Companies share one goal: they want to be successful. They cannot do this with lackluster employees. Employees who are easily distracted or waylaid are not going to be beneficial for the company. Companies can benefit from hiring employees that are tenacious. People with grit know how to deal with failures and disappointment and carry on regardless of challenges that might come.
People with perseverance have the determination necessary to think outside of the box and solve problems. A leader can choose to develop grit in their team to achieve more success. Teaching grit can give your team a boost and keep them grounded through difficult obstacles.
With the right approach and effective leadership, this tenacity can be taught in several ways. One tip to integrate mental toughness into your culture is to expose your employees to motivating resources and empowering articles to find how they can overcome challenges. As a leader you can also attempt to understand the point of view of your employees in order to become more understanding and use their experiences as a learning opportunity.
The Presence of a Mentor
A key component of perseverance is having a mentor that will offer support and encouragement. Having someone alongside to provide support is a good way to motivate an employee to work more effectively and efficiently. While a mentor shouldn’t encourage employees if the work isn’t good enough, a mentor should take the time to provide ideas for improvement and give constructive feedback.
Another good idea is to receive training and development from someone who provides expert advice in an area. In this case, the consultant would help mentor employees on mental toughness. This counseling could include trainings on how to overcome challenging obstacles as well as achieving goals despite the stress and pressure that comes from trying to perform at a high level. A mentor can provide an employee with counseling and advice on how to improve which can turn into a huge motivational factor.
Build Self-Reliance
It is important for a leader to instill confidence in the work staff. The first step in mental toughness is self-government. It is important to acquire the ability to govern yourself when no one else is there. Tell your employees that you believe in them. You hired them for a reason and you know that they can do it. This does wonders for confidence. Self-reliance defines the true character of an individual and how tough they really are.
Practice Perseverance
Everyone decides in the morning what kind of day they are going to have. It is a moment to show mental strength. Hold a focus group and challenge your employees with a problem that needs to be solved. It will begin to test mental strength and it will help the chemistry of the team. Part of practicing perseverance is having employees work as a collaborative unit whether they like each other or not. In maintaining a strong mentality, communication from business leader to employee is vital in order to help employees perform at the highest level.
Explain the Importance of Grit
A leader who wants their employees to demonstrate grit should begin by talking about grit. Explain how tenacity is helpful for achieving goals. Talk about stories in which people showed perseverance and got what they wanted. You could also take the opportunity to talk about your own stories of tenacity that landed you where you are today. Talk about the importance of goals and how practice plays a part of success. Sometimes it motivates people to hear about examples of what you need from them.
Conclusion
Grit is about attitude. It is about seeking, striving, finding, and never yielding. Great leaders know how to find ways to help their employees become motivated to strive towards that goal. Employees truly believe that they can accomplish that goal if they have perseverance. Having employees who are confident and mentally tough will help the business succeed no matter what challenges come up.
This article is a guest post by Lewis Robinson, a consultant and freelance writer specializing in streamlining business processes with business technology. He is the former founder and CEO of a small software company. You can reach him on his LinkedIn profile