职场丛林：拼智力还是拼努力？

    我女儿的智商挺高。在她小的时候我就有这种想法，后来带她做了智商测试，结果不出所料。每月我们至少进行一次以下例行公事的对话。她面对着课外作业，对我说：“我每天上学学不到任何东西。”我则教导她说：“上学并不是为了让你变聪明，而是让你更努力。”

    在职场中经历了20年的风雨，见多了人们在创新经济中的沉浮，我一直认为IQ在职场中并不是那么重要。非但如此，如果你真把IQ看得过于重要，反而会成为一种负担。我认为真正在创新经济中主宰人之沉浮的因素并不是机敏精明、天资聪颖、幸运或机遇，而是“坚韧”。

    2013年，“坚韧”这个词在学术圈流行起来还要归功于宾夕法尼亚大学心理学系教授安吉拉•达克沃什。她把“坚韧”解释为“在漫长、沮丧而艰难的岁月中，能够支撑你的热情，敦促你为目标奋力工作的品质”，她认为坚韧的人能克服压力，把失败化为追逐终极目标的手段。

    除此之外，我认为坚韧并不是只有努力工作这一层含义；它还包括在目标达成后仍然努力不停歇。是奔跑到生命最后一刻的精神。坚韧的人，把失败看得简单，就是通往梦想的必须。我理解的坚韧，是一种不屈不挠的精神。

    达克沃什及同事用他们设计的“坚韧量表”测量人们的坚韧度，并据此成功预测了很多事情，包括斯克里普斯全美拼字比赛的优胜者和芝加哥公立学校的毕业率等等。坚韧的学生总是能压倒性地超过那些聪明的学生。

    大部分人认为坚韧只是一种个性品质，所以他们觉得，一种无形的个性品质竟然能把IQ这种似乎可以视为有形的特质比下去有点可笑。但我同意达克沃什的看法。坚韧是可测的。

    在招聘员工的时候，我最首要的关注点在于候选人是否坚韧。如果你想变成一个坚韧的人，下面这几点是你必须要做到的。

    知道如何失败。

    假如你用过原型法，你就会明白失败是完善原型系统的必须。当你设计的原型最初有70%成功保证的时候，贯彻你的想法，并从错误中得到资料，用于进一步改进系统。创新需要失败，但是学校却在教导我们规避失败。我们在高智商的孩子们尝试做某件事的时候，不断提醒他们不要犯错，这样做对他们其实是一种伤害。我们这么做是剥夺了他们学习的权利。招聘新员工的时候，我寻找的是经历过第一次的失败，总结经验后再次参加面试的人。我不只需要敢于冒险的员工，我需要能从风险和失败中总结经验的员工。坚韧是一种复原力。

    忘记个人成绩。

    坚韧是努力工作，无需认可。聚丽（Julep）首席执行官珍妮•帕克是我的朋友，她曾跟我谈起她和同行们发现的一个问题，就是年轻雇员在工作中存在一个共性，他们工作是为自己能崭露头角，而并不是为了整个团队。你想变成坚韧的人吗？努力让整个团队进步，而不仅仅是为了你个人。依靠你的团队，为你的团队坚持到底。以此为目标，超越一己私利的局限。

    做自己的主人。

    最新研究表明，80%的毕业生希望未来雇主能在他们初入职场的时候提供职业培训，但事实上，只有不足50%的毕业生才能接受岗位培训。坚韧的人能自主学习。如果你有学习新知识的想法，就要立刻行动。拼尽全力追逐目标，在面试时向面试官展示你何如做到某件事的时候——你不但展示了技能，还有坚韧的品格。

    扔掉光环。

    对雇主来说，智商说明不了什么，学位证书上的学校名称说明不了什么，考试的平均分也说明不了什么。把这些乱七八糟的符号都丢掉，告诉我们你到底是什么样的人。不依靠任何名字、人物或分数的包装，展示一个真实、自信的你——这就是坚韧。这就是我们想要看到的。

    走出安乐窝。

    这句话看起来毫无新意，但却是对坚韧最好的诠释。做到随遇而安，你绝对不会后悔。我以CEO的身份谈了我对坚韧的看法。但坚韧适用于所有事情。无论是在公司或是在学校，甚至在生活中，坚韧都能让你出类拔萃。坚韧的含义中最为核心的一点是为进步而奋斗，在追求激情的道路上决不屈服。

    本文作者克里斯汀•汉密尔顿是库鲁公司CEO。这家公司总部位于西雅图，主要向应届毕业大学生提供职业培训和指导。出任库鲁公司CEO之前，克里斯汀担任过某国际非盈利组织的首席运营官，也曾经协助一家《财富》美国100强公司移动媒体设备的市场投放，还曾推动自己担任联合创始人的奥维亚公司上市。（财富中文网）

    译者：Joseph

    My daughter has a high IQ. I’ve always sensed it, and eventually, proved it with a test. At least once a month we have this ritual. “I’m not learning anything,” she says to me, as she’s faced with her after school homework. “School’s not about getting smarter,” I tell her, “It’s about working harder.”

    Having spent the past two decades watching people rise and fall in the innovation economy, I’ve never been convinced that IQ has much clout. In fact, I think it’s a burden if you think it does. It’s not smarts, it’s not talent, it’s not even luck or chance that separates the risers from the fallers – it’s grit.

    The term “grit” was made popular in academic circles in 2013 by Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania Psychology. Calling it the “quality of being able to sustain your passions, and also work really hard at them, over really disappointingly long periods of time,” she explained that people with grit are people who can overcome stress and use failure as a means to achieve their ultimate goals.

    I’ll add – grit isn’t just working hard; it’s continuing that effort long after the fat lady has begun singing. It’s finishing the race when you’re dead last. It’s seeing failure as a simple, necessary step to achieve what you want. To me, grit is an indomitable spirit.

    Duckworth and her colleagues were able to use their measure of grit to predict successful outcomes in everything from the Scripps National Spelling Bee to graduation from Chicago public schools. Students with grit continuously prevailed over those with high IQs.

    It’s a funny thing when something as seemingly concrete as IQ gets trumped by what most people assume are just a personality trait. I’m with Duckworth, though. Grit can be measured.

    And when I hire, it’s the number one thing I look for in a candidate. If you want to be gritty, here’s what I ask of you.

    Know how to fail.

    If you’ve ever done any prototyping, you’ll know that failure is systemic to the model. You get to a place where you’re 70% right, implement your idea, and learn from the data produced by your mistakes. Innovation requires failure, and yet somehow, our schools still teach us to avoid it. What a disservice we do when we tell children with high IQs they shouldn’t be capable of failure, so long as they try. In doing so, we close off their chance for learning. When I hire, I look for the person who failed the first time around and came back a second time with an arsenal. I don’t just want the risk-takers, I want the people who use those risks and failures to learn. Grit is resilience.

    Forget the grade.

    Grit is working hard without the need for recognition. My friend Jane Park, CEO of Julep, told me that the biggest problems she and her peers have with young hires is that they’re working for the A grade and not for the team. You want to be gritty? Put in your time – not for your own betterment, but for the team’s betterment. Be dependable and follow through for your team. Make it your goal to show up for something bigger than you.

    Be an owner.

    A recent study showed that 80% of graduating seniors expect that their future employers will train them at their new jobs, while in reality, less than 50% will receive any such training. Grit means owning your own learning. If you want to learn something, don’t wait. Go after it with everything you’ve got, and when you show someone in an interview how you did x, y and z – you’ll not only showcase your skill but your grit.

    Throw away your entitlement.

    Your IQ tells employers nothing. A school name on a diploma and GPA tell employers nothing. Throw those signifiers away, and show us who you really are. Being authentic and present in your own skin and not relying on any name, person or score – that’s grit. That’s what we want to see.

    Live life outside of your comfort zone.

    It sounds cliché, but it’s grit at its finest. Become comfortable in the uncomfortable. You won’t regret it. I talk about grit from the standpoint of a CEO. But grit is something applicable everywhere. Grit is what makes you stand out – not just in a company or in school, but in life. At the heart of it, grit means striving for progress and never yielding in pursuit of your passions.

    Kristen Hamilton is CEO of Koru, a Seattle-based company that provides career training and coaching to recent college grads. Before serving as Koru’s CEO, Kristen worked as COO of a global non-profit, launched mobile media devices for a Fortune 100 company, and helped take Onvia, which she co-founded, public.