Grit is passion and a resilience of spirit for accomplishing long-term goals. The Finnish even have a term for this concept of grit—the sustained determination to overcome adversity—that doesn’t have an exact translation: sisu. According to past research by University of Pennsylvania professor Angela Lee Duckworth, it can even be a better predictor of success than cognitive ability. She is the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance and has given TED Talks on the subject.

It’s not a surprise that businesses are also looking beyond impressive resumes in search of gritty people. Alexandra Jona, founder and director of the brand design agency BrandBarr, couldn’t agree more, and looks to hire people with the characteristics of grit in everyday life. “Adversity doesn’t scare them. It takes a fearless attitude and an entrepreneurial spirit to value the way you lose just as much as the way you win. That’s how you move forward,” she explains. In fact, Jona owes much of the firm’s success to their strong team and culture: “We’ve grown by referrals, which I attribute to our team. Each of us has a sense of ownership and commitment to the brand.”

So how exactly can you build a grittier and more resilient team with a strong sense of ownership? In this article, Jona shares her secrets for how to find those people and further develop a “gritty” mindset.

1. Start with your values

You’ve probably heard this advice before. You may have even rolled your eyes at it; writing your company values is easy to bump to the bottom of your to-do list. But if you want to recruit people to make your vision a reality, you better know what you stand for. Otherwise, how can you attract the right people if you haven’t defined what “right” is?

From the beginning, BrandBarr has had a strong identity. Based in Detroit, Michigan, the team embodies the energy of the resilient city: “That’s why we look for people who aren’t afraid of challenges,” says Jona. With a mission to help local businesses with big dreams and small budgets,  BrandBarr wants a team that works hard for their clients.

BrandBarr’s values boil down to six elements:

  • Communication
  • Agility
  • Trust
  • Forward-thinking
  • Grace
  • Ambition

These aren’t just words on a page: BrandBarr evaluates people by these values during interviews and regular review sessions. They’re the cornerstone of their culture. After all, in a client-facing business, your people are your product. So if you want someone who’s got grit, they need to feel motivated by what you stand for to believe it’s worth their hard work.

Five steps to help you define your company values:

  1. What motivates you personally? Write it all down. Circle key themes that arise.
  2. What are your biggest work pet peeves? Write those down too. Be sure to flip those pet peeves into their opposite, positive form to get your values.
  3. How would you want your customers to describe you? What are the top adjectives you’d love for them to use when recommending your service or product?
  4. Where do you want your business to be in three to five years? Write down your targets, whether they be financial, hiring, or expansion goals. Now, close your eyes and imagine your team. Who are they? What kind of people helped you get there?
  5. Now write down all the top adjectives you’ve just brainstormed and whittle them down to your top five or six. Once you’ve done that, write a phrase to describe why each one is important.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, your personal values define your working culture. Plus, if you’re passionate about your company values, that’s one of the most effective (and authentic) sales pitches you can give when recruiting top talent. Your values will become a set of guidelines for hiring and evaluating the ongoing performance of your team.

2. Interview for attributes of true grit

Finding people with “entrepreneurial spirits” and mental toughness to deal with pressure is especially important for small teams. As Jona notes, “When challenging situations come up, they’re more likely to rise to the occasion.” For BrandBarr, that often means finding risk-takers. “We want people who have a healthy sense of fearlessness. People who think big and are resourceful when the resources may be tight.”

So when it comes to interviewing, Jona often uses three interview questions to unearth independent and resilient personality traits, and get someone to share examples of grit from their own life:

  • What’s an example when you didn’t listen to cultural norms? Or challenged them?
  • Would you describe your career path as traditional?
  • Name a situation where you failed and perseverance helped you reach your goal.

Hiring people who think independently creates the ingredients for an ownership mentality across the company. Below are some more questions to suss out who has grit for when things get tough, courtesy of Angela Duckworth’s Grit Scale. These questions or your own variations of them can help you identify who has initiative, persistence, and can stay focused on very long-term goals:

  • Do new ideas and projects sometimes distract you from previous ones?
  • Do setbacks discourage you, or how have you overcome them?
  • Do you set goals, and how often do you switch them?
  • Do you maintain focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete? How?

3. Give and receive frequent feedback

It’s one thing to hire for grit, it’s another to develop grit. The BrandBarr team has quarterly check-ins to ensure people are progressing and continuing to steward company values. Each person takes a questionnaire that asks them to rate themselves on specific qualities, like accountability, teamwork, and client service. They’re also asked to provide free-form feedback about everything from company operations to team dynamics. These quarterly reviews, says Jona, “allow people to safely take inventory of what they need to do their job well over time.” Quarterly reviews—instead of annual ones—allow people to track and adjust progress more quickly.

Jona also sets a culture of frequent informal feedback: “In the creative space it’s important to take critical feedback objectively and not personally. We’re trying to balance so many opinions between team members, clients, and stakeholders.” Being able to take critical feedback and turn it into real-life know-how that is productive is a crucial component of taking ownership of one’s role and final products. (That’s a healthy part of a “growth mindset” versus a “fixed mindset,” phrases that are widely used now and were first coined by Carol Dweck, a Stanford University professor.) Jona adds: “It’s important that we maintain a sense of openness and humility.”

4. Provide the flexibility your team needs

One way to hire and retain a great team is to give them the room they need to bring their best selves to work. That’s one of the strongest ways to show a team that you care. For BrandBarr, that means a few things:

  • Supporting passion projects: BrandBarr teammates actively support each other’s hobbies. “One of our team members designs custom letterpress and stationery. Another creates linocuts and makes furniture. These projects lend to the entrepreneurial mindset that each of us has.”
  • Offering flexible hours: “We don’t have a set start time at work,” shares Jona. “I don’t believe you should be chained to a desk all day at certain times. Instead, maximize your productivity by harnessing your natural high and low energy points of the day.” It’s an approach that allows people to get into their own flows.
  • Forgetting sick days: BrandBarr doesn’t track when someone gets sick. They trust that people will take the rest they need to bring their full, healthy selves back to work.
  • Summer Fridays: Sunny weather can be a rare thing in Michigan. Getting off early on Fridays is a fun and much-appreciated perk for the team.

The power of strong teams

If you want to build a team of owners who exhibit the power of grit and go beyond their comfort zones, take a page (or two) from BrandBarr’s playbook. It’s your team of successful people that will take your business to the heights you dream of. “I’ve come to realize that you’re only as motivated and inspired as the people around you,” reflects Jona. “People are the real dream-builders. Culture is the most important piece of a business’s success.”

Krystal Barghelame Krystal was an integrated marketing specialist at Gusto. She was also a former writer on the Gusto content team and loves terrible pens. Er... puns.
Back to top