In addition to hard work and a generous dollop of luck, we all know that success on the job requires brains. We measure the latter by IQ.
Over the past few years, we’ve come to learn that success also requires EQ – emotional intelligence. That’s the capacity to behave maturely and empathetically.
Now comes word that success at the workplace also is a function of having a high AQ, or Adversity Quotient. Paul G. Stoltz has been studying how people deal with adversity for 20 years, and has written two books on the subject. His latest, “Adversity Quotient @ Work,” applies his principles to the workplace.
According to Stoltz, the way you respond to frustration, bad luck, and people and things that go wrong comprises your adversity quotient. He groups AQ into four dimensions: control, ownership, reach and endurance.
People with high AQs perceive themselves as having more control and influence in adverse situations than those with lower AQs. Even in situations that seem overwhelming or out of their hands, high AQs invariably find or interpret some part of the situation to be under their control. Low AQs usually give up.
Ownership involves the extent to which you hold yourself responsible for improving a situation. High AQs, as you would imagine, hold themselves accountable for dealing with situations regardless of the cause, while lower AQs lapse into victimization and helplessness.
Reach involves putting setbacks into their place, and not letting them undermine the healthy areas of work and the rest of one’s life. Example: a low AQ worker does poorly on a project and starts thinking he or she is stupid and will be a failure. A high AQ worker tries to learn from the mistake and believes the next project will be better.
Endurance is the ability to see beyond even enormous difficulties and maintain hope. Higher AQ people have the ability to feel “this too shall pass,” and go on. Lower AQs see adversity as dragging on indefinitely.
Stoltz believes that most people are “Campers,” the 80 percent of the population who have middle-range AQs. They aren’t what he calls Quitters, who give up, catastrophize and blow up even minor difficulties. Campers have some capacity for challenge and change, but they tend to get overwhelmed when adversity piles up and resort to blame when tired or tense.
Stoltz calls high AQ types Climbers, and he believes we can mold ourselves into having their successful outlook by carefully analyzing our internal dialogs and editing what we tell ourselves. Low AQs, Stoltz observes, have negative, usually irrational, dialogs going on in their heads that don’t permit them to break out of the mental boxes they’ve unknowingly created for themselves. This negative thinking pattern prevents them from taking steps to make things better.
Like the old song says, when things go wrong you’ve got to “pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.” If we follow Stoltz’s advice and re-educate that inner voice that’s telling us “aw, what’s the use,” we’ll be well on our way to a high AQ.
Article – Copyright 2000 Evan Cooper. Syndicated by ParadigmTSA
