ultimate goal of GRIT. It's about not just surviving challenges, but using them as catalysts for growth and success.
Key aspects of thriving:

• Resilience: Develop the ability to bounce back stronger from setbacks.
• Adaptability: Thrive in changing environments by being flexible and open to new approaches.
• Innovation: Use challenges as opportunities for creative problem-solving.
  Well-being: Balance drive with self-care to ensure sustainable success.
• Impact: Focus on making a positive difference in your organization and beyond.

Personal Experience: When I finally secured my position at Westpac, I didn't just survive the challenging journey – I thrived. The skills and resilience I developed through the process set me up for success in my role and subsequent career advancements.

Leadership Insight: Create a thriving organization by celebrating perseverance, encouraging innovation, and fostering a growth mindset among your team members.

Implementing the GRIT Framework in Your Leadership

Now that we've explored each element of GRIT, let's discuss how you can actively cultivate this quality in yourself and your team:

Goal-Setting Workshops: Regularly conduct goal-setting sessions with your team. Ensure everyone understands and buys into the goals.
Reflection Rituals: Implement regular reflection practices. This could be daily journal prompts, weekly team debriefs, or monthly retrospectives.
Personal Development Plans: Work with each team member to create and follow through on personal improvement plans.
Celebrate GRIT: Recognize and reward not just achievements, but also demonstrations of perseverance, reflection, and improvement.
Lead by Example: Share your own GRIT journey with your team. Be open about your goals, reflections, improvements, and how you're thriving.
Create a GRIT-friendly Environment: Foster psychological safety so team members feel comfortable taking risks, reflecting honestly, and pushing for improvement.
GRIT Mentoring: Pair team members to support each other in their GRIT journeys.

7-Day GRIT Leadership Challenge

To help you put the GRIT framework into practice, I challenge you to undertake the following 7-day challenge:

• Day 1 (Goal): Set a clear, challenging goal for yourself or your team. Make sure it's specific, measurable, and aligned with your values or organizational mission.
• Day 2 (Reflect): Spend 30 minutes reflecting on your leadership journey so far. What have been your biggest challenges? Successes? What patterns do you notice?
• Day 3 (Improve): Based on your reflection, identify one specific area for improvement. Create an action plan to develop this area.
• Day 4 (Thrive): Do something that pushes you out of your comfort zone. This could be having a difficult conversation, presenting to a large group, or taking on a new responsibility.
• Day 5 (Goal & Reflect): Review your goal from Day 1. Reflect on your progress and any obstacles you've encountered. Adjust your goal if necessary.
• Day 6 (Improve & Thrive): Implement one aspect of your improvement plan from Day 3. Pay attention to how it affects your leadership and your team.
• Day 7 (Full GRIT Cycle): Go through a complete GRIT cycle in one day. Set a small goal, reflect on it at the end of the day, identify an area for improvement, and find a way to thrive despite challenges.

Throughout this week, keep a GRIT journal. Note your goals, reflections, improvements, and moments of thriving. This record will be invaluable for your growth as a leader.

Closing Thoughts

GRIT isn't just a personality trait – it's a skill that can be developed and a framework that can transform your leadership. By focusing on setting meaningful Goals, engaging in honest Reflection, committing to continuous Improvement, and learning to Thrive in the face of challenges, you can elevate your leadership to new heights.

Remember, GRIT isn't about never failing. It's about using every experience – success or failure – as an opportunity for growth. It's about creating an environment where resilience, learning, and continuous improvement are the norm.

As you go about your week, I encourage you to keep the GRIT framework in mind. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. Celebrate the GRIT of your team members. And above all, keep pushing forward, one goal, one reflection, one improvement at a time.

In the words of Angela Duckworth, the psychologist who popularized the concept of grit, "Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare." Let's cultivate that endurance in ourselves and our teams through the power of GRIT.

Until next week, keep growing, reflecting, improving, and thriving!

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Jc

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