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We all have moments in our lives when we come to a difficult situation that screams to us to give in. Everyone else has given up so why don’t you? Do you stay and fight? Or do you suddenly feel lonely and join the others walking away? Welcome to the world of mental toughness.

Being a leader calls upon mental toughness many times over. For example, you’ve communicated the goal to everyone. But now you find that circumstances have changed in a way you could never have foreseen. You still want the goal. But people are telling you to ‘get real’ and let the goal go.

case study Times were hard and Manish was told he had to make cuts in his management team. The problem was that the manager whose role was least needed happened to be the most popular. When Manish gave Vijay the news he took it badly. He made the remaining weeks of his notice hell for Manish. Many staff refused to talk to Manish. Likewise, peers who liked Vijay also made sure he had a hard time. Then Manish’s boss asked if he’d made the right decision! At every turn Manish was doubted. Vijay left. Within weeks he was rarely talked about. Relationships settled back down. Manish had made the right decision and stayed with it. His mental toughness was tested and he triumphed. He is now a director in that company.

Such moments are lonely. And it’s often these moments that highlight just how isolating the position of being a leader is. It’s the ‘moment of truth’: to carry on or give up.

The American football coach Vince Lombardi said of mental toughness: “Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. It is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it character in action.”

Mental toughness is about recognizing the fight as a long one. There are times when you have everyone with you. And times you’re on your own. Either way, a mentally tough leader will be determined to see it through to achieve what they know is the right outcome.

One person is a great example of this combination of passion and patience: KFC’s Colonel Sanders. He experienced 1,009 rejections before the first restaurant agreed to sell his chicken for him!

Mental toughness is the determination to carry on against the odds to achieve success.