Leverage Your Adversity Quotient

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What is Adversity Quotient (AQ)? Perhaps we have a better understanding of IQ, EQ, SQ, and other related sciences. Its less well-known cousin is the AQ. In essence, AQ is the study of human adaptability. The ability to adapt and respond well to adversities, crises, pressure, stress, trauma, and other such challenging events is known as the AQ.

Adversity, in the context of organizations or leadership, is anything that hinders or prevents an organization from achieving its vision, goals, or strategic plans. The main goal of the AQ theory is to give people the ability to turn challenges into opportunities. The four dimensions that make up your AQ are described by CORE. You will be able to learn from and improve upon your responses to adversity with integrated CORE aspects.

Control: Control occurs when one seeks facets of the situation that they can influence and control. Invariably, it would lead to higher resilience levels. The individuals need to examine to what extent (and how) they can influence the situation, instead of being mere bystanders!

Ownership: The foundation of action is accountability. The attitude should be one of taking responsibility for the situation's improvement and contributing in some way. Being responsible for handling problems no matter the cause would increase resilience.

Reach: This is about how to keep obstacles and challenges at bay and prevent them from invading productive workspaces and personal spheres. It's crucial to have a thorough understanding of how the negative circumstance will affect things and what effects it might have. That would make it possible to organize and control the current situation.

Endurance: One should cultivate an uncanny ability to foresee how long the adversity would last or endure. Hope and optimism can create an inner energy and energize others to see past the interminable difficulties and overcome the challenges.

Source: Times of India