What Is Mental Toughness?

Mental Toughness describes the mindset that every person adopts in everything they do. It is closely related to qualities such as character, resilience, grit etc. It is defined as:

"A personality trait which determines, in large part, how people respond to challenge, stress and pressure, irrespective of their circumstances"

Clough & Strycharczyk (2011)

Published research and case studies from around the world show that Mental Toughness is a major factor in:

  • Performance - explaining up to 25% of the variation in performance in individuals
  • Positive Behaviour - more engaged, more positive, more 'can do'
  • Wellbeing - more contentment, better stress management, less prone to bullying
  • Aspirations -more ambitious, prepared to manage more risk

It is important in almost all work applications, for example studies show a close link between mental toughness and success at work

Research carried out under the direction of Professor Peter Clough, Manchester Metropolitan University, has identified the four key components of Mental Toughness, known as the four C's. This research has been independently validated.

Mental Toughness Scale

What does MTQ48 assess?

CONTROL

Life Control - I really believe I can do it

Emotional Control - I can manage my emotions and the emotions of others

COMMITMENT

Goal Setting - I promise to do it, I like working to goals

Achieving - I'll do what it takes to keep my promises and achieve my goals

CHALLENGE 

Risk Taking - I will push myself, I am driven to succeed

Learning From Experience - even setbacks are opportunities for learning

CONFIDENCE

In Abilities - I believe I have the ability to do it, or can acquire the ability

Interpersonal Confidence - I can influence others, I can stand my ground if needed

How can we assess Mental Toughness?

We are able to assess mental toughness in terms of these components in individuals and groups through a unique 48 question, high quality, psychometric measure - MTQ48. 

Its is normative, which enables users to assess mental toughness before and after an event, such as a training and development or coaching programme.

Can we develop Mental Toughness?

We can! We can either help someone to change their mental toughness or we can show someone how to adopt the behaviours that a mentally tough person would adopt. In both circumstances many of the benefits of developing Mental Toughness can be achieved.

Results has a suite of programmes which will suit all applications.

Summary

We have:

  • The ability to define and describe an important aspect of our personality - Mental Toughness
  • A concept which is accessible to everyone and which helps to explain performance, wellbeing and behaviour
  • The first psychometric measure which measures an individuals Mental Toughness
  • A Mental Toughness Development programme which delivers measurable results

The result is a complete package which has valuable applications and it applies to every aspect of developing and maintaining your team.

We can carry out the testing and follow up with each individual, and this, along with the outcome of the team assessment, can be used to determine the priority development actions required.

Post programme, we can then re-assess to measure the 'distance travelled by each individual.