Gritty Bankers Have a Growth Mindset

I just finished leading a series of leadership workshops to Investment Bankers over the past few weeks where I highlighted Angela Duckworth's work on Grit and Carol Dweck's work on Growth Mindset.

Here's the argument I provided to the bankers:

• In order to achieve your true potential and reach your high-performance goals, you need grit, not just talent

• Grit is defined by passion and perseverance for long-term goals, despite setbacks and challenges

• Gritty people have a growth mindset

• Having a growth mindset means you always believe improvement is possible - your ability is not fixed

• If you are always striving for improvement you will actively seek out constructive feedback

Essentially, top performers seek out and prioritize receiving constructive feedback over approval.

Here is my magic question to get specific, actionable feedback from someone: "What is one thing I am doing or not doing that is getting in my own way"?

Top performers want to know the answer and will eagerly apply what they learned.

Image credit: Pejman Milani