Grit and resilience are related, but they are not the same thing.
Grit is generally associated with sustained effort and commitment towards long term goals.
Resilience is broader. It concerns how effectively someone adapts when they experience adversity, setbacks, change or significant challenge.
The two can overlap.
A resilient person may need perseverance to continue after a setback. A gritty person may need resilience when progress towards an important goal becomes difficult.
But persistence is only one part of resilience, and resilience involves more than simply continuing. The distinction matters because there are situations where the most resilient response is not to keep pushing forward.
It may be to adapt, reconsider the approach, seek support, change direction or recognise that continuing with the same strategy is no longer effective.
What Is Grit?
The psychological construct of grit was introduced by Angela Duckworth and colleagues as perseverance and passion for long term goals.
The central idea is sustained commitment. Someone demonstrating grit continues investing effort towards something important even when progress is difficult, slow or interrupted by setbacks.
This makes perseverance an important part of grit. However, research into grit has become more nuanced since the concept was introduced.
Meta analytic research has found that grit overlaps substantially with conscientiousness and that the perseverance component tends to relate more strongly to performance than consistency of interests.
This means grit should not be treated as a simple formula for success. Persistence can matter, but performance is influenced by many other factors including capability, opportunity, resources, motivation, judgement and the situation itself.
What Is Resilience?
Resilience concerns positive adaptation in the context of adversity or significant challenge. It is sometimes described as the ability to “bounce back”, but that description can be too narrow.
Resilience may involve recovery!
It can also involve adapting to changed circumstances, maintaining effective functioning during difficulty, reconsidering assumptions or developing new ways of responding.
Modern resilience research generally treats resilience as more complex than a fixed personality characteristic.
Individual behaviour matters, but so do relationships, resources, circumstances and the wider environment.
In the workplace, resilience therefore does not simply mean enduring more pressure.
It means being able to respond effectively when circumstances become difficult.
What Is the Difference Between Grit and Resilience?
The simplest distinction is this:
Grit is primarily about sustained commitment towards a long term goal. Resilience is primarily about adaptation when adversity or challenge occurs.
Imagine two employees working towards the same difficult objective. The first encounters repeated obstacles but remains committed to the goal, continues investing effort and persists despite slow progress.
That behaviour may demonstrate grit.
The second encounters a significant setback, reassesses what has happened, adjusts the plan, seeks additional resources and changes approach while continuing to function effectively.
That behaviour may demonstrate resilience.
The same person could demonstrate both. But the behaviours are not identical. One emphasises persistence towards an objective.
The other emphasises the capacity to respond and adapt effectively when circumstances become difficult.
Is Grit the Same as Perseverance?
Not quite. Perseverance is strongly associated with grit, but the original grit construct includes both perseverance of effort and sustained interest in long term goals.
Perseverance itself is simpler. It concerns continuing to work towards an outcome despite difficulty, delay or setbacks.
This distinction is particularly important in our work at flowprofiler®. Within resilienceflow®, Perseverance is one of six behavioural dimensions associated with workplace resilience.
We do not measure grit as a separate construct. That means it would be inaccurate to describe resilienceflow® as a grit assessment.
Instead, it measures perseverance alongside other capabilities that can influence how someone responds to challenge.
Where Do Grit and Resilience Overlap?
The clearest area of overlap is persistence. Both grit and resilience may involve continuing when circumstances become difficult.
The difference lies in what happens around that persistence. Grit places particular emphasis on commitment to a long term goal. Resilience requires a wider behavioural range. Sometimes perseverance is useful. Sometimes adaptability is more important.
Sometimes someone needs to remain optimistic, challenge distorted thinking, assert a boundary or recognise that the existing approach needs to change.
This is why resilience should not be reduced to simply “trying harder”. Effective resilience involves responding appropriately to the challenge rather than automatically persisting with the same behaviour.
Which Matters More at Work?
Neither is universally more important. Different situations require different capabilities.
A long term project may require sustained perseverance. A sudden organisational change may require adaptability. A serious setback may require both. A difficult conversation may require assertiveness.
Uncertainty may require the ability to maintain perspective and avoid overly negative assumptions.
The better question is therefore:
What does this situation require?
- Persistence is valuable when continuing towards the goal remains appropriate.
- Adaptation becomes more important when circumstances have changed.
- Effective workplace resilience involves being able to recognise the difference.
The flowprofiler® Perspective
flowprofiler® is based on its own body of novel, validated research into workplace behaviour.
Within resilienceflow®, six behavioural dimensions are measured:
- Optimism
- Unbiased Thinking
- Self Esteem
- Perseverance
- Adaptability
- Assertiveness
These behaviours are measured in two states, day to day and under pressure. That matters because someone may behave very differently when demands increase.
A person may normally demonstrate strong Perseverance but give up more quickly under pressure. Another may persist so strongly that they continue with an approach long after the evidence suggests it should change.
Someone else may maintain effort but become less adaptable as pressure increases. This illustrates an important difference between perseverance and resilience.
More persistence is not always better. Effective behaviour depends on what the situation requires.
The purpose of resilienceflow® is therefore not to decide whether someone is “gritty”.
It is to understand behavioural patterns associated with workplace resilience, including where those behaviours may be underused, effectively used or overused.
External research into grit and resilience provides useful context for understanding the broader constructs.
flowprofiler® itself represents its own validated research programme and behavioural measurement framework.
Build Resilience, Not Just Persistence
Grit and resilience can both matter when people face difficult goals and challenging circumstances.
But they are not interchangeable. Grit emphasises sustained commitment. Resilience involves a broader capacity to respond, recover and adapt when circumstances become difficult.
Understanding that difference can help people make better choices about when to persevere and when to change approach.
Discover more about the resilienceflow® assessment. Learn more about leadership development.
References:
Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 492–511. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000102
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227
Southwick, S. M., Bonanno, G. A., Masten, A. S., Panter Brick, C., & Yehuda, R. (2014). Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: Interdisciplinary perspectives. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5, 25338. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338
