HBR's 10 Must Reads: On Mental Toughness

Harvard Business School

Publisher: Harvard Business School, 2018, 142 pages

ISBN: 978-1-63369-436-1

Keywords: Leadership

Last modified: Feb. 16, 2020, 8:26 p.m.

Come back from every setback a stronger and better leader.

If you read nothing else on mental toughness, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you build your emotional strength and resilience — and to achieve high performance.

This book will inspire you to:

  • Thrive under pressure like an Olympic athlete
  • Manage and overcome negative emotions by acknowledging them
  • Plan short-term goals to achieve long-term aspirations
  • Surround yourself with the people who will push you the hardest
  • Use challenges to become a better leader
  • Use creativity to move past trauma
  • Understand the tools your mind uses to recover from setbacks
  • How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better
    by Graham Jones
  • Crucibles of Leadership
    by Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas
  • Building Resilience
    by Martin E.P. Seligman
  • Cognitive Fitness
    by Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kitts
  • The Making of a Corporate Athlete
    by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
  • Stress Can Be a Good Thing If You Know How to Use It
    by Alia Crum and Thomas Crum
  • How to Bounce Back from Adversity
    by Joshua D. Margolis and Paul G. Soltz
  • Rebounding from Career Setbacks
    by Mitchell Lee Marks, Philip Mirvis, and Ron Ashkenas
  • Realising What You're Made Of
    by Glenn E. Mangurian
  • Extreme Negotiation
    by Jeff Weiss, Aram Donigian, and Jonathan Hughes
  • BONUS
    Post-Traumatic Growth and Building Resilience
    An Interview with Martin Seligman by Sarah Green Carmichael