This event is for Heriot-Watt staff members only. Do you often feel anxious or stressed, or do certain situations sometimes feel overwhelming?   Our work and personal life can make many demands on us and sometimes it can be easy to forget to look after yourself.  This short session will introduce you to coaching and the […]

The Mental Toughness concept has emerged as one of the most important advances in individual and organisational development.
Long known to be valuable – Plato identifies it as one of the 4 virtues 2500 years ago – it has only in recent times been understood in a way that the concept can be applied.
Mental Toughness is a personality trait which describes how we respond mentally when confronted by events. It describes “how we think” when things happen to us or around us. This has a significant impact on how we act when things happen.
Research in the 1990s, initiated by Professor Peter Clough, led to an understanding that the concept consisted of 4 constructs. We now understand that these are underpinned by 8 independent factors which allow us to understand our mental response to a fine degree.
Together with the development of psychometric measure, the MTQPlus, there is now the capability to assess this in people and in groups; to identify where development activity can be useful and to measure and evaluate change reacting this to changes in important outcomes such as wellbeing, performance and aspirations.
Perhaps crucially it enables self-awareness about how one approaches events mentally – which is an activity at the heart of coaching and mentoring.
The session, which will be interactive, will examine:
 What is Mental Toughness – the 8 factors
 Why this is so important – the evidence
 It is not pejorative - we can all be the bets version of ourselves that we can be
 Assessing mental toughness – in individuals and in groups
 Development activity
 Mental Toughness and Leadership, culture and team working - joining the dots
 Evaluation

This workshop will explore how coaching can improve your wellbeing and help you feel happier. It will help you to define happiness and provide you with some coaching tools that you can take away and make the first steps to enhance your wellbeing. We will look at how our mindset and the actions we take […]

Do you sometimes find that you feel stressed, anxious or on edge? Mindfulness can be described as “a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations”. This short session will introduce colleagues to mindfulness and coaching techniques and will explain how […]

Open to internal staff members of Heriot-Watt University only Are you working towards a goal? Are you curious to explore more options as to how you might achieve this goal? Come along to this short session which will introduce you to coaching, will help bust some myths around coaching and will help you explore how […]

To celebrate International Coaching Week, this workshop will explore how coaching can improve your wellbeing and help you feel happier. It will help you to define happiness and provide you with some coaching tools that you can take away and make the first steps to enhance your wellbeing. Hosted by Dr Dasha Grajfoner and Emma Smail, […]