True Grit

 "You can't take men by watching them run away!"  Ranger La Boeuf

How do you measure grit?  This was the conversation I had with my nephew the other day.  He's a senior level executive with a large retail chain and I was picking his brain on talent assessment and how he (and his company) determines if a new hire has what it takes to be a productive employee.

His response was, "if we could ever figure out how to measure 'grit' it would solve most of our hiring problems.".  Interesting choice of a word.  "Grit".  You don't hear it used much anymore.

So how do you measure grit without seeing the person in action first? 

Once you work with someone you get a sense for how they act and react.  Their dependability, honesty, follow-through.  How they react to pressure, criticism, change, uncertainty.  And over time you can determine if they have grit.  Do they dig in harder when the road gets rough?  Do they make more calls when the pipe is running low?  Do they rise above when others decide to back off?  Are they an "Andrew" in Whiplash?

But how can you determine all that from the interview process, even using talent assessment tools?

Once upon a time you could get a sense from reference checks.  In the less protective days of a generation ago you could quiz past employers as to the details around the person.  Ask point-blank, specific questions and get answers to them.  These days everyone is protected and other than Name, Rank and Serial Number you can't get much..

With entry-level people you could somewhat depend of part-time job history.  Did they work through High School and College?

The Millennials as a group have made the whole hiring process more difficult.  I am not going to go down the figuring out Millennials rabbit hole.  Too complex a subject, but they are either the laziest, most self-absorbed generation every or the most creative and misunderstood. (Wait, I just described my generation of the 60's and 70's).

The biggest problem for people like my nephew is Millennials will up and quit with the smallest provocation.  Thus his "Grit" comment.

So, I'm out to try to figure out how to assess if someone has grit or not.  If you think you've figured it out then bottle it 'cause there are people willing to pay good money for it.