Grit – The Overvalued Attribute That Won’t Go Away

Endlessly touted on LinkedIn and self-help books as the singular attribute to get people where they want to be in their career and life goals, Grit pops up in plenty of conversations with managers, partners and business owners as something they want to test when hiring new people and develop in their existing teams. 

At a glance, the appeal of employing determined people who persevere to reach goals whilst being resilient to the obstacles between them and those goals is clear.  But every personality trait has positive and negative elements, so what makes up Grit and when does Grit become sand in the gears in this sought after attribute?  

Finding Grit in Personality Profile Reports 

What most people define as Grit is a combination of these four personality traits found in Big-5/OCEAN style personality profiling questionnaires, including our accounting-specific APPQ: 

Conscientiousness 

Upsides include valuing rules, policies and procedures, being dependable and meeting deadlines 

Dark Sides include sticking to practices that have become outdated, valuing rules ahead of flexibility, long hours culture behaviour of always putting duty before pleasure 

Self-Discipline 

The classic Grit trait of perseverance, setting goals, being planned & organised with high personal standards  

Dark sides include remaining fixated on goals that are no longer attainable, profitable or desirable as well as not acting on unplanned opportunities and getting frustrated by changing priorities events that wreck their meticulous schedule 

Emotional Stability 

Typically described as Resilience in Grit-speak.  The capacity the overcome setbacks, summon up the energy to push through peaks in workloads and handle emotionally demanding situations. 

Surely there can’t be a dark side to being emotionally stable?  If you retain that stability by trivialising or ignoring genuine threats to business and personal wellbeing, that stability can come back and bite you in the form of ‘unexpected’ events that were only unexpected by you or in burning yourself out. 

Self-Confidence 

Possessing that conviction that you will be a success drives people to take on challenges with a ‘can do’ attitude.  A core part of what most people would call Grit. 

The dark side is complacency, taking unnecessary risks and not seeking out support from people with greater knowledge or experience when making decisions.  Think Lehman Brothers c.2008 

Should you stop hiring people with Grit? 

No, but take off the rose-tinted glasses.  Personality is way more complex than a simple  

“Grit = Good”. 

People with Grit characteristics could be outstanding additions to your team but verify the risks of Grit with strong competency-based interview questions to determine whether those dark sides won’t turn Grit into sand in your business’s gears.   

There’s a full list of competency-based interview questions to explore the dark side of every personality trait on pages 17 - 39 of our APPQ Manual, which is available to anyone keen to up their hiring and development game.