Owl-HR Blog

Don’t Settle for Mediocrity, Strive for Mental Toughness

Yesterday, I was listening to Experience Pros Radio http://www.experiencepros.com/ on AM 560. Eric and Angel were talking about the book, 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class by Steve Siebold http://www.mentaltoughnesssecrets.com/ . Who doesn’t want more mental toughness especially as we are still sloshing our way through a less than forgiving economy? We could all use more toughness as we think about goals we want to achieve in 2010.

Mental toughness? What does it really mean? How can we train ourselves to have it so that we can find that next fulfilling job? If you’re an employer, how can you find employees that are mentally tough or how can you retain current staff that already have this quality? If you are the boss, maybe you need to work on your own mental toughness.

Siebold says that folks with mental toughness possess the following qualities:

-Champions Lead Through Facilitated Introspection
-The World Class Compartmentalize Their Emotions
-The World Class Are Ferociously Cooperative
-The Great Ones Possess Supreme Self Confidence
-The World Class Embrace Metacognition (understanding how you think)
-The World Class Are Coachable
-Champions Know Why They Are Fighting
-The World Class Operate From Love and Abundance
-School Is Never Out For The Great Ones
-Champions Are Interdependent
-The Great Ones Are Bold
-Champions Are Zealots For Change
-The Great Ones Don’t Give Back…They Just Give
-Champions Are Masters Of Mental Organization
-The Great Ones Only Negotiate Win-Win Deals
-Champions Seek Balance
-Champions Believe In Honesty
-The Great Ones Aren’t Afraid To Suffer

From the point of view of your own mental toughness, which of these qualities do you have and where are you lacking? Think about the skills you already have and how you can leverage them to get a job, obtain a promotion or be a better boss. What deficiencies do you need to honestly address in yourself that is hindering your success? The key here is to be honest with yourself.

As an HR professional coaching supervisors and looking for great talent, this list is screaming the qualities of people driven to succeed that I want in my company. In order to engage top talent in your organization, you need managers with mental toughness. Champions want to be led by example, not just lip services from the top. Your recruiting process needs to be designed to pinpoint coachable, confident, honest team players that aren’t afraid to put the company, clients and other employees first. Your training programs need to teach managers how to encourage mental toughness in others.

Push yourself and your organization to the next level in 2010!