Grit or Blindness?

“Refusing to give up on a failing plan is not an act of resilience.  It’s a display of rigidity. Grit is not about persevering with a route that isn’t working. It’s about staying focused on a goal but flexible on a path.” - Adam Grant

In my last blog post I addressed grit and situational agency. Leaders are often praised for grit—the ability to persevere through setbacks, stay the course, and push through resistance. Persistence is framed as a virtue, a marker of strength and conviction. But as organizational psychologist Adam Grant frequently reminds us, persistence without reflection can quietly turn into something far less admirable: blindness.

In the pursuit of meaningful goals, obstacles are inevitable. Markets shift, strategies fail, people change, and new information emerges. When this happens, leaders face a critical choice: persist, or adjust. [At this point you may need to stop and reflect on your personal values and beliefs and how they may be at play: For me personally, grit and perseverance and ‘never giving up’ is core to how I define myself.] For decades, leadership culture has celebrated persistence almost exclusively. Yet a growing body of research suggests that the ability to rethink, revise, or even abandon goals can be just as valuable—sometimes more so—than pushing forward at all costs.  [Noooo - say it isn’t so (lol)!]

Adam Grant explores this tension in WorkLife with Adam Grant, particularly when discussing how hard it can be to extract ourselves from bad decisions. One powerful force at play is the escalation of commitment. Once we’ve invested time, money, reputation, or identity into a decision, walking away feels like admitting failure. Our ego steps in. Our image feels threatened. Instead of asking, “Is this still the right goal?” we ask, “How do I prove I was right?”

This is where grit becomes dangerous. Leaders may continue pursuing goals that are no longer attainable, relevant, or worth the cost—burning resources, exhausting teams, and missing better opportunities. What looks like resilience from the outside can actually be rigidity on the inside.

Rethinking doesn’t mean quitting at the first sign of difficulty. It means regularly separating effort from outcome. Wise leaders persist when challenges are temporary and the goal remains sound. They adjust when new data suggests a better path. And they abandon goals when the cost of continuing outweighs the benefit—without tying that decision to their self-worth (that last part was a key insight for me - separating adapting and adjusting from my ego and self-worth).

The most effective leaders build cultures where changing your mind is seen as learning, not weakness. Where past decisions are evaluated with curiosity instead of defensiveness. And where success is defined not by sticking with every plan, but by making better ones over time.

In today’s fast-changing world, leadership isn’t just about grit. It’s about knowing when persistence serves you—and when it’s time to rethink.

“A hallmark of wisdom is knowing when to grit and when to quit.”  - Adam Grant