Is hiring the best talent hurting our companies more than it helps? Grit expert and football star Danny Southwick says that we can motivate people to grow, persevere, and meet high-level goals by simply changing the language that we use to describe their skills. Danny’s pro football success, business insights, and research alongside New York Times bestselling author Angela Duckworth led to his discovery that what we see as natural talent is really grit: a combination of hard work and practice, as well as taking advantage of every opportunity you have. When we change our understanding of talent, we’ll help employees be more confident, innovative, and prepared to tap into the unique skills that they already have.
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 in addition to his current Ph.D. work.
