The Adversity Quotient @ Work By Paul G. Stoltz Morrow, 316 pages, $39.50 Managing Anger By Gael Lindenfield Thorsons, 199 pages, $15.50 Life is a series of adversities, some large and some small. On average, we face 23 adversities a day and how well we handle them is the best predictor of success available, according to Paul Stoltz, who wrote The Adversity Quotient a few years ago and has now followed up with The Adversity Quotient @ Work.
He divides individuals in the workplace into three camps: Quitters, Campers and Climbers. The Quitters retired a few years ago but never bothered to tell anybody. The Campers are ex-climbers, who get the job done sufficiently but have lost their edge and don't strive as hard or sacrifice as much as in the past. Climbers are tenacious, dedicated to lifelong ascent, and have internal operating systems that lead them to push past the adversity they encounter.
The book contains a short test to determine your Adversity Quotient, or AQ. It's composed of four core elements, which you can remember through the acronym CORE:
C for control: To what extent do you believe you can positively influence an adverse situation or at least control your own response?
O for ownership: To what extent do you take it upon yourself to improve the adverse situation, regardless of its cause and even if your own role in creating the difficulty was limited or zilch.
R for reach: How far do you let the adversity push into other areas of your life, eroding effectiveness?
E is for endurance: How long -- or, preferably, short -- do you perceive the adversity persisting?
Your AQ is not static; it can be improved. The book has a handy formula for leading you to handle adversity better, conveniently called the LEAD sequence.
You must learn to Listen to your CORE response when you hit adversity, interrupting your traditional pattern of response if it's poor. Then you must Establish accountability, determining which part of the adverse situation you are responsible for improving -- to even a minor degree. Next, Analyze the situation to determine what evidence suggests the adversity has to be out of your control and last a long time. Finally, Do something to start overcoming the adversity.
Much of that was covered in Mr. Stoltz's initial book. But in the latest effort, he takes his ideas into the realm of work, most successfully by showing how to integrate AQ into hiring. Beyond formally testing for AQ, he suggests working AQ into behavioural interviews; devising adverse challenges for applicants to overcome in scenario interviewing, such as facing a simulated technology failure, and using it in background checks probing about the individual's ability to handle adversity.
Bruce Merrick, president and CEO of Dant Clayton, a stadium-seating manufacturer, says, "I try to find three examples of adversity a candidate has faced and successfully overcome before I will even consider hiring that person."
But even if they were ultimately successful, you want to dig deeper, searching for how they reacted initially to the adversity -- determining if they take control and psychologically limit the impact of the adversity on themselves and colleagues.
The book also explains how to evaluate and improve the AQ of your teams and how to build a climbing culture. The power of AQ is considerable and if you can climb past the book's main adversity -- the overabundance of acronyms, analogies and clichés -- you can probably gain some helpful tools for yourself and your workplace.
Adversity often causes anger, of course, and although Mr. Stoltz's book doesn't deal directly with that emotion, Gael Lindenfield offers an excellent self-help guide in Managing Anger. Almost everybody, she notes, has difficulty handling anger -- be it buried or articulated -- and she explains how to express it in an assertive, healthy and controlled manner (as well as how to deal with other people's anger).
The book is particularly useful for those who hold in their anger, perhaps thinking that they don't have any. It explores the physical and emotional toil of niceness, and takes you through the unresolved anger of childhood.
If you tend to explode, she offers a four-step solution. Distance yourself from the situation physically, be it by moving back a step, leaning back in your chair, or leaving the room. Distract your brain, perhaps by counting all the blue objects in the room or searching for as many circles as you can see. Release tension, clenching and unclenching your toes or your fists behind your back. And then try some deep breathing exercises to further soothe your pulse. Related Reading: Forbes Great Success Stories by Alan Farnham (John Wiley & Sons, 271 pages, $36.95) presents 12 tales of victory wrested from defeat in business, featuring figures such as Tom Monaghan of Domino's Pizza, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Don King, the boxing impresario. In When Life Gives You Lemons (McGraw-Hill, 281 pages, $26.95) Alex Tresniowski provides 16 stories of people overcoming adversity, such as Michael Ain, a 4-feet-3-inch tall orthopedic surgeon; TV star Sally Jessy Raphael and speed skater Dan Jansen. Harvey Schachter is a freelance writer based in Kingston. his@kos.net
Harvey Schachter