Fievour Profile Picture
 Junior league  · 2 points

Have you noticed that everyone is talking about grit these days, as if it has just been discovered? Business leaders, pundits, scientists, and even celebrities are extolling the importance of grit as a key ingredient in success.

Although the scientists are still hashing out whether there is a proven correlation between grit and success, it is something that entrepreneurs and business leaders have known for a long time.

So what is grit, exactly?

Grit is defined as the ability to rebound from challenges, self-reflect, and work even harder next time. You may know it as persistence, endurance, perseverance, or plain old stick-to-itiveness.

Think of a time when you were met with a tough problem, regrouped, and pushed on to a successful conclusion. (As the CEO of a rapidly growing software business, this can be an everyday occurrence for me.) If you gave up whenever faced with a hard problem, you would be falling behind. Staying strong and bouncing back is a sign of grit.

If you are a driven individual pushing for success, the question is not "Do I have grit?" Instead, you likely are more interested in what you can do to strengthen and sustain your already persistent nature. The good news is that grit is something you can work to improve.

With the right tactics, I believe you can foster sustainable grit -- which means that you can maintain interest and effort in long-term goals. Doing so, you can grow stronger tomorrow than you are today, get tougher, and ultimately become more successful.

Here is are six tactics for building grit to sustain effort in long-term goals:

Contextualize your goals
If you can align your goals with a vision and purpose that is greater than yourself it can be easier to keep going when you are not doing as well as you hoped. If you find a disconnect between your goals and your accomplishments, reevaluate what you are striving for and why. Life is short and without purpose-driven goals, it will be difficult to summon strength when challenges arise.

Assemble a support team
Find a mentor or peer group who understand your goals and who can offer honest feedback and encouragement when times get tough. Do not be afraid to ask a leader you admire to grab a cup of coffee -- you will be surprised at how many people will want to share their knowledge to help you achieve your goals. Seek out peer groups on LinkedIn, through alumni organizations, or networking groups that relate to your field.

Visualize your success
When faced with a roadblock, take a moment to envision the end result you desire. When you visualize success, you are actually training your brain for that outcome. Athletes have used this technique for years, but you can apply it to your own goals. Practice mental imagery daily. To reinforce the positive message write down in detail how your success will play out.

Make backslides impossible
Beware the tendency to slow down once you have made some initial strides. It is all too common for people to see some progress and lose momentum. Commit to progress checkpoints. Schedule conversations with your support team. Write a letter to yourself about why you want to achieve this goal to be read in the event you lose steam. Do whatever you can to make backslides impossible.

Establish good work habits
There is no getting around it -- you have to put in the hours if you want to see a payoff. Eliminate procrastination, time-wasters, and disorganization. Prioritize your most important tasks and set aside time to tackle less pressing matters. Use your goals as your north star. Quickly analyze requests and do not be afraid to say no to something that does not add value.

Do not wait until scientists prove that grit is a necessary ingredient in the formula for success. You already know the truth -- the key is to invest in making that persistence sustainable. Create an environment of accountability. Use your support team to keep you honest. Make hard work a habit and banish the thought of backsliding into complacency.

Success doesn't happen over night. But building upon your own gritty nature can only mean more passion for your work. More contagious energy. More confidence -- and more success.  

The One Trait That Scientists Think May Lead to Success
The One Trait That Scientists Think May Lead to Success
Call it what you want, perseverance pays off.
www.inc.com
8 years ago

Annual pay raises don't work. The salary increase serves two purposes: to motivate workers and to keep employees from leaving for a better-paying job. In its current form, the traditional raise does neither of those things very well.

"You can't really do a lot with the annual raise," said Evren Esen, director of survey programs at the Society for Human Resource Management. When the economy is decent, annual pay adjustments come in at 1 percentage point or 2 percentage points ahead of inflation for a given year. That doesn't go far. Employees expect to get at least the cost of living adjustment, and a measly 2 percent increase in pay doesn't do much to encourage or change employee behavior. At best, the most stellar employees are getting a 5 percent raise, only slightly more than their average colleagues, who in 2016 can expect a 3.1 percent bump—if that. In the end, it's too small an increase to make a difference.

Historically, the best way to receive a significant raise is to either get a promotion or jump to a new company. With the job market tightening for certain white collar workers in competitive and growing industries, companies have started rethinking compensation packages to keep people around. That has not only resulted in a perks and benefits arms race but in new ways of thinking about pay increases. The yearly ritual of doling out incremental and somewhat disappointing salary increases is quietly disappearing. "The conventional process of giving an annual increase is being studied, reviewed—under siege, you might say," said Steve Gross, a senior partner at human resources consulting firm Mercer.

A once-a-year payment schedule is too infrequent to change someone's work ethic. In theory, money signals how good (or not) someone is at their job. But, it's impossible to give someone feedback on an entire year's worth of work with a nominal pay increase. Plus, it's rarely an indication of how well someone did the job over a full year. Managers don't remember how people performed all year long, and they admit to rating sub-par workers the same as stand-out employees. Workers also complain that hearing about their flaws once a year gives them no chance to respond and change behaviors.

Many companies, including Adobe Systems Inc., Accenture PLC, and Gap Inc., have already abandoned the annual performance review for those exact reasons. These organizations have ongoing review processes that, in theory, more accurately reflect someone's output on the job. As reviews become more frequent, so should raises. "If we have performance reviews all the time, we're not going to have annual increases," said Esen. As of now, 90 percent of companies give everyone raises on the same day, once a year, according to an annual compensation survey by Mercer. That is already changing.

GE Company, which recently moved away from the annual review, is considering scrapping annual compensation hikes. "We uncovered an opportunity to improve the way we reward people for their contributions," Janice Semper, GE’s head of executive development, told Bloomberg. GE declined to elaborate on what its new system might look like, but Semper cited the vague goals of "being flexible and rethinking how we define rewards."
Other organizations are achieving such flexibility via bonuses. Variable pay has become an increasingly large part of pay packages, making up a record 12.7 percent of compensation, according to an Aon Hewitt survey from last year. It's a much more effective way to tell people they did a good job. "With bonuses, you're specifically rewarding someone for their behavior in a given year. And they're more able to directly see the line of sight between their performance and the reward for that performance," said Esen. "It gives companies the ability to really make a meaningful gesture to their top performers—to say you did well and you're getting this bonus."

Bonuses also help companies keep compensation costs down. It's hard not to give people raises, and it's even harder to cut people's salaries, but employers can give bonuses at will. If a company has a bad year, it doesn't have to give out bonuses. On an even more granular level, an employee who has a bad year might not get a bonus that year, either. Companies can use them as sticks or carrots, as needed.
The bonus is just one version of the changing nature of compensation. Whatever happens to the raise, it will become more granular and regular. "Companies are trying to break away from this old-school you get an annual increase," said Esen. "Nobody really values that increase that much because it's usually not that high."  

Say Goodbye to the Annual Pay Raise
Say Goodbye to the Annual Pay Raise
The yearly ritual of doling out incremental and somewhat disappointing salary increases is quietly d
www.bloomberg.com
8 years ago

Fievour   reposted from Oakedy

It’s no surprise that most adults are overworked and overwhelmed but the counterintuitive reality is that many are not taking all the paid time off they’ve earned. Taking time off will actually help you be more productive and healthy in life and career.  

Time Off Helps You Thrive in Life and Career
Time Off Helps You Thrive in Life and Career
www.huffingtonpost.com
8 years ago

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