It has been a while since I have sent a comment out. I will admit, it has been a struggle to come up with something that did not sound too cliché given how this last year has gone. The past number of months have been rough for many people, particularly for those in the oil & gas industry, but anyone living in this part of the world has most likely felt the pressure. What do you say in a time like this that does not sound trite or make light of the situation?
An idea that has been bouncing around in my head for some time now though is that of grit. I have had many conversations with different people looking at this idea from a number of different angles. There is much that can be said, but let me share this one little piece of the conversation with you.
In his book, The Intangibles of Leadership, Richard Davis offers this quote by D.A. Benton:
“Guts are a combination of confidence, courage, conviction, strength of character, stick-to-itiveness, pugnaciousness, backbone and intestinal fortitude. They are mandatory for anyone who wants to get to and stay at the top.”
Davis goes on to comment, “Few leaders achieve success by having things handed to them…Most extraordinary leaders have overcome at least one major trauma or setback in their lives. In many ways, this challenge, as well as the way they beat it and the lessons they derived from the experience, still define their leadership style and continue to inform the decisions they make.” (pg. 186-187).
Benton calls it ‘guts’; Davis uses the word ‘fortitude’; I like the word ‘grit’. The cliché is, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’; but I did not want to use that phrase. But it is true apparently. Those who regularly succeed, who last, who overcome, who find a way through, who do not get overwhelmed and lose sight of where things could go – they have grit.
So I am not sure exactly what that means for you personally, or how to say it in a way that does not seem overly simplistic; but hopefully somehow in the months that have passed and in whatever lies ahead, that you find a way to recognize and develop the grit in your life. It seems to be an important quality to have.
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Something That Isn’t Cliché
An idea that has been bouncing around in my head for some time now though is that of grit. I have had many conversations with different people looking at this idea from a number of different angles. There is much that can be said, but let me share this one little piece of the conversation with you.
In his book, The Intangibles of Leadership, Richard Davis offers this quote by D.A. Benton:
“Guts are a combination of confidence, courage, conviction, strength of character, stick-to-itiveness, pugnaciousness, backbone and intestinal fortitude. They are mandatory for anyone who wants to get to and stay at the top.”
Davis goes on to comment, “Few leaders achieve success by having things handed to them…Most extraordinary leaders have overcome at least one major trauma or setback in their lives. In many ways, this challenge, as well as the way they beat it and the lessons they derived from the experience, still define their leadership style and continue to inform the decisions they make.” (pg. 186-187).
Benton calls it ‘guts’; Davis uses the word ‘fortitude’; I like the word ‘grit’. The cliché is, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’; but I did not want to use that phrase. But it is true apparently. Those who regularly succeed, who last, who overcome, who find a way through, who do not get overwhelmed and lose sight of where things could go – they have grit.
So I am not sure exactly what that means for you personally, or how to say it in a way that does not seem overly simplistic; but hopefully somehow in the months that have passed and in whatever lies ahead, that you find a way to recognize and develop the grit in your life. It seems to be an important quality to have.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2015 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.