DELIVERING RESULTS
Tenacity and Stress Tolerance
The behaviours in the table below show how you can demonstrate the skill of Tenacity and Stress Tolerance at each of the competency levels in which it appears. Click on the plus sign to show the behaviours at that level.
Level 1
- Shows determination and tenacity when facing problems; does not give up easily.
Level 2
- Maintains positive relationships even under stressful conditions.
- Shows determination and tenacity and remains calm, focused, and constructive when situations become stressful, or difficult.
Level 3
- Removes barriers to allow focus on organisation-critical activities.
- Visibly maintains a focus on the end goal during periods of uncertainty.
Resources
Below you will find learning resources to help you develop the skill of Tenacity and Stress Tolerance. Click on the links to access the resources.
This PDF explains what emotions are physiologically and how we notice/process them, before explaining how we can use this information to manage them in ourselves and others.
Categories of Negative Emotion
This PDF will help you to begin to notice what kind of negative emotions you are experiencing at work and to choose particular coping strategies depending on which negative emotions you are experiencing.
Be Logical!
This PDF covers the logical levels of information, a system we unconsciously use to categorise significance and impact (environmental up to identity). It will help you to understand the impact of how we say things, as well as give more intentional and specific feedback to get the most out of your team.
Ideal Actual Ought Model
The ‘Ideal Actual Ought’ model is a tool that outlines three different ways of viewing ourselves: the ‘Ideal’ (how you would like to be); the ‘Actual’ (how you really are); and the ‘Ought’ (how you feel you should be). When these three identities don’t align (for example, you would ideally be more organised, but you’re actually quite disorganised) it can cause stress, distractions, and behaviours that negatively impact you. Becoming aware of how you view yourself in these different ways will help you address these problems, enabling you to become more effective, focused, and calm.
How Do Values Work?
This PDF explains what values are and why they are important, as well as how they impact behaviour and relationships. Values underpin a lot of beliefs and attitudes, and can often be a source of conflict. Understanding how they work will enable you to tap into a person’s motivation and lead them more effectively.
Making Values Work
In this PDF you will discover techniques and suggested phrases to help you use values in various situations. This builds on the information covered in ‘How Do Values Work?’, in which the nature of values is explained.
Habits of Resilience
This PDF explains what resilience is and provides a technique for you start to build your resilience. It will help you to highlight methods you already use to increase resilience and to add new methods.
Managing Challenges Effectively - Serenity Prayer
Use this to help you gain perspective over what you are able to control and change, and what is beyond your control.
Challenge Analysis
Use this to determine what challenges you currently have, what resources you have to deal with these challenges, and the gap between challenge and resource.
How To Say No
Use this technique when allocated new tasks or a new role, so that you can confidently pause and, possibly, raise objections e.g. to ask for necessary time and/or resources. It will help you get the space you need to adjust properly and adapt to new challenges.
VIDEOS
Trust Your Emotions
This video systematically explains what emotions are, what they are made up from, how they work, and why they matter. It will especially help you if you are worried by emotions, think they show weakness, or lose respect if someone else appears to be ‘emotional’. Emotions are signals of threat or reward, so it’s really helpful to understand them, regulate and balance them. This is possible for you and for others when you pay attention to and trust your emotions.
Be Logical
This video explains how you automatically organise information about yourself into a logical hierarchy of importance and how the type of statement you make to others, or to yourself about yourself can affect how you feel and how you respond. For example, it’s best to make positive comments at the highest ‘Identity’ level “you are…” and to make critical comments at the lowest specific level such as ‘Behaviour’ or ‘Method’. Understanding these levels will give you greater control over how you communicate with others and will enable you to help yourself, or someone else to change their behaviour.
Be Your Best Self
This video explains three different ways of viewing ourselves: the ‘Ideal’ (how you would like to be); the ‘Actual’ (how you really are); and the ‘Ought’ (how you feel you should be). When these three identities don’t align (for example, you would ideally be more organised, but you’re actually quite disorganised) it can cause stress, distractions, and behaviours that negatively impact you. Becoming aware of how you view yourself in these different ways will help you address these problems, enabling you to become more effective, focused, and calm.
How Do Values Work?
This video explains what values are and why they are important. Values underpin behaviours, beliefs, emotions, motivations, and attitudes. Learn how to recognise and find out your own and others’ values and build them into how you understand yourself, how you understand and approach others, and how they enable you to motivate, lead and manage more effectively.
Making Values Work
This video builds on the information covered in ‘How Do Values Work?’, in which the nature of values is explained. In this video you will discover techniques, questions to ask, and suggested phrases to help you use values in various situations such as influencing and handling conflict.
Autonomy Questions
This video identifies useful questions to ask in order to clarify task requirements more effectively. It can help you if you are confused about the level of autonomy you want or have; or if you are unable to make decisions in situations that affect you. Also if you are having difficulty managing your time effectively, or where you are experiencing a feeling of inability to cope. The questions show you a process to help yourself or your team members who might also be experiencing some of these problems.
Levels of Strain
This video, (presented by a Professor of Applied Neuroscience) explains how there are different levels of stress and strain, (helpful, tolerable, and toxic), how they manifest in the body and the brain, how to recognise the different levels, and gives you some ideas about how to help yourself, and others, to alleviate strain and stress.
Managing Upwards
If you find that you are receiving conflicting direction from your senior leaders about the work you and your team are expected to do, this video covers ways in which you can manage this. It also explains symptoms of conflicting messages so that you can easily identify if this is happening to you or one of your team members.
ON THE JOB ACTIONS
Build Your Resilience
Watch the video Be Your Best Self to create an anchor for confidence and resilience. This makes positive changes to your brain, strengthens your sense of self, and is calming. You can reinforce this daily with very little effort.
Read and/or watch Trust Your Emotions to identify and calibrate any emotional responses that might be negatively affecting you. Categories of Negative Emotions also gives you a perspective from applied neuroscience.
Read and/or watch Be Logical so that you understand why it’s important when you are stressed to talk positively to yourself about your values and methods, and sense of self, and restrict any negative self-talk to behaviours only.
Read and/or watch How Do Values Work and Making Values Work to gain insight into which of your values are negatively affected during a stressful period and why. You will be better able to get perspective and articulate the cause of your stress to yourself (e.g. to relieve some of the stress) and to explain your situation to others e.g. when you ask for help.
Read Habits of Resilience for ideas about how to make small daily changes to increase your resilience.
Notice how you feel in situations as well as what you are thinking. Learn to use positive thoughts to control your emotional reactions by reading the Serenity Prayer.
Watch Levels of Strain to understand from a brain and physical point of view how you and your team might be experiencing stress, get ideas for alleviating it, and how to use it better.
Read Challenge Analysis to use a process for working out what is challenging you currently and ahead, and how to re-think it.
Read How to Say No to use a process for saying no without causing you extra stress. This might be necessary for reducing a feeling of overwhelm.