Like you, I’m an earthling; our planet belongs to us.

I’m British, I was born in London in 1954. I didn’t have choice about being British, nor even in being born; both were thrust upon me, no one asked me if, when and where I wanted to be born – so much for choice, eh!

My influences as a young boy in the early to mid-sixties were comics such as “The Victor”, “The Hotspur” and “The Hornet”. All of them were full of (mainly British) heroic battles and daring deeds, Wellington at Waterloo, Raglan at Balaclava, Melvill et Coghill at Isandhlwana, Chard & Broomhead at Rorke’s Drift, Gordon at Khartoum, Douglas Bader during the Battle for Britain, etc. etc.

The underlying message (which I clearly didn’t see as a young boy) was about how great we were (or at that time “are”); the comics didn’t write about the thousands of Zulus who died protecting their homelands, or about the massacre of Amritsar, or about the atrocities of the Boxer rebellion, etc. They only wrote about the greatness of the British Empire.

You may be asking yourself if I am proud or ashamed to be British; to be honest I am neither, I just am British – as I wrote earlier, it just happened to me, I was born on a part of the planet that we call Britain. Britain and the British people have done some truly great things and some truly atrocious things – in the past.

I could probably have the written the above from a French perspective (d’Artagnan, Napoleon, Jaures, de Gaulle, …) or an American perspective (Lincoln, Custer, Murphy, Armstrong, …) and I am fairly sure that there are few French people or American people who “chose” to be born French or American.

I’ve had the opportunity to travel a bit (Europe, India, South Africa, Thailand ….) and everywhere I’ve been, I’ve found people more or less like me – people with brothers & sisters, people with parents, people with children, people who want to live in peace, people who want to enjoy life, people who want to contribute to their communities ……….

The air that I breathed in those countries had already been inhaled & exhaled by hundreds of Indians, Zimbabweans, etc.  and the water that I drank had already passed through numerous digestive systems.

We’ve divided the planet into “parts” that we call countries but nature doesn’t give a damn about borders; radioactive or toxic clouds don’t respect the Schengen Area; water tables communicate between themselves, diseased birds violate national airspace and the pollution in the Pacific Ocean eventually finds its way into the Mediterranean.

We’ve divided the planet into parts but the resources are common, the Amazonian forest is in a part of the planet that we call Brazil, just like coal or petrol is in other parts of the planet that go under other names.

When a forest is destroyed, it’s my forest that is destroyed, it’s your forest that is destroyed and it’s our forest that is destroyed. When a river is polluted, it’s my river that is polluted, it’s your river that is polluted and it’s our river that is polluted. Although I’m far from sure that anyone has asked my opinion, your opinion or our opinion.

I’ve yet to read in a religious document or a constitution (or any other document) that we should imprison (or even kill) those who don’t agree with us; in fact, quite the opposite most talk about compassion & comprehension.

For the majority of us we have about 80 years to realise our potential, develop it and then deploy it in order to accomplish our lives and, maybe, help others to accomplish their lives.

The planet has been divided into about 190 parts and the “others” living in those parts are no worse than us and no better than us, in the main they are just like us; they have the same aspirations, the same hopes and the same dreams.

We can’t continue treating problems in isolation; deforestation in Indonesia, air pollution in China, fracking in North America, oil pipeline spillages in Russia, war in Ukrain, etc. If we don’t start treating our planet like a “collective whole” the “mouldy” parts will start connecting up and it will be (far) too late to save anything.

Although “think globally and act locally” has been in vogue for some time now, there seems to be a move towards “think & act locally” and “sod the rest of the world”; as if what someone does in their part of the planet has no impact on the rest of the planet.

To finish with, a couple of quotes by Anne Frank and Albert Einstein:

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

The post I am an earthling appeared first on BobLarcher.

Learning about playing the guitar is relatively easy, there are a lot of books that explain chords, patterns, modes, octaves and the like; you can even learn every note on every string of the fretboard without even touching a guitar

However, it is not until you actually try and move your fingers from string to string on the fretboard that you will start learning to play the guitar!

The same can be said for tennis, dancing, swimming ………

And the same can be said for leadership!

Learning about leadership is not difficult; you can read about situational leadership, transformational leadership, transactional leadership. You can study “great” leaders and what they did and said. You can watch films like Twelve Angy Men, To Kill a Mockingbird or Remember the Titans.

But it is not until you start trying to influence others to contribute to success of some kind that you will start learning how to incarnate your leadership.

If you want to practice scales, modes and the like on your guitar you can lock yourself away in your garage, if you want to practice backhand lobs and slicing with your tennis racket you can go down to the local tennis court; but where do you go to practice your leadership?

Where do you go to practice dealing with those contradicting your facts?

Where do you go to practice dealing with those challenging arguments?

Where do you go to practice responding to criticism of your ideas?

Where do you go to practice staying calm when under pressure?

Where do you go to practice responding to personal attacks?

Where do you go for a leadership workout?

If you are looking for a safe, yet challenging, environment to test your leadership and receive concrete and actionable hints & tips to increase your leadership impact; drop me a mail at boblarcher@boblarcher.com to set up your personalised leadership workout!

The post Leadership Workout appeared first on BobLarcher.

Our eyes are information collectors; each eye has millions of photoreceptors that capture information from our external world and transmit it to the visual cortex in the back of brain via the optic nerve.

It is in the visual cortex that light waves become meaning; it is in the brain that the story is told.

Not everything “out there” makes it to the visual cortex; physical, physiological and psychological “filters” reduce the amount of information transmitted to the brain.

As we do not all have the same physical, physiological and psychological filters we will each have a certain percentage of the total information available that reaches our brain.

The information that does get through is then interpreted; instinctively, intuitively and intellectually to give us our interpretation of that information. Again, we do not all have the same instinctive, intuitive and intellectual “make up” and we will each interpret what we have seen differently.

The same can be said for our ears; “I heard it with own ears”.

Sound waves enter the outer ear; they create vibrations in the inner ear which are converted into electrical signals and transmitted via the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex.

And yes, the same process of filtering and interpreting takes place before we come to a conclusion about “what we heard”.

Our other “information collectors”, our nose, our mouth and our skin all function in similar ways.

This helps to explain why people looking at the same “event” can come to significantly different conclusions. We do not all “receive” exactly the same information, and we do not all “interpret” it in exactly the same way.

We do not all have the same physical, physiological and psychological filters; some people wear glasses or hearing aids, some people have a less well-developed sense of smell or taste which contribute to physiological barriers. Some people in the same situation may have a different physical barrier, someone’s view blocked for example, and we all psychologically sharpen or level different information.

When it comes to interpreting the information, some people, “trust their instincts”, some people “go with their intuitions” and some people “analyse the facts”.

We are all working with different amounts of information and we are interpreting what we have received in different ways.

That is why I often say, “even when you are convinced you are right about something, you may be wrong”.

Any thoughts?

The post Don’t always believe what you see and hear appeared first on BobLarcher.

Leadership is about influencing others to contribute to success; it’s something we can all do; you do not need to be “a leader” to do this.

You can influence people to contribute to success through your ideas, through your emotions, through how you hold yourself and through your values, and none of this requires you to be a leader.

Myth n°2 Leadership is more important than management

Leadership & management are equally important

Leadership & management are like two sides of a coin; to get real value you need both sides.

Leadership is about influencing & motivating people to go somewhere & management is about providing the methods and resources to get there.

Myth n°3 Leadership is about making decisions

Leadership is about ensuring decisions are made

Leadership is a team sport, it is about getting diverse and often conflictual inputs and coming to a collective decision.

Myth n°4 Leadership is about being the expert and having all the answers

Leadership is about having all the questions and getting the best out of experts; if you know more than those around you, you have the wrong people around you.

Myth n°5 Leadership can be taken away from you

You can give up your leadership, but it cannot be taken away.

Leadership is incarnated through everything you say and do; it is not until you decide to stop saying things and stop doing things that you will stop having an influence on others.

The post Five Leadership myths. appeared first on BobLarcher.

The majority of my work has been within the corporate sector, but I have also worked with charities, SMI’s, Start Ups and the public sector; I have worked widely in Europe, and I do what I do either in English (my first language) or French (mon deuxième langue depuis presque 35 ans).

Without blowing my own trumpet, I like to think that I am quite good at what I do; I have been working with some of my clients for over 30 years – so I guess I must be doing something right.

My Leadership Transformation Conversations are a mix of coaching, training, advising and discussing around real leadership issues, either face-to-face or via Zoom, Teams, GMeet ……

I can be used as a “sounding board”, a “sparring partner”, a speech writer, voice coach, or whatever you need to enable you get the solutions you need to solve your leadership issues; be they personal, organisational or societal.

I am trained and accredited for a variety of “personality” questionnaires; leadership, Mental Toughness, team working, 360°’s, Jungian types ……. and I am familiar with most of the major “inventories” used within the world of people development.

I offer a “one-off” Leadership Transformation Conversation for those who simply need to sound out their ideas, through to a series of scheduled Leadership Transformation Conversations for those who feel the need for more depth and time to reflect on their issues.

The longer sessions can include

• initial context alignment session
• email and text messaging support
• simulations
• between-session “homework”
• in-promptu calls as needed
• personality assessments and debriefings
• journaling and goal tracking

Here are some things people have written on their coach assessment forms at the end of my coaching sessions with them

“Felt good right from the start, Bob created a good and trustworthy environment”

“Good and focussed feedback at the end of the role plays”

“Bob has really helped me in my development”

“From a very early point in the coaching I gained confidence and trust in the coach”

“Bob has a very down to earth and pragmatic approach”

“Bob provided some really useful insights as to how I could more effectively influence my stakeholders”

If you would like to engage in a game changing Leadership Transformation Conversation, then do not hesitate to contact me by mail at boblarcher@boblarcher.com for a free chat.

I do not charge for an initial discussion and I will not pester you with marketing if it doesn’t work out between us.

The post Leadership Transformation Conversation appeared first on BobLarcher.

If you have to spend all your time telling your team what to do, when to do, where to do, how to do, and who to do it with …. you have a problem.

If you have been promoted to team leader or manager because you are the best at what your team does, you have been promoted for the wrong reasons.

The days of the expert manager, who knows better than all of those around her or him are long gone.

The role of a manager today is not to have all the answers, but to be able to find all the answers; again, if you are more intelligent than the collective of intelligence of your team, you have the wrong people in your team.

Clearly, there are some limits; not knowing anything about the “subject matter” of what your team does can create credibility issues. However, between knowing nothing and being the expert, leaves room for manoeuvre.

The role of a manager today is to maximise the team’s autonomy in organising, carrying out, and developing the work they do.

Does your team have autonomy in carrying out its activities? Are team members autonomous in implementing their skills to carry out the tasks that are assigned to in compliance with the requirements to be met? Or do you have to be on their backs making sure everything is ok?

Does your team have autonomy in organising activities? Are team members autonomous in identifying the tasks to be carried out and distributing them among the team while setting objectives and parameters for their achievement? Or do you have to define, structure and schedule the work to be carried out?

Does your team have autonomy in the management of internal and external relations? Are team members autonomous in interacting with the internal services on which they depend to carry out their activities as well as with external service providers, clients and partners? Or does all communication have to be validated and go through you?

Does your team have autonomy in the evolution of their way of working? Are team members autonomous in developing their way of working; improving processes or procedures, identifying new skills required and associated training programs, etc.? Or is it you that initiates change and transformation in the way of working?

Being a team manager is less about being a “manager expert” directing a “team of resources” and more about being a “manager resource” supporting a “team of experts”.

Any thoughts?

The post From Manager Expert to Manager Resource appeared first on BobLarcher.

A champion mindset is one that looks for new ways to think about adversity, and most importantly, looks for fresh ways to look at problems and roadblocks. Champions look at life with a sense of urgency and respond to the challenges of the changing face of business with innovation and curiosity.

Research into champions be they in sports, the arts or business, highlight the following characteristics:

• They have a strong belief in themselves (Confidence)
• They do not give up, they are committed to success (Commitment)
• They learn to take control of and manage all aspects of their activity (Control)
• When they experience failures or setbacks, it motivates them (Challenge)

Not only that, but all champions have a powerful team supporting them.

Mental Toughness is defined as “a narrow, plastic personality trait which helps to explain how individuals respond to stress, pressure, opportunity and challenge, irrespective of circumstance”.

Mental Toughness provides champions with the emotional competence to manage their behavioural response when under stress and their ability to be effective.

Mental Toughness ensures champions have the engagement to see commitments through to a successful conclusion.

Mental Toughness enables champions to step outside their comfort zone, take on challenges and learn from the outcomes.

Mental Toughness gives champions the self-confidence to stand up to detractors and maintain dialogue under difficult conditions.

Developing a mentally tough organisation starts with developing mentally tough individuals; individuals who have the self-confidence to take up a challenge and the self-control to stay committed to achieve success.

The language, messages, and feedback senior leaders convey to their staff, both explicitly and implicitly can have a profound impact on the enhancement of how people embrace and develop key mental skills; hence, this individual development needs to start at the peak of the organisation.

Once people are aware of the importance of Mental Toughness to individual performance and wellbeing; development can be implemented “collectively” – the strength of a team’s mindset will impact the quality of their performance.

On an organisational level, Mental Toughness contributes to creating a distinct performance environment that enables the organisation to adapt, innovate, and ultimately win and sustain competitive advantage.

Deploying Mental Toughness throughout an organisation will require the embedding of “mental skills” within the organisation’s values.

If people have a “best in market attitude”, they will show “best in market behaviours”.

If you would like to discuss how Mental Toughness can help your organisation to become the best in what it does, do not hesitate to contact me!

The post Organisational Mental Toughness appeared first on BobLarcher.

Quand on dit qu’une personne a fait preuve d’une grande Force Mentale pour surmonter un défi, ce n’est pas la Force Mentale qui a été démontrée, mais le résultat de cette Force Mentale.

La Force Mentale se cache dans les 80 % de l’iceberg de la personnalité qui se trouvent sous la ligne de flottaison ; elle est là, avec nos valeurs, nos croyances, nos expériences, nos pulsions et bien d’autres choses encore.

La Force Mentale est invisible, mais son impact est bien visible !

Son impact se manifeste dans les 20 % émergents de la personnalité : dans nos paroles et nos actes, dans ce que nous disons et faisons.

La Force Mentale est considérée par les psychologues comme une attitude, créée par la combinaison de nos croyances et de nos expériences.

Si vos professeurs, vos amis et votre famille vous disent, par exemple, que vous êtes nul en maths, il y a de fortes chances que vous finissiez par croire que vous l’êtes effectivement.

Cependant, cette croyance et cette attitude peuvent évoluer, comme l’ont démontré Albert Einstein et John Gurdon ; le premier a été décrit par un professeur comme quelqu’un qui “n’arriverait jamais à rien dans la vie” et le second s’est vu dire par un professeur que son travail était “loin d’être satisfaisant” et que ses rêves de devenir scientifique étaient “assez ridicules” ; tous deux ont par la suite reçu un prix Nobel scientifique.

La Force Mentale est l’attitude qui nous donne la confiance nécessaire pour relever un défi et le contrôle nécessaire pour tenir nos engagements.

La Force Mentale n’a rien à voir avec les biceps, les triceps, la testostérone et autres, et s’applique à tous les domaines de la vie. Les grands musiciens, les grands danseurs, les grands scientifiques, les grands orateurs, les grands athlètes et, en fait, tous ceux qui ont persévéré jusqu’à devenir très performants dans leur domaine, possèdent une grande Force Mentale.

La Force Mentale repose sur quatre piliers, chacun reposant sur deux fondations.

Ces quatre piliers sont : Défi, Engagement, Maîtrise et Confiance ; cependant, ce sont ces fondations qui confèrent à chaque pilier sa force et sa stabilité.

Les fondements du Défi, sont la volonté de sortir de sa ou ses zones de confort et de relever un défi, ainsi que la volonté de prendre le temps d’apprendre de l’expérience, tant de ses succès que de ses échecs.

L’Engagement repose sur la définition d’objectifs clairs concernant le défi entrepris et sur la concentration et la détermination à les atteindre.

Le Défi et l’Engagement sont tournés vers l’extérieur et c’est là que réside l’une des différences entre Résilience et Force Mentale.

La Résilience et la Force Mentale concernent toutes deux la capacité à gérer mentalement et émotionnellement une crise. La Résilience est davantage une réaction face à un défi lorsqu’il se présente, tandis que la Force Mentale est plus proactive et consiste à rechercher le défi.

Le pilier Maitrise repose sur le contrôle que nous avons sur notre vie et notre maîtrise de soi dans les situations difficiles. Le Contrôle de Vie concerne la mesure dans laquelle nous prenons nos décisions importantes en fonction de nos propres valeurs, objectifs, rêves, espoirs et désirs, tandis que la maîtrise de soi, ou Contrôle Émotionnel, concerne notre capacité à canaliser l’énergie émotionnelle générée par les défis vers quelque chose de positif.

Le pilier Confiance trouve ses racines dans la Confiance Interpersonnelle. Notre capacité à rester assertif et à interagir avec un large éventail de personnes, qu’elles soient plus qualifiées, mieux rémunérées, plus expérimentées, etc.

Le deuxième pilier de la Confiance est la Confiance en nos capacités, pas seulement la “connaissance de notre sujet”, mais la certitude de le connaître ; savoir dans quoi nous excellons et avoir confiance en nos capacités.

En résumé

Les personnes mentalement fortes sont résilientes, tandis que les personnes résilientes ne le sont pas nécessairement.

Le défi, c’est être optimiste et curieux ; ce n’est pas être téméraire et fermé.

L’engagement, c’est être concentré et déterminé ; ce n’est pas être borné et têtu.

Le contrôle, c’est être décisif et calme ; ce n’est pas être dogmatique et froid.

La confiance, c’est être assertif et ancré dans ses valeurs ; ce n’est pas être agressif et arrogant.

La Force Mentale, jusqu’à récemment, était un concept assez intangible et difficile à mesurer.

Aujourd’hui, nous savons ce que c’est et disposons de méthodes fiables pour déterminer les niveaux de Force Mentale. Certes, nous possédons tous une certaine Force Mentale, certains plus, d’autres moins, mais nous possédons tous un certain degré de Force Mentale, chacun avec des niveaux variables.

Des études ont montré que la Force Mentale suit une courbe de distribution normale : certaines personnes en ont une très faible, d’autres une très élevée, et la plupart ont une Force Mentale moyenne. En réalité, la plupart d’entre nous possèdent le niveau de Force Mentale nécessaire pour affronter la plupart des épreuves du quotidien.

Pour développer sa Force Mentale, il faut commencer par explorer ses fondements et identifier son ou ses maillons faibles.

Novak Djokovic est un bon exemple de quelqu’un ayant (ou ayant eu) un maillon faible. Djokovic possède clairement une Force Mentale élevée ; sans elle, on ne peut prétendre au titre de GOAT de sa discipline. Cependant, après plusieurs crises émotionnelles lors de matchs importants, il a admis avoir laissé ses émotions négatives l’entraver dans sa performance et a commencé à travailler sur des techniques et des méthodes qui lui ont permis de prendre conscience de ses émotions et de mieux les gérer pendant les matchs.

Il existe deux façons d’explorer la solidité de nos fondations. La première consiste simplement à se poser quelques questions et à y répondre honnêtement : suis-je vraiment maître de ma vie ? Est-ce que je me remets régulièrement en question ? Est-ce que je reste calme dans les situations difficiles, etc.

La deuxième méthode, plus fiable, consiste à utiliser un questionnaire psychométrique reconnu et validé, tel que le MTQPlus. Ce questionnaire explore non seulement les fondations, mais fournit également des suggestions concrètes de développement, adaptées à vos résultats.

Une fois que vous avez identifié vos forces et vos faiblesses, vous pouvez commencer à les développer et à surmonter vos faiblesses.

La force mentale peut être développée, mais elle ne se fait pas du jour au lendemain ; il s’agit souvent d’une accumulation de petits changements qu’il faut maintenir consciemment jusqu’à ce qu’ils deviennent une seconde nature.

Le changement d’attitude naît de l’expérience, de la réussite là où il n’y avait auparavant que des échecs ; cela conduit à un changement d’état d’esprit : passer du “je ne peux pas faire” au “je peux faire”.

Pour citer Heny Ford : “Que vous pensiez pouvoir y arriver ou non, vous avez généralement raison.”

Si vous souhaitez explorer les fondements de votre force mentale, vous pouvez me contacter à l’adresse boblarcher@boblarcher.com ; j’accompagne les individus et les équipes à développer leur Force Mentale depuis près de 40 ans.

The post Comprendre la Force Mentale appeared first on BobLarcher.

When you hear someone saying that a certain person “showed great Mental Toughness to overcome a challenge”; it’s not Mental Toughness that was shown, but the result of Mental Toughness.

Mental Toughness is hidden in the 80% of the personality iceberg that is below the waterline; it’s down there with our values, our beliefs, our experiences, our impulses, our pulsion’s and whole lot of other stuff.

Mental Toughness is invisible, but its impact is highly visible!

Its impact is seen in the emerged 20% of the personality; in our words and deeds, what we say and do.

Mental Toughness is considered by psychologists to be an attitude; created through a combination of our beliefs and experiences.

If you are told, for example, by your teachers, friends and family that you are useless at maths, there is a good chance that you will come to believe that you are, indeed, useless at maths.

However, this belief and attitude can change, as was shown by both Albert Einstein and John Gurdon; the first was described by a teacher as someone who, “would never get anywhere in life” and the second was told by a teacher that his work was “far from satisfactory” and that his dreams of becoming a scientist were “quite ridiculous” – both went on to become winners of the Nobel Prize.

Mental Toughness is the attitude that gives us the confidence to take on a challenge and the control to see our commitments through.

Mental Toughness has nothing to do with biceps, triceps, testosterone and the like and it applies in all walks of life; great musicians, great dancers, great scientists, great public speakers, great athletes and, in fact, anyone who has stayed the distance to become very good at what they do, have high Mental Toughness.

Mental Toughness is built on four pillars, each with two foundations.

The four pillars are often referred to a the 4C’s; Challenge, Commitment, Control and Confidence; however, it is the foundations that give each pillar its strength and stability.

The foundations of Challenge, sometimes called the “Have a go” attitude, are a willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone, or comfort zones, and take on something challenging & the willingness to take time to learn from the experience, both from success and failure.

Commitment, or “Stickability”, is built on defining clear objectives with regards to the challenge undertaken & staying focussed and determined to achieve them.

Challenge and Commitment are “outward” focussed and it is here that lies one of the differences between Resilience and Mental Toughness.

Both Resilience and Mental Toughness are about being able to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis; Resilience is more a reaction to a challenge when it arises, whereas Mental Toughness is more proactive and is about seeking out a challenge.

The “Can do” or Control pillar sits upon the control we have of our lives and our self-control in difficult (challenging) situations. Life Control is about the degree to which we make our major life decisions based on our own values, objectives, dreams, hopes and desires whereas our self-control, or Emotional Control, is about our ability to channel the emotional energy created, when challenged, into something positive.

The Confidence pillar, our Self-belief pillar, has its roots in Interpersonal Confidence; our ability to remain assertive and be able to interact with a wide range of different people, be they more qualified, better paid, more experienced, etc.

The second foundation of the Confidence pillar is Confidence in our capacities, not just “knowing our stuff” but knowing that we know our stuff; knowing what we are good at and being confident in what we are dealing with.

To summarise

Mentally tough people are resilient whereas resilient people are not necessarily mentally tough.

Challenge is about being optimistic & curious; it is not about being reckless & closed.

Commitment is about being focussed & determined; it is not about being blinkered & stubborn.

Control is about being decisive & calm; it is not about being dogmatic & cold.

Confidence is about being assertive & grounded; it is not about being aggressive & arrogant.

Mental Toughness, until quite recently, has been quite an intangible concept and difficult to measure. Today, we know what it is and we have reliable methods for determining levels of Mental Toughness and yes, we all have a certain amount of Mental Toughness, some people may have more, and some people may have less but we all have a degree of Mental Toughness, we all have varying levels of “Can do”, “Stickability”, “Have a go” and “Self-belief”.

Studies have shown that Mental Toughness follows a normal distribution curve, some people have very low amounts, some people have very high amounts, and most people have an “average” amount of Mental Toughness. In fact, most of us have the level of Mental Toughness that we need to get through the majority of our daily storms.

The starting point to developing Mental Toughness is in exploring the foundations and identify our weak link or links.

A good example of someone with (or who had) a weak link is Novak Djokovic. Djokovic clearly has high Mental Toughness, you don’t get to be considered a contender for  the GOAT in your discipline without it; however, after several emotional outbursts during important matches, he admitted that he was letting his own, negative, emotions get in the way of his performance and he began working on techniques & methods that allowed him to be aware of his emotions and manage them better during matches.

There are two ways of exploring the solidity of our foundations, the first is simply by asking oneself some questions and answering them honestly; Am I really in charge of my life? Do I challenge myself regularly? Do I stay calm in difficult situation, etc.

The second, and more reliable way, is to use a recognised & validated psychometric questionnaire such as the MTQPlus; a questionnaire that not only explores the foundations but also provides concrete developmental suggestion aligned to your results.

Once you know where your strengths and weaknesses lie, you can start building on your strengths and overcoming your weaknesses.

Mental Toughness can clearly be developed, but it doesn’t happen “overnight”; it is often an aggregation of small changes that must be maintained, consciously, until they become second nature.

Attitudinal change comes from experience, experiencing success where there was once only failure; this leads to a mind shift from “can’t do” to “can do”.

To quote Heny Ford, “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right”

If you would like to explore the foundations of your Mental Toughness, you can contact me at boblarcher@boblarcher.com; I have been helping individuals and teams develop their Mental Toughness for almost 40 years now.

The post Understanding Mental Toughness appeared first on BobLarcher.

As I wrote in a previous article (www.boblarcher.com/mental-toughness/mental-toughness-the-end-of-an-era/), Mental Toughness is made up from four components, or pillars – Confidence, Challenge, Commitment and Control.

Each of these pillars is built on two foundations and it is the foundations that affect how you do at work, your relationships, how you handle setbacks, even how you reach your goals.

In this article I will focus on the Commitment pillar.

Commitment is built on the foundations of Goal Orientation and Achievement Orientation.

Goal orientation is about setting clear goals, goals that give you a sense of direction as to where you want to go, it’s not just like, I want to be successful, it’s more concrete, more specific.

Those with low Goal Orientation tend to be intimidated by goals and targets and try to avoid them. They focus on what comes along often attack intangibles and feel dispersed getting lost in trivia that is neither important nor urgent.

Those with high Goal Orientation tend to enjoy setting goals and objectives, in particular objectives that stretch them. They define “specifically” what is to be achieved and plan activities with daily “to do lists” of essential things to do; they focus on “micro” deliverables that will contribute to their priorities.

Setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and trackable objectives is on the starting point of the commitment pillar, the determination to succeed pillar, Achievement Orientation, is about actually getting things done. Putting in the work, day after day.

Even when it’s not fun, showing up even when you don’t feel like it. The ability to persevere is a big part of Achievement Orientation, unlike the search for instant gratification that seems to be everywhere today.

Those with low Achievement Orientation tend to allow themselves to be distracted and find reasons to miss the target, they give up easily when they encounter difficulties seeing obstacles as problems. They are often poor at managing their time, tackling non-essential activities rather than concentrating on what will move things forward.

Those with high Achievement Orientation tend to see effort as a path to success and persist for long periods even in the face of setbacks seeing obstacles as opportunities. They prioritise their activities concentrating their effort and energy on things that matter.

Again, it is the contribution of both foundations to the commitment pillar.

Those low in both Goal Orientation and Achievement Orientation don’t really set objectives for themselves and are not motivated to make an effort when they have to do something.

Those low in Goal Orientation and high Achievement Orientation set few objectives but get satisfaction from doing a good job.

Those high in Goal Orientation and low in Achievement Orientation enjoy setting objectives and planning what will happen but often give up easily when trying to achieve them.

Those high in both Goal Orientation and Achievement Orientation Not only do set (often ambitious) objectives but maintain focus and determination in achieving them.

So, the commitment pillar is all about setting clear objectives and maintaining focus to achieve them.

If you are curious to know more about Mental Toughness you can take a look at more articles here www.boblarcher.com/category/mental-toughness/.

And, if you would like to measure and start developing your mental toughness, do not hesitate to contact me at boblarcher@boblarcher.com

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