Innovation and leadership couch Tanja Yardley says grit is a necessary skill for any leader or innovator—but how does it effect the way we work, and how can we develop this skill?
Episode Transcript
In her TED Talk on grit, Angela Lee Duckworth said, a significant characteristic emerges as a predictor of success, and it isn’t social intelligence, good looks, or physical health, and it wasn’t IQ—it was grit. Getting gritty when things aren’t pretty is a crucial skill to have as a leader and as an innovator. And there are certain things you can do to actually cultivate those grit muscles in yourself. One of them is actually taking advantage of the fact that our ability to make decisions actually wanes over the course of the day because we get decision fatigue. So, one of the best ways that you can counter that is to make your tough decisions early, and picking off the worst tasks first, and really strengthening your get-it-done muscles. Doing that actually strengthens your dopamine reward network in your brain and actually generates more of this reward chemical. When you procrastinate or put things off, it has the opposite effect, dropping your dopamine and making you less likely to get the job done and actually resulting in a feeling of being more and more and more blah and disappointed in yourself. So, one of the best ways to counteract that is to actually practice getting things done, especially the hard things.
Photo by Andres Ayrton from Pexels
