Why Most Leadership Training is Complete Rubbish and What Actually Works

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Angela Duckworth's research on grit has been weaponised by corporate trainers who've never worked a real day in their lives. They stand there with their fancy PowerPoint presentations talking about "passion and perseverance" whilst charging $3,000 per session to teach concepts my grandfather understood intuitively after thirty years building houses in Western Sydney.

But here's what they get wrong about grit. Completely wrong.

It's not about grinding through anything and everything like some sort of masochistic robot. Real grit – the kind that actually builds successful careers and fulfilling lives – is strategic. It's knowing when to push through and when to pivot. Most importantly, it's understanding that developing genuine resilience requires you to be brutally honest about your own limitations.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Passion Projects

Everyone bangs on about following your passion like it's some sort of religious doctrine. "Find what you love and you'll never work a day in your life!" they chirp. What absolute nonsense.

I've been consulting to Australian businesses for seventeen years now, and I can tell you that passion without competence is just expensive therapy. The most successful people I know didn't start passionate about their work – they developed passion through mastery. They got good at something valuable, then the passion followed.

Take Sarah, who runs a logistics company in Brisbane. She didn't grow up dreaming about supply chain management. She fell into it after her marketing degree led nowhere, stuck with it because she was naturally analytical, and now she's passionate about solving complex distribution challenges. Her "grit" wasn't about following some predetermined passion – it was about recognising an opportunity to develop expertise in an area where she could add genuine value.

The research backs this up, though you won't hear it at your next corporate retreat. Studies show that interests develop through experience and mastery, not the other way around. Yet we keep peddling this myth that everyone has a hidden calling waiting to be discovered.

Why Persistence Without Strategy is Self-Sabotage

Here's where I'm going to lose some of you, and frankly, that's fine.

The biggest mistake I see people make – and I made this myself for years – is confusing persistence with grit. They're not the same thing. Persistence without strategic thinking is just stubborn stupidity dressed up in motivational quotes.

Real grit involves what psychologists call "deliberate practice." It's the difference between doing something repeatedly and actually improving at it. Most people think they're being gritty when they're just spinning their wheels, getting the same mediocre results year after year.

I learned this the hard way when I spent three years trying to break into corporate speaking without understanding why I kept failing. I thought I was being persistent, showing grit. Actually, I was just repeatedly making the same mistakes without analysing what wasn't working.

The breakthrough came when I started treating my speaking career like a business problem instead of a personal mission. I studied successful speakers, identified specific skills gaps, practised with recording equipment, and sought honest feedback from industry professionals. Within eighteen months, my bookings tripled.

The Melbourne Café Revelation

Sometimes the best insights come from the most unexpected places.

I was sitting in a little café in Fitzroy last month, watching the barista work. This guy – couldn't have been more than twenty-five – was pulling perfect shots with this methodical precision that reminded me of a Swiss watchmaker. Every movement deliberate, every adjustment measured.

I struck up a conversation during the quiet period. Turns out he'd been working there for four years, had turned down management positions at three other cafés because he wanted to master every aspect of coffee preparation first. "I don't want to be managing people when I can't consistently make the perfect espresso," he said.

That's grit. Not the flashy, Instagram-worthy version, but the quiet, methodical kind that builds real expertise.

The Problem with Motivational Rubbish

The self-help industry has turned grit into another feel-good concept that sounds profound but offers no practical guidance. They've packaged it with mindfulness meditation and vision boards like some sort of spiritual buffet.

But developing real grit isn't about positive thinking or manifesting your dreams. It's about developing specific systems and habits that help you navigate setbacks more effectively. It's tactical, not mystical.

Here's what actually works:

Set micro-goals with clear metrics. Instead of "I want to be more resilient," try "I will respond to difficult emails within 24 hours instead of avoiding them for weeks." Specific, measurable, achievable.

Build feedback loops into everything. Most people operate in feedback vacuums, then wonder why they're not improving. Whether it's asking colleagues for honest input or tracking your own performance metrics, you need data to guide your persistence.

Develop what I call "strategic quitting." Knowing when to stop is as important as knowing when to continue. I've seen too many people waste years on ventures that were never going to work because they confused quitting with failure.

The Resilience Paradox Nobody Talks About

Here's something that might surprise you: the most resilient people I know aren't the ones who never consider quitting. They're the ones who regularly evaluate whether their current path still makes sense.

This creates what I call the resilience paradox. True grit often requires the flexibility to change direction when circumstances shift. The key is distinguishing between temporary setbacks and fundamental misalignment.

I think about this every time I see someone grinding away at a business idea that clearly isn't working, justifying their stubbornness as "grit." There's nothing admirable about persisting with a flawed strategy just because you've already invested time in it. That's not grit – that's the sunk cost fallacy wearing a motivational costume.

What Sydney's Construction Industry Taught Me

Working with construction companies across Sydney taught me more about real grit than any business school ever could. These aren't people who quote Buddha or post inspirational LinkedIn content. They're practical problem-solvers who understand that progress often comes in small, unglamorous increments.

The best project managers I've worked with share a common trait: they break everything down into manageable components and tackle each piece systematically. They don't try to eat the elephant whole. They also understand that some days you make significant progress, and other days you just show up and do the minimum to keep momentum alive.

That's the unsexy truth about grit. It's not about dramatic breakthroughs or heroic comebacks. Most of the time, it's about showing up consistently and making marginal improvements over extended periods.

The Corporate Training Scam

Let me be blunt about something that's been bothering me for years. Most corporate resilience training is completely useless because it focuses on individual mindset rather than systemic factors that actually affect employee wellbeing and performance.

You can't "grit" your way out of a toxic work environment or incompetent management. Yet companies spend millions on resilience workshops instead of addressing the fundamental issues that create stress and burnout in the first place.

I've seen organisations bring in expensive consultants to teach stress management techniques while maintaining impossible deadlines and understaffed departments. It's like teaching swimming while filling the pool with concrete.

The companies that actually build resilient cultures are the ones that focus on creating sustainable work practices, clear communication channels, and realistic performance expectations. Google's Project Aristotle demonstrated this years ago, but somehow the message still hasn't penetrated most Australian boardrooms.

Building Grit Through Deliberate Discomfort

One thing the research consistently shows is that resilience develops through controlled exposure to manageable challenges. Not overwhelming stress, but strategic discomfort that gradually expands your capacity to handle difficult situations.

This is why I recommend what I call "resilience intervals" – deliberately putting yourself in slightly uncomfortable situations on a regular basis. It might be speaking up in meetings when you'd normally stay quiet, or taking on projects that stretch your current capabilities.

The key word is "manageable." You're not trying to shock yourself into toughness. You're methodically expanding your comfort zone through repeated exposure to controlled challenges.

The Permission to Be Strategic

Here's my controversial opinion: we need to give people permission to be more strategic about their persistence. Not everything deserves your grit. Some things deserve your intelligent abandonment.

I spent years thinking that giving up on anything marked me as weak or uncommitted. This binary thinking – either you're gritty or you're a quitter – is incredibly destructive. It prevents people from making rational decisions about where to invest their limited time and energy.

The most successful people I know are actually quite ruthless about this. They identify their core priorities and defend them fiercely, while being willing to walk away from opportunities that don't align with their strategic objectives.

Which brings me to my final point.

Developing real grit isn't about becoming emotionally bulletproof or learning to endure endless hardship. It's about building the judgment to know what's worth persisting with and the skills to persist effectively when you've made that decision.

Stop trying to develop grit in general. Start developing grit around specific, valuable capabilities that align with your long-term objectives. Your future self will thank you for being strategic about your stubbornness.

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