The term mental toughness typically conjures up images of teeth-gnashing, resistance-thrashing willpower in response to a difficult challenge.
But in business and in life, mental toughness is more about seeing opportunities where others see barriers and successfully adapting to circumstances to come out ahead.
Making decisions
Most successful business leaders have hundreds of decisions to make daily or weekly, and most of them are important.
Mentally tough leaders make decisions very quickly, relying on intuition and clear-minded purpose. Then they stick to those decisions, rarely changing them even when a positive result is not immediately forthcoming.
Faith in sound decision-making gives these leaders confidence that the seeds they plant will eventually bear fruit. They don’t uproot those seeds and replant again and again.
Managing ambiguity
One of the biggest enemies an organization faces is the chaos of conflicting alternatives that surface in times of crisis. The mentally tough leader manages that ambiguity by establishing a clear path to the organization’s end goal.
Imagine a ship’s captain in a gale-force storm: He or she must give clear direction in order to get all hands focused on moving the vessel out of harm’s way.
Even if all directions pose equal dangers, pointing everyone in a single direction improves morale and the chances of success.
Laser focus
In today’s world of too much information, only the leader who has laser-point focused — and who can maintain that focus for extended periods of time — has a chance of success. Meandering is failing. Cultivating the faculty of focus is at the heart of mental toughness.
If a CEO has 10 strategic initiatives, then in fact he has none, because no one can give adequate attention to that many high-level initiatives.
Adversity as opportunity
The mentally tough leader is capable of putting fear aside in order to unearth the opportunity inherent in every hardship.
When the sky is falling, it’s tough to maintain faith and vision and to see the potential in a hazardous situation. Wisdom comes from enduring in these times, knowing that a sense of curiosity and optimism enables learning and overcoming.
Dave Pietramala, the only person to win NCAA college lacrosse championships both as a player and as coach at Johns Hopkins University, recently told me mental toughness is about “mental alertness and the ability to adjust and adapt to changing circumstances.”
He went on to say that “how we handle adversity, address issues and combat complacency defines our mental toughness.”
Mental toughness in business is less about fighting and more about malleability. Besides, battling against resistance is tiresome and can lead to burnout, while trusting one’s intuitive ability and seeing opportunity rather than an obstacle can facilitate a smoother passage to the next milestone.
John Miles holds the title chief of what’s next at Integritive, an Asheville firm specializing in Web design, Web development, strategic planning, search engine optimization and e-marketing. For more information, visit www.integritive.com and www.twitter.com/integritiveJM.
Reprint from the Asheville Citizen-Times
Tags: integritive, JHU, lacrosse, mental toughness, pietramala, twitter
