In his enlightening conversation with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Scott Mautz, founder and CEO of Profound Performance™ and author of “The Mentally Strong Leader,” delves into the critical importance of mental strength in leadership. Scott differentiates mental strength from emotional intelligence by highlighting its broader spectrum, which includes the ability to self-regulate emotions, thoughts, and behaviors across various demanding scenarios. He outlines six “mental muscles” essential for leadership effectiveness: fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision-making, goal-focus, and positive messaging. Drawing from his research with 3,000 executives, Scott identifies a strong correlation between high-performing organizations and leaders who exhibit these mental strengths. His book offers a Mental Strength Self-Assessment, providing leaders with a practical toolkit to identify and enhance their mental muscle areas. Scott emphasizes habit formation as a core principle for strengthening mental fortitude, offering actionable tools and systems within his book to help leaders cultivate these essential skills, thereby enabling them to navigate the complexities of today’s business environment more effectively.
SCOTT MAUTZ, author of THE MENTALLY STRONG LEADER, is the founder and CEO of Profound Performance™, a keynote, training, and coaching company. Mautz is a former Procter & Gamble executive who successfully ran four of the company’s largest multi-billion dollar businesses, he is also the multi award-winning author of Leading from the Middle, Find the Fire, and Make It Matter. Mautz has been named a “CEO Thought-leader” by The Chief Executives Guild and a “Top 50 Leadership Innovator” by Inc.com, He is faculty on reserve at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business for Executive Education and is a top instructor at LinkedIn Learning. He lives in San Diego.
Scott, in your book THE MENTALLY STRONG LEADER, you describe mental strength as a leadership superpower. Can you elaborate on what mental strength entails and how it differentiates from related concepts like emotional intelligence?
Mental strength is the ability to self-regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve productive outcomes, even in adversity. It’s about managing yourself internally, so you can lead externally. Emotional intelligence (EQ); i.e. getting your emotions to work for you vs. against you, is part of the much broader umbrella of mental strength. Mental strength encompasses self-regulating emotions, thoughts and actions for 6 specific outcomes (i.e. the 6 “mental muscles” that equate to mental strength): fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision-making, goal-focus, and messaging (exuding positivity vs. negativity in your messaging and having a quality of presence in the moment). It’s why I believe mental strength is THE leadership superpower of our times.
Could you share insights from your research on why mental strength is particularly vital for business leaders today? What led you to conclude its significance in the current corporate landscape?
I asked 3,000 executives: “Thinking of the highest achieving organizations you’ve ever been a part of, that overcame the most obstacles, what attributes/behaviors did the key leader embody?” An astounding 91% described the same profile, a mentally strong leader, who consistently flexed the core mental muscles of mental strength (fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision-making, goal-focus, messaging). In today’s increasingly chaotic, uncertain, distraction-laden work world, building the habits that increase your mental strength is how you train your brain for achievement.
In your work, you outline six mental muscles essential for leadership. How does your book help leaders assess which of these areas they need to strengthen?
The Mentally Strong Leader contains a Mental Strength Self-Assessment: 50 questions that give you an overall Mental Strength Score (a baseline measurement of how mentally strong you are), along with a score for each of the 6 areas of mental strength (the 6 mental muscles of fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision-making, goal-focus, and messaging). So, you can see where your strengths and areas of opportunity are, how to interpret those scores and what to do about it (which associated habits and tools in the book you need to use to train up each area). You can thus create a customized mental strength training program.
You emphasize the role of habit-building in developing mental strength. What are some core principles of habit formation that leaders can apply to enhance their mental muscles?
The Mentally Strong Leader incorporates habit-building science in three primary ways. First, you form habits through repetition, which is enabled through systems and frameworks to follow. So, there are over 50 habits/habit building tools in the book designed as easy to adopt systems or frameworks to build your mental strength. Habits begin to form when you know the exact first step to take in building that habit, and when you overcome moments of weakness that would otherwise derail habit formation. So, for each habit to build, there are sections titled “Your First Small Step” and “In Moments of Weakness.”
Your book offers a variety of tools to build mental strength habits. How should leaders choose the right tools for their specific needs, and could you give an example of a tool that aids in building leadership confidence?
Each question in The Mental Strength Self-Assessment points to not only what a leader can work on to become mentally stronger, but also specifically what tool in the book to use to strengthen that area. One example of a confidence building tool in the book helps you stop imposter syndrome (when you downplay your accomplishments and worth, doubt your intellect and skills, and discount your expertise and experience). Here are three steps to do so:
1. Own your accomplishments.
Ask yourself, “Where am I underestimating and underappreciating myself? What should I give myself more credit for? Where am I assigning too much credit to luck, or other external factors? What simply would not have happened, were it not for me?” For some, focusing on your accomplishments will still produce a “Yeah but…” reaction. You might still focus on all the ways you’re inadequate. Enter the next step.
2. Be open to imposter discomfort, closed to imposter thoughts.
It’s known as “acceptance” in psychology circles. Yes, you might have doubts about whether or not you can really lead the team in your new role, for example. But learning to be okay with it, to let that sit in the background, allows you to focus on deciding how to do it best, not if you can do it. At the same time, detach from imposter thoughts. Imagine they came from someone else, an unfair critic. You know these thoughts aren’t trying to help you move toward the life you want to live, so why listen?
3. Think of your value(s)rather than your valuation.
First, focus on the unique value you bring to the table, not your “valuation,” what others might think you do, or don’t, deserve. What skills/strengths/perspective do you undeniably offer?
And, think of your values, too. When imposter feelings are booing you from the cheap seats, your values are cheering you on from the front row, reminding you that you’re staying true to who you are and that what you’re doing matters, no matter what anyone thinks.
