Let’s Get Real
ISBN 9789395264167

Highlights

Notes

  

Appendix: Mental Toughness: The Concept

I had always felt that what many people need is some sort of mental strength, a form of resilience, an ability to weather the storm of career, and build belief in themselves.

Fortunately, we have recent research to help us out in the form of mental toughness, an exciting and innovative idea pioneered by the folks at AQR.

Once upon a time (in 2011), I was preparing for my first-ever marathon. Now part of marathon preparation is the grueling practice of regularly running long distances. Fortunately, in Dubai we had (and still have) the Dubai Creek Striders, a running club mostly comprising expats who organizes Friday morning runs.

One Friday morning I was running with a friend, a Canadian who was also a teacher and we ended up talking about pass rates, failures, and why students drop out. She said there may be something out there on mental toughness. I was intrigued as this seemed like exactly what I was looking for. I reached home, Googled, found the email addresses of the related people and that’s how I stumbled on the concept of mental toughness.

Mental Toughness (“MT”) has been defined as “a personality trait which determines, in large part, how we respond to stress, pressure, opportunity and challenge, irrespective of prevailing circumstances” by Peter Clough and Doug Strycharczyk. The good news is that all this is evidence-based and backed by rigorous research. There are now more than 80 academic papers supporting this concept.

Studies in schools, colleges, and universities in the UK and in Holland showed a close connection between MT and how well young people did in exams. In fact, around 25% of the variation in a person’s performance in exams is explained by their MT which, by the way, is pretty significant, statistically speaking. The most critical questions you would ask are (a) how do you measure MT, and (b) how do you improve MT?

This pioneering (and path-breaking) work was done by Dr. Peter Clough and Dr. Keith Earle, both of the University of Hull in the UK. Dr. Clough and Doug Strycharczyk took the concept on in 2018 and created the eight-factor model with two factors for each construct.

They jointly developed the MTQ 48, which is a questionnaire that covers the four key constructs of MT:

Construct Description Examples
Control Individuals who score high on this scale feel that they are in control of their work and of the environment in which they work.
They are capable of exerting more influence on their working environment and are more confident about working in complex or multi-tasked situations.
There are two factors here:
Life Control — where the sense of “can do” sits and
Emotional Control — where one manages their emotional responses.		 At one end of the scale, people are able to handle lots of activities at the same time.
At the other end, they may only be comfortable handling one activity at a time.
Also, responding emotionally to a setback and either taking a long time to get over it or moving on quickly.
Challenge The extent to which individuals see problems as opportunities. Those who see them as opportunities will actively seek them out and will identify problems as ways for self-development. At the other end, problems are perceived as threats.
There are two factors here:
Risk Orientation — the extent to which you are open to new ideas, experiences, even meeting new people, and so on.
Learning Orientation — the extent to which you reflect on and learn from each event — whether it is good or bad.		 At one end of the scale there are people who thrive in continually changing environments.
At the other end we find those who will strongly prefer to work in stable environments.
This element is central to having the right attitude for learning — particularly in challenging programs.
Commitment The ability of an individual to carry out tasks successfully despite any problems or obstacles that arise whilst achieving the goal.
There are two factors here:
Goal Orientation — the extent to which you like working toward your goals.
Achievement Orientation — the extent to which you make the effort to achieve your goals.		 Someone who scores at the high end of the scale will be able to handle and achieve tough deadlines.
At the other end is the person who may be intimidated by goals and targets and fail to perform.
Confidence Individuals who are high in confidence have the self-belief to successfully complete tasks, which may be considered too difficult by individuals with similar abilities, but with lower confidence.
Less confident individuals are also likely to be less persistent and to make more errors.
There are two factors here:
Confidence in Abilities — the extent to which you have self-belief about your abilities.
Interpersonal Confidence — the extent to which you engage with and impact others.		 Individuals at one end of the scale will be able to take setbacks in their stride. They keep their heads when things go wrong, and it may even strengthen their resolve to do something.
At the other end, individuals will be unsettled by setbacks and will feel undermined by these.
The interpersonal confidence factor also indicates the extent to which individuals will ask questions in order to learn.

If you want to find out more about MT, check out the website for AQR International.

Now, the obvious next question is if you are mentally sensitive, how do you build MT?

The following are the tried and trusted methods. And, each of these impacts one or more of the four above components of MT.

Anxiety Control

In olden days, anxiety was a good thing — it was the alarm signal to get away from that saber-toothed tiger and it unleashed the energy to flee.

These days it’s still useful but it can often be negative, overwhelming you for no good reason. How do you know you have an anxiety attack coming on? It’s easy — panic and an empty mind, pounding heart, shortness of breath, racing pulse, weakness, and so on.

How do you deal with it?

Technique What it is
Self-talk Talk yourself through the anxiety by telling yourself:
1. This will fade away. Can’t last forever.
2. I will be better soon.
3. This is natural.
Banish negative words and conditional words like “but” in your thinking.
Controlled distraction Focus on something else — a puzzle, your environment, new routine.
Thought stopping Mentally shout “STOP.”
Replace a poor image with a positive image.

Attentional Control

It’s all about keeping your eye on the ball, metaphorically speaking.

The best example is when a footballer takes a penalty shot. It’s technically doable but mentally extremely stressful. The player has to deal with the goalie’s antics, insults, and roars from the crowd, sledging from the other team, the huge expectation from his team and his own anxieties. That can be a nightmare. The best penalty taker shuts out all thoughts. All he will think of are the ball and the task.

Everything else is irrelevant.

How do you achieve this?

Technique What it is
Number grid Mark off consecutive numbers on a number grid in 90 seconds
Card games Bridge or Whist — you need to focus to remember which cards have gone.
Other brain training games Sudoku, Crosswords, Lumosity, Brain fit

Positive Thinking

“If you think you can or you think you can’t, you are probably right.” — Henry Ford

We are what we think. The solution is to make affirmations which must:

• be made in the present tense,

• be positively phrased, and

• have an emotional reward.

A great technique is, “think three positives.” At the end of every day, write down three things that have gone well — no matter how small. Review your list weekly.

Visualization

Use the ability to imagine something to deal with or cope with a real event. We can imagine almost any situation we face inside our heads and learn, inside our heads, how we would deal with them.

I will narrate the story of a friend of mine.

Erin is an Executive Coach and was called in to help a Skier in a national skiing team. The Skier had a problem. Before he started his move, he always visualized skiing down the slope. There was a sharp curve halfway down and he always imagined himself falling down in the curve. And guess what? Every time he skied downhill, he fell at the exact same spot.

Erin took him aside and spent several sessions on proper visualizations. Positive instead of negative. Success instead of failure. Smooth skiing instead of falling down. A few months later he skied to Olympic glory.

I have seen this with many of my CFA students. Even before they start their preparation they think of failure. This paralyses and weakens them and they walk into the exam hall with the battle already lost.

Goal Setting

Goal setting is a good way of approaching challenges like a career move. Use the smarter approach.

Attribute Description Example
Specific Define your goals clearly and concisely. • Become a Partner in corporate finance at the Dubai office of the Big 4 firm (where I am currently working as a director).
Measurable What does success look like. • The responsibility for the P&L of the corporate finance business line in the Dubai office which also means 20 reports (direct and indirect) as opposed to just 5 direct reports now.
Achievable Sufficiently challenging but not impossible. It will be long and grueling but it’s possible.
Relevant Relevant to the circumstances and have the desired impact. The partnership will meet my long-held career ambition of taking on a senior leadership role in a field (corporate finance) that I am good at and would love to continue working in. It also aligns with my values which include Achievement, Courage, and Empathy.
Time Bound Must be a deadline. I want to make it to Partner in the next 3 years, i.e., latest by 31 December 2025. I will turn 35 by then and that’s an important milestone for me.
Exciting Goal should inspire enthusiasm. Partnership in a Big 4 firm is a rare and highly sought after role. It carries with it power, respect, and the ability to lead and mentor many young professionals.
Reviewable Provision to review and revise targets. Review my progress every 6 months.

What is equally important is the ability to set milestones — break the bigger goal into a number of smaller goals that have to be achieved in order to achieve the bigger goal. Each will be much easier to achieve.

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