Adversity Quotient @ Work: Make Everyday Challenges the Key to Your Success--Putting the Principles of AQ Into Action

From the first sip of your morning coffee to the last sheep you count at night, you will face an average of 23 adversities, predicts author Paul G. Stoltz in this follow-up to the best-selling The Adversity Quotient. The key to coping, he says, lies in improving your Adversity Quotient--"the measurable, precise, and unconscious way you respond to adversity." Here, Stoltz applies AQ to the challenges of working in the "entrepreneurial, high-velocity New Economy."

First, he details the bad news: AQ is hardwired into you during your youth by parental models and early experiences. But the good news--that your AQ can be improved and put to work on your job--is the promise this book capably delivers. Stoltz, an organizational communications expert who has measured the Adversity Quotient of 100,000 people, is fond of using mountain-climbing metaphors to describe elements of organizational adversity. For example, low AQers are "quitters" who have given up the climb or "campers" who have found a safe, shady spot. But for the resilient high AQers, "the climbers," there ain't no mountain high enough.

The lower your AQ, the more of a toll job stress will take, warns Stoltz, whose assessment tools for measuring AQ are as detailed as his strategies for creating a "climbing culture" in your organization. The pages are packed with maps, self-assessments, specific strategies, and smart end-of-chapter summaries. This hands-on approach is undermined at times by too many metaphors, acronyms, and lists, as well as a tendency to oversell AQ as a predictor of success. Still, for executives, managers, and employees alike, The Adversity Quotient @ Work is a supportive and strategic home-schooling course for coping with the demands of today's workplace.--Barbara Mackoff