Presentation by Lucy Finney on 21 April 2020. https://www.apm.org.uk/news/mindsets-mental-toughness-for-challenging-times-webinar/

1. Mental Toughness for Challenging Times
Lucy Finney, MBE – Head of Leadership & Development
Mental Toughness Webinar

2. Webinar Topics
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• Mental Toughness - Definition & History
• Explain the 4Cs of Mental Toughness
• Explain how Mental Toughness is measured
• Explore Mental Toughness application to crisis management

3. Who am I?
3

4. Mental Toughness
Definition & History

5. Definition of Mental Toughness
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Mental Toughness determines how
individuals perform when exposed to stress,
pressure and challenge
It is frequently used to refer to any set of
positive attributes that help a person to
cope with difficult situations

6. Mental Toughness – Concept Evolution
622/04/2020
Resilience
The ability to recover
quickly from change,
setback or misfortune
Bounce Back…
Mental Toughness
Jim Loehr (pronounced Lower) American Athletics
coach
became the first person to coin the phrase Mental
Toughness
‘the ability to consistently perform towards the upper
range of your capabilities regardless of circumstance’
Antifragility
Antifragility is beyond resilience
The resilient resists shocks and stays the
same, the antifragile…gets better
Resilience is a passive concept - Mental
Toughness is resilience plus other elements….
Nassim Nicholas Teb, ‘Antifragile’

7. Mental Toughness - Concept Development Map
722/04/2020
Health Sector
Resilience was defined as a
combination of:
• COMMITMENT – desire to
continue and
• CONTROL - the ability to continue
Person is responding (Grit), but not
necessarily in a positive way. Just
inner belief 'I can do it' - may not
enjoy it but can do it
Susan Kobasa - Leadership Research
Resilient people have an added factor
Positive Mindset
They were resilient BUT they also like
the CHALLENGE of adversity &
setbacks.
They took risks (road less travelled) -
Hardiness
Dienstbier – Experiential (Outdoor) Dev
Linked physical performance to mental
performance. He found that physically fit
people were able to focus better
Jim Loehr – Athletics Coach, USA
He stated we must work on mental as well as
physical fitness to develop Mental
Toughness and improve performance
‘Stress is not the bad guy’
First to come up with the term Mental
Toughness
Peter Clough (Hull University)
Research on UK Customs and Excise Operations
identified that CONFIDENCE in ability to achieve
things was a missing ingredient in the definition
of Mental Toughness
Clough used psychometrics to ensure validity in
theory – he developed a Mental Toughness
Quotient Model – MTQ48
MTQ48 is a VALID & RELIABLE psychometric
measure of Mental Toughness

8. Studies show a strong link between Mental Toughness and…
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Performance – both for individuals, groups and organisations
Mindset under stress – ‘can do attitude’
Wellbeing – contentment, mindfulness
Achievements – seeking to optimise potential
Employability – confidence when job seeking
Openness to Change – ability to transition
Completion/Drop Out – more likely to see things through – stickability

9. 4Cs of Mental Toughness
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Mental
Toughness
CONTROL
COMMITMENT
CHALLENGE
CONFIDENCE

10. Mental Toughness 4 Cs Model
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Control Commitment
Confidence Challenge
Inner Strength Outer Strength+
How we respond to goals
and targets
(Tenacity & Stickability)
How much we reveal our
emotions & how much we
believe we can shape
what’s happening around
us
Seeing the world in a
positive way, seeing
opportunities not
threats
Self-awareness, self-belief,
personal confidence &
confidence in
interpersonal relationships

11. Mental Toughness Model
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Control Commitment
Confidence Challenge
Confidence in
abilities
Interpersonal
Confidence
Life Control
Emotional
Control
Risk Orientation
Learning
Orientation
Goal
Orientation
Achievement
Orientation
Inner Strength Outer Strength+
Self-Efficacy
Grit
Aspiration
Engagement

12. Measuring
Mental Toughness

13. Mental Toughness and Personality
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1. Mental Toughness is a Personality Trait
2. Trait psychology rests on the idea that we differ from one another in terms of where we
stand on a set of basic trait dimensions
3. Life experience, background & education influence and shape the strength of your traits –
traits are plastic
4. Over time personality traits become consistent and stabilise – personality preference
5. Personality preferences drive people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors
6. Mental Toughness explains why when you put people with the same
background/education/experience into a job they can perform differently

14. Mental Toughness and the Big 5
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• The most widely used system of traits is called the Five-Factor
Model.
• This system includes five broad traits that can be remembered with
the acronym OCEAN:
• Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

15. How do you measure Mental Toughness?
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Mental toughness is a personality trait
Mental Toughness Quotient can be
measured using a set of psychometric
questions based on the 4Cs – Confidence,
Control, Commitment, Challenge

16. Mental Toughness
&
Crisis Management

17. The DNA of Crisis Management
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18. Mental Toughness & Crisis Management
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• Understand your behaviours under pressure and develop:
• Anxiety Control
• Attentional Control
• Proactive Mindset & Positive Thinking
• Mindfulness Skills
• Train for high performance under stress:
• Focus & Goal Setting
• Visualisation Skills
• Creative Problem Solving
• Decision making under stress

19. Develop your 4Cs – Underscore Virtual Training
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• Mental Toughness Webinar Series live now:
• Mindset & Emotional Control
• Decision making under stress
• Performance & Fatigue
• A Brave New World – Mental Toughness Survival Skills

20. How can you find out more?
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Virtual Training:
• Mental Toughness
• Crisis Management & Recovery Toolkit
https://www.underscore-group.com/virtual-training/
Virtual Coaching:
• Executive Coaching & Mentoring
• Online Psychometric Testing & Feedback:
• MTQ48
• Lumina Spark, Leader or Emotion
• OPP – MBTI or FIRO
https://www.underscore-group.com/psychometrics/
Email: lucy.finney@underscore-group.com