Title: Developing Mental Toughness
Authors: Peter Clough and Doug Strycharczyk
Publisher: Kogan Page
ISBN 978 0749 46377 9
Usefulness ****
The label ‘mental toughness’ may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but few can argue that these are challenging times in which topics such as resilience are particularly hot. Does resilience, or mental toughness, which the authors see as wider than resilience, really exist?
Clough and Strycharczyk believe so. They also believe it’s useful, can be developed and can be measured. To back these assertions, they share plenty of research and case studies, including their own. They have developed the MTQ48 questionnaire to measure mental toughness, which they define as “the quality which determines in large part how people deal effectively with challenge, stressors and pressure…irrespective of prevailing circumstances”. The opposite is mental sensitivity, they say – mentally sensitive people will feel the impact of stress, pressure and challenge more keenly, arguing that there is nothing wrong with that.
The authors share their 4 Cs model for mental toughness: Challenge, Confidence, Commitment and Control.
I am one of the people who isn’t keen on the term ‘mental toughness’, but to be fair, it wasn’t invented by the authors. And this is an excellent resource, clearly written and well-informed.
Liz Hall is editor of Coaching at Work
coaching at work, volume 8, issue 3