Review: The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World

The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World by Shannon Huffman Polson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Link: YouTube Review

"Those who are first in their fields, or one of few in their fields, are leaders by virtue of circumstances, and the challenges ahead of them require grit. Their success shows others what is possible. Those who lead and are committed to making a difference either by choice or circumstances need grit, Full stop."-Shannon Huffman Polson, The Grit factor>

The Author of this book Shannon Huffman Polson is from a Military background. And, in this book she has shared stories and experiences from the women who served in the US military. Many of these military women were the first women to join their respective higher positions in the military in their time and faced many hardships.The author says that this book is for women who lead or aspire to lead and men who are in position to integrate women at senior positions in their organization. This book can help you develop your own sense of grit through the stories and the exercises that each chapter has.

All the stories and insights that the author talks about in the book are grouped into three categories : Commit, Learn, and Launch. Each chapter in each category represents a different aspect of Grit hence the book is named as - The Grit Factor.

Grit is a skill that can be developed through dedicated and consistent effort. According to Karen Fine Brasch, one of the military women whose story is discussed in this book by the author says that - “Grit isn’t something that you learn, it’s something that you do. It starts out by something feeling impossible or overwhelming , requires all of your focus and fortitude while you are going through it, and it feels you are going to fail right up to the very point you succeed. And you do it alone.”

The basic requirement to have grit in any person is having the confidence that the task in hand can be done. From where does that kind of confidence come ? This book suggests steps to develop this confidence. Let's take a look at the steps one by one.

Step #1 Craft Your Story
The book suggests that if you reflect back on the events since your childhood and put them on the spectrum of your memory then there will be many instances where you find yourself reacting effectively. This part of the exercise will help one to identify the strengths and weaknesses in self. Once you are aware of your strengths you can utilize them or rely on them if needed. And you can always work on your weakness and get rid of it or minimize the negative impact of it.

Step #2 Unearth your core purpose
Purpose is the bedrock of Grit. If you are out there to do a difficult task with a rock solid purpose then a continuous reminder of that purpose to yourself can keep you on track to complete that task. The author says that the purpose will give you the passion and commitment that you need to successfully navigate those upcoming moments of hardship and funnel your efforts towards achieving your goal.

Step #3 Draw your circle
A leader should have a circle of mentors, a loyal team, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who support his cause. A leader should be able to draw strength from every person from this circle. Developing a circle prepares you for the circumstances that require grit. Strong and trustworthy relationships can make a person resilient which is an important aspect of Grit. A leader should know two things - one no leader can achieve his goals alone. A leader has to have a team and two you can’t be friends with everyone.

Step #4 Listen like a leader
Listening well helps gather vital information and establish a trusting relationship with both coworkers and superiors. The author talks about three steps to listen like a leader : Ask. Listen. Pause. The author talks in detail about these steps in the book.

Step #5 Build your resilience
The author talks about the Master Resilience Training which is used by the US army to train resilience to it’s soldiers . This program talks about six core competencies of resilience -
- self awareness,
- understanding your and other’s strength,
- connection
- Optimism
- Mental Agility
- self- regulation
The book talks in detail about these competencies. While narrating the story of Major Rhonda Cornum, there is a quote from her which rightly puts the power of mindset, it says that - “One of the most important things you can learn is that what you think and how you perceive events is totally up to you. ... Your enemies can not determine what you think. It is your choice. “. Major Cornum was severely injured and despite that she was able to get the help from her captors because of her positive mindset to keep herself and her fellow prisoners alive in Iraq after her helicopter was shot and she was captured by the Iraqi soldiers.

Step #6 Face the Fear head on
The author says that soldiers know that the way you train for push-ups is by doing push-ups. Gradually increasing the number of push-ups until you reach your goal. The lesson applies to most anything. You train for grit by doing things requiring grit. You train for courage by doing things that require courage. And you do that by taking smaller risks at first. As you do, you build up your tolerance for uncertainty and your confidence. Over time it’s how you conquer fear. The willingness to take risk is important throughout your life and career. Taking risk and seizing opportunity is a powerful way to give yourself and your career more lift.

Step #7 and #8 Authenticity and Adaptability
The author says that both go hand in hand. Being yourself is an important component of grit. And, The courage to stay true to yourself requires many things, including speaking out against something you don’t believe in.

The Greeks have a word describing a broader ethos : arete, a striving for excellence in every area. This concept of arete eschews mediocrity, expecting the best in each area of life and performance. Arete must be part of the leader’s ethos today, too. To have the best chance of success in your field, your performance must be stellar - arete must be your goal. This is not perfection, but it is true excellence.

The heart of this book is the stories of various military women which the author has nicely narrated and intertwined it with various aspects of grit, resilience and leadership that these women have displayed during the course of their job. A hats off to all these women !!! I hope that this book reaches every woman who doubts her ability to do difficult things in life and every man who thinks that women can not handle difficult things.

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The Grit Factor By Shannon Huffman Polson

The Author of this book Shannon Huffman Polson is from a Military background. And, in this book she has shared stories and experiences from the women who served in the US military. Many of these military women  were the first women  to join their respective higher positions in the military in their time and faced many hardships.

Time Smart By Ashley Whillans

Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life by Ashley Whillans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book Time Smart by Ashley Whillans, starts with identifying the time traps and the reasons for time poverty. It suggests some steps, habits and strategies to become time affluent. The book also talks about how to fund the time to get rid of the activities that we do not like.

The author also lays out strategies that can keep us time affluent in the long run and how the government and private companies can help to increase the time affluence of common people and their workers respectively.


Let's start by asking this question, Which is more important between time and money ?

The author says, both are valuable, scarce and measurable. It’s also difficult to gain as much of both as we want. We are often choosing between them and making trade-offs. Vacation or no vacation ? eat at home or go out ? are some of the situations where we have to make a choice. And most of the time we end up taking decisions which favor money.

Since childhood we are told or we see that Money is very important. if one is poor then the only thing he wants is money. Many of us learn that time is money and nobody sees anything wrong if you spend every second of your available time to earn more money. Though, even after earning a significant amount of money you do not stop there, you continue to want to earn more and more and
spend countless hours at work ignoring your loved ones assuming that you will make time for them someday and that someday never comes. We do not realize that sitting at home idle or talking to loved ones or spending time with kids is as important as going out and working in an office.

As per the book, We also don't understand that time is finite and is our most valuable resource. Money is valuable to a point, the author says, but it’s an infinite errand which never stops.

This focus on money can cause stress, unhappiness, and loneliness. The cost of getting out of these problems is huge and sometimes you never overcome it.


The book talks about six traps that make us time poor. These traps are -

Trap #1 Constant connection to technology - Cell Phones, Laptops, emails, messages and other technologies constantly interrupt us. This happens both at home and office. It stops us from doing any deep work at the office or complete relaxation at home.

Trap #2 Obsession with work and making money - People wrongly believe that if they work and make money now they will have more time to relax in future. But in reality, making money only leads to an increased interest in making more money.

Trap #3 Limited value placed on time - People often give up large amounts of time to save a very little money. People don’t correctly value their time.

Trap #4 Busyness as a Status Symbol - In many cultures people use their busyness at work as status symbol and are considered of higher status and rich wealthy people.

Trap #5 Aversion to Idleness - People don’t want to sit idle. They simply don’t see any value in being mindful and doing nothing.

Trap #6 Over commitment - people often over commit and then spend extra hours to meet those commitments. They often make over-commitment a habit and they end up working extra hours every day. At the end of the day it doesn’t add any value to their life.

This book has a diagnostic tool which can help you measure how time poor you are and it makes you aware of the traps that are causing your time poverty.


After you have identified your time poverty this book suggests Five ways to alleviate your time poverty and improve your time affluence -

Step 1 - Know your default setting - After doing the exercises suggested by the author you would know where you stand when it comes to giving importance to money and time. if you value money more than time and you are not struggling to meet ends then start moving towards respecting your time more.

Step 2 - Document your time - Be mindful about the activities that you do whether it is productive or unproductive, Pleasurable or purposeful, does it add meaning to your life or not. Identify the Unproductive activities that make you stressed. Once the activities are grouped, reflect on them. Now you should ask yourself if it’s possible to spend less time on the activities that make you unhappy and stressed ? If not, is it possible to make them pleasurable. Think about it.

Step 3 - Find Time - Sometimes we get stuck in activities that we do not like and can’t control. Such activities are the biggest causes of time poverty.The solution for this is that Deliberately spend more time on the tasks that bring you joy and less time on activities that bring misery. The author suggests following activities to find more time or steal more time from your daily routine -
Transform Bad Time - Identify the time that you don’t like and look for ways to improve it.
Augment good time - Knit multiple positive activities together.
Hack Work time - if possible, work from home more often, Take all your paid leaves and vacations and utilize them.
Practice Active Leisure time - the author says that free time spent on active-leisure activities like volunteering, socializing, and exercising promotes happiness far more than free time spent on passive leisure activities like watching TV, napping or online surfing.
Meet New people and help Others

Step 4 - Fund Time
Instead of doing everything yourself you can outsource the activities which can save you time . For example you can order home delivery of groceries, take Uber for office and use that time to read or listen to your favorite music. If you find these expenses are high then you can try to outsource the tasks which you dislike the most and that outsourcing will not cause any big hole in your pocket. If you think you will always find ways to save time.


Step 5 - Re-frame Time
If we change how we feel about our time that can also make us time affluent. The author has given some examples here - if we treat an upcoming weekend as a holiday it can change the mindset of a person how he spends the weekend. One more example is that in physically demanding jobs if one considers them as “Exercise” then he can start liking the job more and feel more physically fit.

Accounting for time and writing down how long you are spending on tasks shows your respect for time.

In this book, the author says that the people who value time are happier, healthier and more productive than those who value money over time. The author suggests to account your time. Spend your time more proactively rather than just let it pass. Daily Reflection on how the day was spent by you can give you ample ideas about what you can tweak in daily routine to make yourself time affluent.

Overall this book is a good book. The book comes with strategies and tool kits to help you build good habits and break away from bad habits to manage the time better. I had been following some of the techniques suggested in this book unknowingly which my family always made fun of and called me lazy. Now I can tell them that I am not lazy. Awesome !


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