I have done 50% I need someone to complete the work (Qualitative Research Coding -Interview Coding)

“Homelessness should be rare, brief, and nonrecurring.” Moving people from temporary to permanent, rapid housing is the objective. Homeless people should “not just be, but should do something” to make the transition. For Sheila’s clients, they are expected to be about the business of making improvements in their lives and their circumstances. If something is not as it should be, then do something to make it better.

At the end of her life, Sheila would ask God to send her back. She would want more time to use the knowledge she has gained to do more because there is more to do. “Send me back, God. Let me take what I have learned and do more.”

Making a difference requires doing unorthodox things. Involving young children in serving meals to clients. Hugging dirty and smelly people without care or concern for their appearance or hygiene.

Seeing homeless people as individuals with individual circumstances that require individualized resources and support. Persuading funders to adapt their expectations to the realities of individual client needs, not “cookie cutter” approaches that are not effective for all clients.

Controversy must be dealt with by combating negativity. Stop tent city was a terrible situation. “I should have combated the negativity in the neighborhood at the grass roots level” versus “talking about the positives with the city council.” A board member didn’t like the appearance and language of a trainer who was effective. Managing perceptions and relationships is important.

There are no coincidences. “God things” happen to many people all the time. When people have the right motives, respect God, meet people, and take advantage of opportunities to do good, God things happen. “I’m not the best Catholic, but I’m a great Christian.” The work unites people of all religions. “I would love to start a website where people could post the things that have happened to them.”

Theoretical Framework

Grit, which is defined as one’s passion and perseverance in pursuit of long-term goals (Duckworth et al., 2007), is an important individual difference. Previous study has shown that grit is more than just work ethic (Meriac et al., 2015) or the hardiness to endure setbacks (Maddi et al., 2012). Grit is an individuals’ ability to maintain passion despite a lack of positive feedback, which is important for success in many domains, including leadership. Experience shows that talent and intelligence do not assure success; sustained effort is also essential (Duckworth et al., 2011; Ericsson et al., 1993). Consistent with this reasoning, grit has been linked with better outcomes in many contexts, including personal relationships, education, military training and work performance (Eskreis-Winkler et al., 2014). Nonetheless, grit is not universally valuable, and appears to offer more benefit in some contexts than in others (cf. Ivcevic and Brackett, 2014; Tedesqui and Young, 2018). To date, grit’s role in leadership has not been studied, but there is good reason to suspect its importance. A gritty person’s enduring focus on long-term outcomes reflects the forward-looking orientation that distinguishes effective leaders (Ilies et al., 2006; Kouzes and Posner, 2017). Since grit is not correlated with intelligence, and it accounts for more variance in outcomes than does conscientiousness in some contexts (e.g. Duckworth et al., 2007; Tedesqui and Young, 2018), grit may be an additional important predictor of leadership outcomes. However, theory concerning grit is still in a relatively nascent stage (e.g. Crede et al., 2017; Datu et al., 2017; Midkiff et al., 2017) and this is the first reported study of grit in leadership. As a result, an exploratory approach was adopted, with the goal of examining how leaders’ grit was related to a wide range of leadership behavior (Caza & Posner, 2019).

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Methods and Rigor (to be expanded)

Phenomenological study. Three-part interview of lived experiences. Analysis of text using multiple step coding. Thematic interview article based on emergent themes in third interview.

Conclusions

To be written … indicators of Sheila’s grittiness as manifestation of her values, beliefs, and motivation leading to mission focused behaviors in the face of fiscal, social, and operational challenges.

References

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(6), 1087.