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#517
from Innovative
Leader Volume 10, Number 2
February 2001 Your
Adversity Quotient Dr.
Stoltz is president and CEO of PEAK Learning, Inc., a consulting
and research firm in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Email info@peaklearning.com;
www.peaklearning.com
. He is author of Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities (Wiley, New
York, 1997) and Adversity
Quotient@Work (Morrow, New York, 2000). How many adverse
events do you experience on your average day?
Are you consumed by these events or are you letting them
lead to stronger performance?
I developed the Adversity Quotient (AQ) to test the
unconscious pattern of how people respond to adversity, and show
how to increase it and, thereby, help individuals become valuable
at work. Adversity
Response Profile Imagine the
following events as if they were happening right now.
Then circle the number that represents your answer to each
of the related questions. You suffer a
financial setback. You are
overlooked for a promotion. You are
criticized for a big project that you just completed. You accidentally
delete an important email. The high-priority
project you are working on gets canceled. Someone you
respect ignores your attempt to discuss an important issue. People respond
unfavorably to your latest ideas. You are unable to
take a much-needed vacation. You hit every red
light on your way to an important appointment. After extensive
searching, you cannot find an important document. You workplace is
understaffed. You miss an
important appointment. You personal and
work obligations are out of balance. You never seem to
have enough money. You are not
exercising regularly though you know you should. Your organization
is not meeting its goals. Your computer
crashed for the third time this week. The meeting you
are in is a total waste of time. You lost
something that is important to you. Your boss
adamantly disagrees with your decision. Scoring Your AQ response
is comprised of four CORE dimensions.
Understanding them is the first step toward improving your
response to adversity, expanding your capacity, and, ultimately,
increasing your overall AQ. Insert each of
the 20 numbers you circled on the Adversity Response Profile in
the corresponding boxes that appear below.
Then insert the total for each column in the corresponding
box. Add the four totals and then multiply that number by two for
your final score. C
O
R
E 1. ___ 2.
___
3. ___
4. ___ 7. ___ 6.
___
5. ___
8. ___ 13.___
11.___
9. ___
10.___ 15.___
16.___
12.___
14.___ 17.___
18.___
20.___
19.___ Total C =___
Total O =___ Total R =___ Total
E =___ Total C+O+R+E x 2
= ARP Score =________ The average ARP
score is 147.5. What’s
your score? The
higher the better. Now, look at your
CORE breakdown and determine which aspects of the AQ you need to
improve. C
= Control To
what extent can you influence the situation? How
much control do you perceive you have? Those with higher
AQs perceive they have significantly more control and influence in
adverse situations than do those with lower AQs.
Even in situations that appear overwhelming or out of their
hands, those with higher AQs find some facet of the situation they
can influence. Those
with lower AQs respond as if they have little or no control and
often give up. O
= Ownership To
what extent do you hold yourself responsible for improving this
situation? To
what extent are you accountable to play some role in making it
better? Accountability is
the backbone of action. Those
with higher AQs hold themselves accountable for dealing with
situations regardless of their cause.
Those with lower AQs deflect accountability and most often
feel victimized and helpless. R
= Reach How
far does the fallout of this situation reach into other areas of
your work or life? To
what extent does the adversity extend beyond the situation at
hand? Keeping the
fallout under control and limiting the reach of adversity is
essential for efficient and effective problem solving.
Those with higher AQs keep setbacks and challenges in their
place, not letting them infest the healthy areas of their work and
lives. Those with
lower AQs tend to catastrophize, allowing a setback in one area to
bleed into other, unrelated areas and become destructive. E
= Endurance How
long will the adversity endure? Seeing beyond
even enormous difficulties is an essential skill for maintaining
hope. Those with
higher AQs have the uncanny ability to see past the most
interminable difficulties and maintain hope and optimism.
Those with lower AQs see adversity as dragging on
indefinitely, if not permanently. |
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