Grit: The Ultimate Guide for Salespeople

想想您努力实现的最后一个长期目标。

时间跨度是多少 - 一两个月？半年？几年？

Did you achieve it? Were there setbacks along the way you had to push through?

The answers to these questions will suggest how gritty you are. In this guide, we’ll define what grit is, how it will help you in sales, and how to develop it.

跳到特定部分：

• What Is Grit?
• The Grit Scale
• 砂砾的特征
• Grit TED Talk
• Growth Mindset
• Examples of Grit
• How to Develop a Culture of Grit at Work

砂砾的定义

毅力是个性特征defined by psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Duckworth’s research suggests a person’s grittiness has a bigger impact on their success than their IQ or talent.

The Grit Scale

Duckworth developed a short test for determining how gritty a person is. Scores range from 1 (not at all gritty) to 5 (extremely gritty). You can takeThe Grit Scalehere.

但是，如果您的分数比您想要的要低，请不要打败自己。根据达克沃思（Duckworth）的说法，您的一部分是基于您的标准。您可能对成为一个努力工作或坚持目标意味着什么更严格的定义，这将降低您的分数。

砂砾的特征

What does grit look like? Many people mistakenly believe "grit" is another term for "self-control." These personality traits are related but not synonymous. Self-control is about short-term choices, like resisting the urge to procrastinate. Grit, meanwhile, is about the long-term. Maybe you stay in sales despite having a hard first year, or go to school so you can become a sales engineer. Here are the top three attributes of gritty people.

1) Couragous

勇敢地有助于实现目标。如果您不勇敢，您将追求相对容易的目标。如果您愿意挑战自己（并且可以接受潜在的风险），则将设定雄心勃勃的目标。即使您没有完全达到目标，您也会更加成功。

To give you an idea, suppose you commit to making 150% of your number. You’re still ahead of where you would have been if you make 120%, although you’ve “failed.”

2）热情

要保持多年的目标投资，您对此感到不冷不冷。这就是为什么激情是勇气的关键组成部分：您的热情越多，即使事情变得艰难，您也会继续前进。

问你自己，“Would I be excited about what I do if I wasn’t paid for it? If there wasn’t any recognition for my work?”

如果您真正充满热情，您会回答是。销售工作并没有错，因为金钱和验证是有益的 - 许多销售人员是由这些事情激发的。但这与在与自我提升或薪水无关的前景中找到真正的乐趣和帮助的前景不同。

3) Ambitious But Realistic

It might seem counter-intuitive, but gritty people aren’t usually perfectionists. Perfection is an impossible standard. Most of the time, you fall a little short. So if you’re always trying to be perfect, you’ll always be disappointed -- and you’ll probably be tempted to give up.

Rather than setting such lofty goals, recognize what “nearly perfect” looks like. Leave room for a few mistakes. As Duckworth has shown in her research, people who take failure as an opportunity to learn and grow do much better in the long run.

The Grit TED Talk

2013年，Duckworth gave a TED Talkabout her research on grit. Coming in just over six minutes, the presentation is definitely worth watching.

但是，如果您正在寻找亮点，那么它们是：

• 作为纽约公立学校的数学老师，达克沃思（Duckworth）对她最好和最差的学生的差异着迷。她表现最强的人不一定具有最高的智商成绩，而聪明的孩子并不总是表现良好。
• She starts to wonder if IQ is getting too much credit for success. After becoming a psychologist, Duckworth studies a bunch of different groups -- West Point cadets, new teachers, salespeople -- and finds grit is the major predictor of success.
• Duckworth finds grittier children are far likelier to graduate. She says there’s still much more research to be done into building grit, but the best idea she’s heard so far is related to the “growth mindset.”

The Growth Mindset

According to Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, there are two basic mindsets.

如果您有固定的心态，那么您相信自己的性格，智慧和创造力基本上是不变的，成功反映了您的天生才华。

If you have a growth mindset, on the other hand, you believe your traits can change over time, and that failure actually helps you learn and improve.

Believing that you can cultivate your abilities makes a huge impact on your results, Dweck says. You’re not afraid of making mistakes or falling short, because you know it won’t define you. That means you’re much more likely to take risks and push yourself.

这与勇气完美的关系。毅力是点蚀电位omized by being willing to keep going when you fail, rather than giving up.

那么，您如何才能采用成长的心态，结果是砂砾呢？

注意您对失败的看法。当您搞砸时，请避免标记情况或您的努力完全浪费。相反，请考虑一下您将从失败中带走的东西。下次您会做不同的事情吗？您有机会练习技能吗？即使最终结果不是成功的，您是否能够取得任何成就？

您可能无法在一夜之间改变心态，但是从长远来看，始终尝试采取健康的态度肯定会有所帮助。

Examples of Grit

想知道砂砾的真实是什么样的？达克沃思（Duckworth）在她的书中举了许多例子，Grit: The Power of Passion and Perservance.

According to her, crossword puzzle editor for纽约时报Will Shortzexemplifies the passionate side of grit.

达克沃思说：“坚韧不拔的人真是一件事是他们爱自己的工作，并且一直爱着自己的工作。因此，他们不仅恋爱了一天或一周。从八岁起，他就一直在做填字游戏。”

亚马逊和亚马逊首席执行官杰夫·贝佐斯（Jeff Bezos）second richest person in the world, shows how gritty people think about failure. He’s a big fan of taking risks (for proof, Amazon Destinations, Amazon Auctions, and the Fire Phone are all failed experiments).

贝佐斯（Bezos）相信您会失败的10次。但是在第十次，您将取得成功的水平，而不仅仅是弥补自己的错过。

"Given a 10% chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time,"贝佐斯说.

丹尼尔·鲁蒂格（Daniel Ruettiger）, known as “Rudy,” is another "grit" role model. Rudy was the Irish son of a coal-miner. His dad loved watching Notre Dame play football, so Rudy grew up with the dream of attending Notre Dame and playing for the university team.

He was a talented high school athlete, but a mere 5’6 and 165 pounds.

Rudy tried to transfer to Notre Dame three semesters in a row. Each time, he was rejected thanks to his below-average grades -- which likely stemmed from being dyslexic.

As a result, he took a job as a stadium groundskeeper for Notre Dame. Then he applied again … and got in. Rudy’s crowning glory arrived when he brought down the opposing team’s quarterback and was carried off the field on his teammates’ shoulders.

How to Develop a Gritty Culture

As a leader, you set the cultural tone for your team, department, or company. Duckworth has a few recommendations for leaders who want tocreate a gritty culture.

First, change the reaction to failure. Rather than sweeping mistakes under the rug or viewing them in a negative light, use them as learning opportunities. For example, if you make a mistake, bring it up at a meeting and discuss what you’ve taken away from the experience and how you’ll adopt those takeaways into future decisions. Ask your reps to do the same.

You might even institutionalize failure. The Seattle Seahawks do so with “Tell the Truth Monday,” a weekly tradition where everyone discusses what they did wrong. Once you’ve admitted a mistake out loud in front of your peers, you’re probably not going to repeat it again. Try doing something similar with your team. (I suggest “Failure Friday” over drinks.)

第二，成为一个坚韧不拔的领导者。您的销售人员会在有意识和无意识地进行自觉之后建模。保持热情，坚持并保持一致。

达克沃思（Duckworth）解释说：“勇气的核心实际上是要坚持事物，而不是从中掉下来。”"There's two ways that’s important. One is stamina of your effort: You keep trying, even when things are going badly. Part of grit is stamina of your efforts in the face of adversity, but there's also just the everyday stamina of, say, getting up at 4:30 in the morning and just going to the pool again or sitting down at your computer and working."

如果您保持最高标准，您的团队将有动力去做同样的事情。

第三,实践“严厉的爱”。Duckworth说best combination is “challenging or tough but also supportive.” Maybe your top salesperson is hitting quota but doesn’t seem to be knocking it out of the park like she usually does. You listen to one of her call recordings and notice she’s not asking probing questions or digging to find the prospect’s true motivations.

You might say,“I’m glad you’re meeting your target, but I know you can do more. Let’s work on X, Y, and Z.”

If I had to guess, sales probably has more gritty people than most other professions. It’s a challenging, relentless career -- but with passion and perseverance, you’ll thrive.