The Mentally Strong Leader: Build the Habits to Productively Regulate Your Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors

by Scott Mautz

Overview

“This book will prove an indispensable resource again and again."
—Dan Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret, When, and To Sell is Human

Train your brain for achievement.

Award-winning, bestselling author Scott Mautz defines mental strength as the ability to self-regulate emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve exceptional outcomes, despite adversity. It’s the superpower of our times. Mentally strong leaders are confident and in control of themselves and their environment; they have endurance, they stay disciplined, and stress only makes their decision-making sharper. They manage themselves internally to lead others externally.

The Mentally Strong Leader gives readers a mental exercise plan to become that person. Readers begin with a diagnostic Mental Strength Self-Assessment, and receive a customized plan of 50 proven, science-based tools to build their six core mental muscles:

• Fortitude
• Decision-making
• Confidence
• Goal-focus
• Boldness  
• Messaging

Inspired by Mautz’s hit LinkedIn Learning course, “10 Habits of Mentally Strong People,” his 25 years leading some of Procter & Gamble’s biggest multi-billion-dollar businesses, and over 30 years of studying this topic, The Mentally Strong Leader relies on mental models, data and research, habit-building science, and practical tools and exercises to create enduring strength for readers.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781510780583
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	05/07/2024
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	36,855
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Scott Mautz is the founder and CEO of Profound Performance™, a keynote, training, and coaching company that helps people ignite profound performance and develop their skills in leadership, managing world-class teams, increasing employee engagement, thriving in change, and creating meaning at work. Scott is a former Procter & Gamble senior executive who successfully ran four of the company’s largest multi-billion dollar businesses and transformed organizational health scores along the way. He's a multi award-winning author of Leading from the Middle, Find the Fire, and Make It Matter, and has been named a “CEO Thought-leader” by The Chief Executives Guild and a "Top 50 Leadership Innovator" by Inc.com, where he was a top columnist with well over 1 million monthly readers. Scott is faculty at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business for Executive Education, where he teaches others-oriented leadership and the secret to sustaining motivation, and is a top instructor at LinkedIn Learning. Scott lives in San Diego, CA with his wife and daughter (who is growing up too fast).

Editorial Reviews

If you want to build the mental resilience to thrive under pressure and drive change despite obstacles, this book will prove an indispensable resource again and again."
—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret, When, and To Sell is Human

"Mautz brilliantly fills a hole in leadership writing with an insightful, pragmatic book, jammed with tools that help you develop the most important leadership skill of our time: mental strength."
—Brian Niccol, chairman and CEO, Chipotle
 
"Who wouldn’t want to be mentally stronger? It’s the key to achievement, for pressing past adversity, at work, and in life. In this book, you get a menu of tools to build your key mental muscles. You’ll learn to regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in the right way, as habits, backed by habit-building science. A must read for all leaders out there.”
—Taylor Montgomery, chief marketing officer, Taco Bell, North America

"Need to push limits? Push through challenges? You’ll need confidence, self-control, big thinking, focus. That is, you need to be mentally strong. Mautz provides a potent toolbox for it all."
—Scott Beal, CEO, Barr Brands International
 
"In The Mentally Strong Leader, Scott brilliantly highlights the often-overlooked, yet crucial, trait of mental strength in leadership. Drawing from extensive research and real-world experiences, Mautz unveils a proactive approach to leadership that empowers individuals to achieve exceptional results, even in the most challenging environments. With his six mental muscles and a wealth of practical tools, this book provides a comprehensive guide to cultivating mental fortitude. The Mentally Strong Leader is a must-read for anyone aspiring to become an exceptional leader."
—Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
 
"Leadership is more than a title or position. It’s a choice. As such, being a highly effective leader requires continual effort and the willingness to improve, often through adversity. This book is a training manual for leaders to boost their mental strength and lead in ways that can yield extraordinary results for their teams and organizations—and the world."
—Edgar Sandoval Sr., president and CEO, World Vision   

"In The Mentally Strong Leader, Scott Mautz guides readers through the process of developing habits to remain clear-eyed and focused in a world of never-ending change and uncertainty. A must-read for those looking to understand how to achieve success in leadership today!"
—Tanveer Naseer, MSc, Inc 100 leadership speaker, award-winning leadership writer, host of the "Leadership Biz Cafe" podcast, and author of Leadership Vertigo
 
"To achieve exceptional results, it often requires transformation, both professionally and personally. Mautz provides powerful insight into what it takes—mental strength—and provides the tools to get there."
—Noel Geoffroy, CEO, Helen of Troy

“[The Mentally Strong Leader] presents useful ideas—such as identifying limiting beliefs, cultivating self-acceptance as an antidote to perfectionism, paying attention to what’s not being said, and reframing problems as challenges—accessibly and persuasively. The text is organized in a way that’s easy for readers to follow and refer back to as needed. Mautz’s prose style is crisp, direct, and down to earth, and his tone is consistently upbeat, empathetic, and encouraging... this book is a welcome addition to the professional development tool kit for thoughtful and ambitious business leaders.
A clearheaded guide to building the mental muscles needed to lead teams through adversity to success.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 

From the Publisher

2024-06-05
Mautz offers a concise overview of best practices for confident, decisive, and effective business leadership.

In his fourth book, the author, a former Procter & Gamble senior executive, distills his principles of “mental strength” into a concise how-to guide for personal development. Drawing on experience and research, Mautz defines mentally strong leaders as those who have “the ability to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve exceptional outcomes, despite circumstances.” (He’s careful to differentiate this concept from general mental health.) The author provides a bit of background in a brief introduction, then dives into detailing what mental strength is, what it isn’t, its key traits, and why it matters, illustrating his points with brief stories. Mautz asks, “How mentally strong are you?” and presents a 50-question self-assessment to help readers identify existing strengths and areas for “leveling up.” (The text helpfully correlates the assessment questions section by section to inform specific habit-building tools in later chapters.) Chapters are dedicated to six leadership habits, including Fortitude, Confidence, Boldness, Messaging, Decision-Making, and Goal-Focus. In turn, each of these comprises several sub-habits that are paired with corresponding tools. (For example, the tool for the confidence habit “Exude Executive Presence” is the “Integrated Aura model.”) Each tool is explained in detail and includes an initial small step for getting started and a helpful tactic for bouncing back from the inevitable lapses. The final chapter features a “MAP (Mental Action Plan)” that guides readers toward maintaining a regular practice for building their own habits. Diagrams and charts illustrate many of the tools, and each chapter also includes a list of references. Templates for many of the suggested exercises and the MAP are available for download from the author’s website, both singly and collected in a workbook format.

The author’s insights into what makes leaders and their teams effective are astute and well explained, and his recommendations are eminently sensible. While the book may not break new ground, it presents useful ideas—such as identifying limiting beliefs, cultivating self-acceptance as an antidote to perfectionism, paying attention to what’s not being said, and reframing problems as challenges—accessibly and persuasively. The text is organized in a way that’s easy for readers to follow and refer back to as needed. Mautz’s prose style is crisp, direct, and down to earth, and his tone is consistently upbeat, empathetic, and encouraging: On procrastination, he writes, “Consider the pain of not completing the task. If there isn’t any, by the way, consider eliminating the task…the next time you catch yourself slipping back into procrastination, give yourself a pat on the back—you noticed it! No small feat.” The pithy advice on difficult conversations includes such nuggets as “Focus on the predicament, not the personality”; “The pain is temporary, the positive is permanent”; and “Am I just confusing ‘difficult’ with ‘different’?” In today’s fast-paced, constantly changing workplaces, “where adversity is becoming the norm more than ever, where the things that wear us down, professionally and personally, are in ever-increasing supply,” this book is a welcome addition to the professional development tool kit for thoughtful and ambitious business leaders.

A clearheaded guide to building the mental muscles needed to lead teams through adversity to success.

Kirkus Reviews