What is Mental Toughness
Mental toughness is the quality, which determines in some part how people deal with challenge, stressors and pressure. There is a very strong link between Mental Toughness issues like Stress Management and Peak Performance Development and behaviour.
Mental Toughness as a concept that has come to the fore in sport psychology in the last few years. How often have you heard elite sportsmen and women, particularly golfers, talking about how the game is as much to do with mental toughness as mush as technical prowess. However the benefits are now being seen in the business world. It tends to be associated with the ability to cope with pressure and stress which are common factors in both sport and business.
Many definitions of mental toughness revolve around themes such being, determined resilient, staying in control and remaining focused in the face of stress/pressure. Common characteristics of mentally tough individuals are traits such as Self-belief, Motivation, Focus and Composure, or ability to handle pressure.
People react in different ways to stress and pressure so if you can determine how your staff will react in such circumstances then you can develop a plan to address the issue. This starts from recruitment where you can identify, by using the MTQ 48 questionnaire how individuals will react under pressure. This can only be of benefit to the individuals and the organisations they work for.
Benefits of Mental Toughness Personal Development
The key issues around Mental Toughness for individuals are:
- What causes one person to succumb and another to thrive in the same circumstances?
- Can we identify people’s strengths and weaknesses in these areas?
- Can we develop individuals to enable them to handle stressors like change, pressure and challenge more effectively?
- How can we support individuals better with their specific needs?
By understanding these issues, and applying the principles of Mental Toughness in the workplace, organisations are able to:
- Develop strategies and tactics to help individuals perform under pressure.
- Help managers get the best from their people.
- Recruit more effectively around these key criteria.
Measuring mental toughness using MTQ48 allows organisations to:
- Accurately assess the strengths and weaknesses of their people:
- Build resilience in them.
- Build teams that can deliver performance.
- Enable effective coaching & development.
This results in:
- Better bottom line performance – stress is one of the largest causes of absenteeism.
- Improved morale and better working environment.
- Better ability to recruit people who can make it.
- Reduced risk of stress related claims and awards.
Click here for more information on our mental toughness programmes
