The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, & Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World. Shannon Huffman Polson. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2020.

“This book is about leadership and it is about grit.” [1] It is also about gender. A successful blend of theory and storytelling, Shannon Huffman Polson’s The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, & Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World centers on the developmental quality and honed skill that is grit, a blend of adaptability and resilience encompassing “character, courage, and conviction” and integral to leadership.[2] She not only captures the inherent interwovenness of leadership and grit, but goes one step further by enabling the reader to personalize and employ the discussion within. Huffman Polson utilizes autohistoria and narrative storytelling set in the dynamic environments of the U.S. military, in conjunction with theory and literature, to demonstrate the importance of grit in leadership and life. She does this in addition to highlighting the voices of women in military service, which are all too often neglected in discussions of military leadership.

The book is comprised of eight chapters and an introduction, divided into three major sections: Commit, Learn, and Launch. The first section, Commit, centers on building grit through story and purpose. Huffman Polson’s discussions on story and purpose invariably beget a sense of who and why for the reader, building a deep and comprehensive sense of self necessary for the development of grit and leadership. The second section, Learn, reflects and affirms much of the existing literature on leadership, including discussions on relationships, listening, resilience, and gender, as well as the challenges of negativity and hostile work environments. Lastly, Huffman Polson addresses the third section, Launch, which highlights the importance of mastering the mental proficiencies necessary for success and considerations for dedication, confidence, self-awareness, authenticity, and adaptability associated implications for grit and leadership. At the end of each chapter, she has provided exercises, or tactical work, to enable the reader to personalize each discussion practically and tangibly.

Huffman Polson’s focus on grit recognizes the debate surrounding the inequitable demand that the social expectation of grit imposes on minority populations, including women, in professional environments.

Throughout her book, Huffman Polson argues that grit is a skill that can and should be developed as an integral component of successful leadership: “Those who lead and are committed to making a difference . . . need grit, full stop.” [3] She finds this to be particularly evident in the experiences of women who have served in the U.S. military, which she classifies as the most male-dominated organization in the world. The participants and storytellers hail from a variety of occupational specialties, service branches, and military backgrounds. Their stories encompass the breadth of a military career, beginning with the author’s childhood determination to join military service to stories from general officers and covering operational, administrative, and personal experiences in which grit and leadership were integral.

Huffman Polson goes beyond the existing literature on leadership to assert that leadership and success are intrinsically linked to exceptional tenacity. Rooted in Angela Duckworth’s seminal work on the concept of grit, Huffman Polson expands the reader's understanding beyond the simply conceptual to the tangible through real people, real stories, and real experiences. [4] Huffman Polson’s focus on grit recognizes the debate surrounding the inequitable demand that the social expectation of grit imposes on minority populations, including women, in professional environments. However, she argues grit is the very thing necessary to enact change such that this prejudicial standard no longer applies, “These points of connection did not mitigate the difficulties, but they made the difficulties worth the challenge.” [5] While Huffman Polson centers the book on discussions of leadership and grit, invariably, her usage of servicewomen highlights the unique experiences women encounter in military service and the often exceptional demands necessitated by their gender and their numerically marginalized status. [6]

Huffman Polson’s use of storytelling with theory and literature is a tactic familiar to military and veteran populations. The author employs storytelling and narration as a component of what she categorizes as a combination of “lesson, story, and tactical work.” [7] She uses these components to facilitate the reader’s identity development centered on leadership and grit. Storytelling itself illuminates “narratives through which events, at times major, at others trivial, become charged with symbolic significance.”[8] The act of storytelling and narration is immensely useful in translating models of behavior and decision-making by facilitating linkages from story or narrative to personal experience. As institutions such as the military have stories, so too do individual servicemembers. Often, these stories intertwine, and narration acutely emphasizes the “reflective nature of storytelling” for both institutions and individuals. [9]

The individual narratives of women who have served in the U.S. military, which Huffman Polson has highlighted, reflect rigorous research, theory, and literature and enable the author, storytellers, and readers to reflect on and derive meaning from such narratives. “Stories help us make sense not only of ourselves, but also of the people with whom we share the world.” [10] Particularly, Huffman Polson uses the stories of women military leaders, many of whom are trailblazers of women’s military service. All of whom were successful despite trials and tribulations encountered while fighting to advance in an exceedingly male-dominated organization. While the stories, narrators, and author share a common military background, Huffman Polson notes that such context merely highlights representative experiences and concepts which remain transferable to any number of contexts or challenges readers may encounter.

Perhaps the lone critique lies in that, like so much literature centered on military leadership, Huffman Polson relies heavily upon the presumption of the officer corps as reflective of the military profession as a whole. While there is an overarching military organizational culture, there remains leadership and experiential distinctions between the officer and enlisted corps relatively unique to the military context. [11] While the military is undoubtedly a unique professional context and environment, Huffman Polson convincingly makes connections between seemingly exceptional military experiences and otherwise relatable personal and professional settings. She successfully fills an important gap in the genre by not offering simply another book on the military and leadership and instead of providing a reference centered on grit regardless of context.

While this book centers on leadership and grit, it notes the particular necessity for such tenacity felt by minority and women populations in occupational environments such as the U.S. military.

The timeliness of this book cannot be overstated. The U.S. continues to grapple with the conversations and challenges surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion brought to the forefront through the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. These challenges extend to the U.S. military, as seen most recently with the findings of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee. [12] While this book centers on leadership and grit, it notes the particular necessity for such tenacity felt by minority and women populations in occupational environments such as the U.S. military. Huffman Polson conveys this heightened need for grit as the “double challenge, a layered crucible, and the stories and lessons that emerged come doubly forged.” [13] Additionally, it highlights the significance of the often missing voices and narratives of such populations. The stories and their narrators within demonstrate to the reader the veritable courage, resilience, and leadership necessary for women to not only survive but also succeed in the dynamic environments of even the most male-dominated professions.

Dr. Stephanie K. Erwin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the U.S. Army War College researching leadership, organizational culture, ethics, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.

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Header Image: What Makes a Successful Entreprenuer? Grit (Jackie Fast)

Notes:

[1] S. Huffman Polson. The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, & Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World  (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2021), 200.

[2] Ibid, 4.

[3] Ibid, 10.

[4] A. Duckworth. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance  (London: Vermilion, 2016).

[5] Huffman Polson, The Grit Factor, 207.

[6] L. Boyce and A. Herd. “The Relationship Between Gender Role Stereotypes and Requisite Military Leadership Characteristics,” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 49, no. 7 (2003): 365-378, https://doi:10.1023/A:1025164221364; R. Selzer, A. Howton, F. Wallace. “Rethinking Women’s Leadership Development: Voices from the Trenches.” Administrative Sciences 7, no. 2 (May 31, 2017): 18, https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7020018; R. Simpson and P. Lewis.  “An Investigation of Silence and a Scrutiny of Transparency: Re-Examining Gender in Organization Literature through the Concepts of Voice and Visibility.” Human Relations (New York) 58, no. 10 (October 2005): 1253–1275, https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726705058940

[7] Huffman Polson, The Grit Factor, 11.

[8] Y. Gabriel. “Turning Facts into Stories and Stories into Facts: A Hermeneutic Exploration of

Organizational Folklore.” Human Relations (New York) 44, no. 8 (August 1991): 858, https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679104400806

[9] J. Tyler.  “Incorporating Storytelling into Practice: How HRD Practitioners Foster Strategic Storytelling.” Human Resource Development Quarterly 18, no. 4 (2007): 563, https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1219

[10] Huffman Polson, The Grit Factor, 23.

[11] D. Snider. (1999). “An Uninformed Debate on Military Culture.” Orbis (Philadelphia) 43, no. 1 (1999): 11–26, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0030-4387(99)80054-4

[12] Fort Hood Independent Review Committee (FHIRC). “Report of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee” (2020).

[13] D. Snider. (1999). “An Uninformed Debate on Military Culture.” Orbis (Philadelphia) 43, no. 1 (1999): 11–26, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0030-4387(99)80054-4