Is 'hard work' really driving success?

Life is hard, work is hard, problems are hard to solve, parents can be hard on us, relationships are hard to navigate, and making sense of our own thoughts and feeling is probably the hardest thing of all. 

Maybe this is where our obsession with 'hard' comes from.

When I listen to politicians from all over the world during election campaigns they often refer to the value of hard working people, having an attitude steeped in hard work, and that hard working values are the most important thing. When I listen to self made business people and elite athletes they often refer to their willingness to work harder than others as the secret to their success.

But, I question if meeting 'hard problems' with 'hard work' is really the answer, especially for us regular everyday leaders and professionals. I originally spoke to this in The Rhythm Effect, but I have been thinking more and more about it since a podcast interview I randomly listened to a couple of months ago.

I was driving between appointments and started listening to a random episode of A Diary of a CEO. It happened to be with Emma Grede, CEO of apparel brand Good America amongst many other businesses and interests. I'd never heard of her before this, but this interview caught my attention. She talked through her rags to riches story, and I immediately fell in love with her origin story. Here is the short version and what it meant to me...

• A poor East London upbring to a single mum - I lived and worked in East London for years and love the grit and attitude of these folk. To this day, a bit of cockney leaks out after a few drinks.

• Money was important - when you don't have any you do every single little thing to make sure you never have to worry about it ever again. Anyone from a working class background understands this motivation.

• Loved Fashion - with no qualifications or experience she pursued work in fashion doing whatever she could. This is when I fell in love with this story. She now owns and runs multiple businesses in fashion yet still has no formal qualification in the industry. She is qualified through doing and having done the work.

• Cofounded many businesses - was intelligent enough to find opportunities, expose herself to mentors, and to have a crack when business opportunities presented. She created a relationship with the Kardashians and a world of doors opened up.

• Believes work-life balance is a big fat lie - Grede advocates a 'do whatever it takes' mentality for herself. This is the bit where the story became intriguing and got me thinking

Grede refers to hard work being the foundation of her success. This is, in a way, undeniable as she obviously worked long hours with constancy to achieve what she has achieved. But, when she unpacked critical moments in her career I heard something very different.

When she first started out she decided to sit at a desk in front of her boss where her boss could see her screen. No one else wanted this seat as the idea of being watched all the time was uncomfortable. But, Grede saw this as an opportunity to learn. She would listen to her boss on sales calls, and Grede would mimic this behaviour and her results accelerated. Her willingness to ask lots of questions of her boss and in meetings was also sighted as something that helped her grow.

This to me illustrates a commitment to the business and her career. It also illustrates an attitude to learn and get better as well as an intelligence to see an opportunity none of her colleagues could see or understand. Audacity seemed to be a strength in her formative years.

Grede also met her biggest influence soon after. To-be husband Jens, an investor in a business she worked at. They created a relationship filled with ambition and went onto to support each other to learn, build, and create great businesses. Finding and surrounding oneself with intelligent and supportive people giving helpful feedback and accountability also seems like an important ingredient to punch out good quality work.   

Later, ITB, a marketing entertainment agency is set up where she does product placements, endorsement deals, and influencer packages (before influencers were a thing). She sees an opportunity in how talent contracts are structured and how her commission was limited. So, she devised a structure where talent gained equity in her business to genuinely became partners. The business became a denim house called Good America, and all of the sudden she had high profile talent endorsing her products for next-to-nothing. Her brands exploded.

A little serendipity, mixed with highly focused drive, determination, and an ability to analyse and set clever strategies made sense to Grede. We may use terms like independent, or powerful, or driven to describe the Emma Grede's of this world, but I am not sure that 'hard working' does her story justice. It seems like a minor actor on a vast and wide stage. Whatever terminology is used, she started with nothing and created a whole lot. She has led with heart and passion while remaining true to her values. It is inspiring and my honest assessment is this:

I see a lot of good work was done, where good decisions were made, with good people, and a lot of good progress was achieved that changed the market and influenced the business world, as well as many consumer's and employee's lives. 

I have heard this story so many times in elite sport, entertainment, business biographies, and pop culture. Listen to a post-match player interview or press conference and the same mantra of hard work and working hard will spill out time and again in a vain attempt to summarise something much more accurate, insightful, and true.

I wonder what difference it would make if we referred to the work all these people do as being 'good work' rather than 'hard work'. I wonder if this is a more accurate description, and a lens that helps us identify the work we want people to be focusing on. It may help people to commit to the job at hand. It can help us analyse with purpose and focus with intent as Grede did.

Understanding where our efforts are most valuable, rather than just blindly throwing our effort into things that are not working or creating progress is a core skill for leading anything successfully.

As leaders we have limited time and resource. Spending this in good ways instead of hard ways is of tremendous value as we seek our own steps of success, and that for the people we lead.