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A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.
How do we motivate employees to achieve their goals? We replace talent with grit.
If your business strategy revolves around hiring the most “talented” people, you’re doing it wrong. Grit expert and football star Dr. Danny Southwick says that it’s grit (passion and perseverance for long-term goals)—not talent—that predicts success. In fact, we can motivate people to grow, persevere, and meet high-level goals by simply changing the wording that we use to describe their skills. Danny is a long-time collaborator of #1 New York Times bestselling author Angela Duckworth, the scientist who pioneered grit—and in talks, he presents their bleeding-edge research on talent and performance to help you lead your employees to be more confident, innovative, and prepared to tap into the unique skills they already have.
“Are we mistaking situational advantages for talent? And are we overlooking what happens when we spend time practicing the right way?”— Danny Southwick
Danny Southwick has been a pro football player for 15 years; he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders and has been a star quarterback in arenas all over the country. His football heroics led him to think deeply about what it means to have “talent” and when it’s really about just sticking to it and putting in the work. People picture a lot of different things when they hear the word talent—some imagine a fixed and innate ability, a gift, that you’re either born with or you’re not. Others see something variable, something which can grow, develop, and strengthen over time. For Danny, it’s about what he learned as a football player: practice.
Danny deepened his expertise in grit by studying for a Ph.D. in Psychology under Dr. Angela Duckworth, New York Times Best Selling Author of Grit. He realized that his insights about talent and grit were right: Danny discovered that there are proven links between using the word “talent” and lack of motivation and resources for employee development in a business.
Now, Danny uses both his football experience and his psychological research to teach the mechanics of grit and to help companies support their employees. He gives clear, actionable steps that organizations can follow to use the right tools—and the right language—when they want to motivate employees and teams, achieve top-level goals, and instill a growth mindset in absolutely everyone. Danny’s business sense was honed by earning an MBA from the University of California at Irvine, and he holds a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Psychology.
“Talent doesn’t predict world-class performance,” says Danny Southwick. “But the mundane daily struggle of training, working on your weaknesses, finding a coach who can help you be the best you can become? That’s what enables people to unlock their potential.”
Danny is a long-time protégé and collaborator of grit pioneer Angela Duckworth, as well as a former NFL player. In this smart and...
Companies talk about hiring talent all the time, but when they try to define talent, things get murky. Some people see talent as an innate gift, others see it as something which can be grown and developed. Tom Brady, for example, doesn’t consider himself talented—to him, his success comes from being consistently focused on a single, clear goal.
Grit expert and pro football star Danny Sou...
