Resilience is a key component in the primary prevention of stress at work.

Resilience is the capacity to mobilise personal resources to tolerate and overcome adverse events
without experiencing stress, and to grow and develop as a consequence of such events. Some
aspects of resilience are personality dependent whilst others are skills determined. All elements can
be learnt and strengthened.

Managers and staff have a responsibility to be as resilient as possible against the uncertainties of
everyday working lives. Resilience at work is about personal attitude towards work and the events
that take place in work and the working environment.

Resilience Assessment Questionnaire (RAQ 8)

This is the Resilience Assessment Questionnaire, created by psychologist Derek Mowbray, in its short
form (RAQ8). The longer version (RAQ 40) is available for use under licence.

Please answer the following questions by circling the relevant number.

1 = Never, 5 = Yes, always
1 I usually know how others perceive me 1 2 3 4 5
2 I am determined to achieve my lifetime ambitions 1 2 3 4 5
3 I can see my future clearly 1 2 3 4 5
4 I normally feel comfortable in new situations 1 2 3 4 5
5 I plan my next day in advance 1 2 3 4 5
6 I enjoy the challenge of unravelling puzzles and solving problems 1 2 3 4 5
7 In general, I like people 1 2 3 4 5
8 My most important relationships are my strongest 1 2 3 4 5

Scores:
1 Self awareness
2 Determination
3 Vision
4 Self confidence
5 Organisation
6 Problem solving
7 Interaction
8 Relationships

Any score of 3 and below indicates a need to strengthen this element of personal resilience.

©Derek Mowbray
www.mas.org.uk +44 (0)1242 241882 Page |1
Self awareness
‘Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power’

People who know themselves well often possess the insight to understanding others; are more
tolerant of others, and are quietly inquisitive of others; they understand what makes them tick, and
can respond to their behaviours more effectively. Their attitude towards others is often flexible and
adaptable, an essential ingredient for personal resilience.

Determination
‘As long as you’re going to think anyway, you may as well think big’

Resilient people with high levels of determination have the capacity to achieve things that those
with low determination tend not to be able to do. Determination is essentially self driven, although
can be triggered by a reaction to an event, and requires considerable focus on a goal, task or vision.
People with high levels of determination also have high self-awareness -knowing yourself very well;
high self-advocacy -being able to articulate your wishes effectively; and high self-efficacy -a belief in
being able to achieve almost anything.

Vision
‘If you don’t know where you’re going you will probably end up somewhere else’

Normally, resilient people will have a clear idea of what they are trying to achieve in their lives, and
will have written this down somewhere. They are likely to review the vision from time to time,
particularly when events seek to divert effort away from achieving the vision. The vision itself might
be blurred; it should not be time constrained, but it should be feasible to achieve.

Self confidence
Ever notice that ‘what the hell’ is the right decision?

Self confidence is clearly apparent in resilient people. They need to ensure that self confidence
doesn’t turn to arrogance as this will not be effective in interactions with others. On the other hand,
self confidence, demonstrated in a subtle manner, is very attractive, and draws others to the self
confident person, reinforcing their success with others and contributing significantly to their
resilience.

©Derek Mowbray
www.mas.org.uk +44 (0)1242 241882 Page |2
Organisation
If everything is under control you’re not going fast enough

People who are well organised are able to cope with the chaos of daily life better than those who do
not pay attention to organising themselves, preferring to rely on memory and luck. Being organised
allows individuals to know where they are if their day is disrupted by unforeseen events. Organised
people plan their week and their day in ways that ensure they start work immediately, and reward
completion of nasty tasks by next completing enjoyable ones. Resilient people know where they are,
and can control their working environment by careful planning and implementation.

Problem solving
Some people take no mental exercises apart from jumping to conclusions

Resilient people like to solve problems and rise to challenges, so long as they can resolve the
problems and meet the challenges successfully. Problem solvers are more likely to embrace
challenges than those who do not like problems, and have no talent for sorting out puzzles and
challenges. Card games players are likely to be more interested in solving problems than others
simply by virtue of their interest in thinking of the opponent and the moves that are being thought
about. Problem solvers also like to delve into the causes of a problem as a means to seeking a
solution.

Interaction
‘Achieving what you want in an interaction is a massive boost’

Interaction is about how we behave towards other people. The only person we control is ourself.
However, to survive and achieve what we need to achieve, we need to control the reactions of
others to our behaviours towards them so that they, in turn, help us. This is known as reciprocity.
To interact effectively with others we need to understand everything that is going on in an
interaction, almost reading the other person’s mind so that we can adjust our behaviour to respond
to how we think the other person is responding to us. We need to explore and respond to the other
person’s self-interest. Self-interest is our prime motivator and by feeding the self-interest of the
other person, they in turn, will reciprocate and feed us with our self-interest. If we manage all this
we are in control, and by being in control, we build our resilience.

©Derek Mowbray
www.mas.org.uk +44 (0)1242 241882 Page |3
Relationships
‘If you always approach everyone with cheerful optimism, you will find that they simply have
no choice but to respond in kind’

In order for us to survive and prosper we need to forge relationships. These are many and varied
that include acquaintances, friends, lovers, all of whom have a different quality to them in relation to
their strength, importance and power, and each appeal to a different aspect of our own need.
As we all act, it is important to include amongst our relationships those people with whom we have
no need to act. Such relationships exist to enable us to recharge and go forward to act in the world.

Resilient people have relationships that provide the appropriate reinforcement and support at the
time it is required. Resilient people never judge anyone else; they give of themselves to each
relationship and reap the rewards of friendship.

Contact us to discuss our Resilience Programmes – call 01242 2412882 or email

[email protected].

Visit www.mas.org.uk for further information about Resilience – there are many articles free to
download in our article library - http://www.mas.org.uk/mylibrary.html

To purchase Derek Mowbray’s Guide to Personal Resilience, which contains the full version of this
questionnaire, go to http://www.mas.org.uk/publications/personal-resilience-guide.html

Visit our website to find out more about our Resilience ELearning Programme.

Our Resilience Programmes have been created by leading

psychologist dr Derek Mowbray BA., MSc., MSc(Econ)., PhD.,
DipPsych., CPsychol., CSci., FBPsS., FIHM.

Derek Mowbray is a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist, with a

doctorate in the psychology of leadership.

Derek Mowbray specialises in the primary prevention of psychological distress at work, with a focus
on promoting wellbeing and performance.

His work approaches and interventions are well recognised and adopted throughout the UK and
beyond. His work in the stress prevention field focuses on the problems at work that may trigger
adverse reactions in people, causing them to feel unwell and under intense pressure resulting in
under performance.

Derek focuses on organisation culture, the behaviour of leaders and managers in relation to their
employees, personal and corporate resilience and on issues of the working environment that impede
performance. His approach is to use positive psychology to help organisations create and sustain
‘the workplace as a fabulous and high performing place to work’.

Derek’s mission is to ensure individuals have a fabulous experience from work and the workplace.

©Derek Mowbray
www.mas.org.uk +44 (0)1242 241882 Page |4
Our Products:
Personal Resilience ELearning
An in-depth e-learning programme designed to strengthen personal resilience.
http://www.mas.org.uk/personal-resilience-elearning-programme.html

Derek Mowbray’s Guides – innovative, practical resources

The Guide to the WellBeing and Performance Agenda
The Guide to Corporate Resilience
The Guide to Adaptive Leadership
The Guide to Psychological Responsibility
The Guide to The Manager’s Role in Resilience
The Guide to Personal Resilience
The Guide to the Manager’s Role in Stress Prevention
The Guide to Team Resilience
The Guide to Transforming Managers

Our Guides are available to purchase from http://www.mas.org.uk/publications.html

Our Questionnaires – available for use under licence

‘Just how fabulous a manager are you?’
Quick Leadership Assessment Q (a mini 360° instrument)
Leadership and The Adaptive Leadership Questionnaire
management Emotional Intelligence
Behaviour Assessment Questionnaire
The Ethical Questionnaire
Organisational Cultural Assessment
Cultural Values Questionnaire
Culture Corporate Values Questionnaire
Intelligent Behaviour@Work Questionnaire
The Wellbeing and Performance @ Work Questionnaire
Psychological Responsibility@Work Questionnaire
Individuals The Personal Values Questionnaire
The Values and Beliefs Questionnaire
The Resilience Assessment Questionnaire (RAQ 40)

Tips Booklets - extensive range of high quality tips booklets which make great giveaways to
accompany wellbeing initiatives. These could be branded for your organisation.
Tips for Managing Pressure and Preventing Stress
Tips for Personal Resilience
Tips for the Manager’s Role in Resilience
Tips for Fabulous Managers
Tips for Taking Psychological Responsibility
Tips for Creating a Culture of Sharing Responsibility for the Future Success of the Organisation

For details about our products and services, email [email protected] or

call 01242 241882

©Derek Mowbray
www.mas.org.uk +44 (0)1242 241882 Page |5