The Clarity Source · Mindset by Design
Self-lead with clarity.
Back yourself
without the constant self-doubt.
Handle pressure
without it breaking you.
Regulate your emotions
without losing your edge.
Lead
without burning out.

Most leaders already know something is getting in the way. They just don't know what it is or where to look. The Clarity Source measures the four psychological strengths that determine how you perform under pressure. Your scores in under ten minutes. Your personalised action plan so you know exactly what to do next.

Science-backed framework
Instant personalised results
PhD-developed
Dr Catherine Duggan
Dr Catherine Duggan
PhD Organisational Behaviour
Grounded in psychological capital research
Instant personalised results
For leaders seeking clarity
PhD-developed
Dr Catherine Duggan

Built by a researcher. Grounded in science.

PhD Organisational Behaviour
University Lecturer
Former Financial Times · Tokyo · London
Grounded in Positive Psychological Capital research · Luthans et al. (2007)
Entrepreneur
University College Cork Ignite UCC
Research Partner
UCC
University College Cork
Spinout Company
Ignite
Two Products. One Direction.

Start with clarity.
Build with intention.

The Clarity Source tells you where you stand.
Mindset by Design takes you to where you want to go.
One follows naturally from the other.

Start here
The Clarity Source
 
€49
One-time · Instant digital access
→12-question digital assessment
→Four construct scores instantly on screen
→Full written interpretation per strength
→Personalised action plan
→21-day practice plan built on your scores
Get Your Strengths Score →

Most high performers rely on one or two strengths, while the others are underdeveloped.

Performance stays high. Outcomes are delivered. But this often comes at the cost of more effort, more pressure and more strain than necessary.

The Clarity Source identifies exactly where that imbalance sits.

Once you see it, things change. Decisions become clearer. You are more composed in the moments that matter. You stop compensating and start addressing the constraint directly.

The Clarity Source is not a personality profile. It gives you a precise score across four psychological strengths.
The Clarity Source does not offer generic advice. The output is grounded in your results.
The Clarity Source is not just another framework. It is a diagnostic — showing you where to focus.

Twelve questions. Under ten minutes. Immediate clarity.

The Four Strengths

What The Clarity Source Measures

Four constructs from Positive Psychological Capital research, consistently shown to predict performance and sustained effectiveness in leaders under pressure.

01 · Hope
Find the way forward.
What most people call hope is actually wishful thinking. Those who research it can tell you otherwise. Real psychological hope is the ability to find more than one path to a goal when the obvious route gets blocked. It is cognitive. It is trainable.
Snyder's Hope Theory
02 · Confidence
Trust yourself under pressure.
People often believe that confidence is something you have or you don't. Those who research it can tell you otherwise. Confidence is self-efficacy, the evidence-based belief, built through experience, that your effort will produce results.
Bandura's Self-Efficacy
03 · Resilience
Recover fast. Grow faster.
Resilience is not just about bouncing back from a tough experience. The research shows the most resilient people bounce forward. They come out of difficulty in a better position because they have learned to reframe setbacks as learning opportunities.
PsyCap Resilience Research
04 · Optimism
See what others miss.
Optimism is a quiet conviction, not a smile plastered over hard truths. It is a knowing that something good exists just beyond what you can see. Less about feeling happy. More about igniting your wisdom.
Seligman's Explanatory Style
The Clarity Source

Know exactly where you stand.

A digital assessment, instantly scored, with your full personalised results on screen within ten minutes of purchase.

01
12-Question AssessmentThree questions per strength. Takes under 10 minutes.
02
Instant Scores and BandsDeveloping, Emerging, or Strong. On screen immediately.
03
Full Written InterpretationWhat your specific score combination means for how you lead.
04
Personalised Action PlanSpecific next steps built around your results.
05
21-Day Practice PlanDaily actions built around your lowest scoring construct.
How It Works

Simple. Fast. Actionable.

1

Pay once at €49

Secure checkout via Stripe. Assessment link emailed within 60 seconds.

2

Answer 12 honest questions

Three per strength. Your instinctive first response is usually the most accurate.

3

See your results instantly

Four scores. Your band. Your full interpretation. Your action plan. All on screen.

4

Work your 21-day plan

Daily actions built around your lowest scoring construct.

Get Your Strengths Score · €49 →
Mindset by Design

Live Your
Potential.

The Clarity Source gives you your scores. Mindset by Design takes you to where you want to go. A deeper 24-question assessment, a full written report interpreting your exact score combination, and a 30-minute one-to-one debrief with Dr Catherine Duggan.

This is not a digital product you complete alone. It is a guided development process, built around your specific profile, delivered personally.

Only 6 spots available per month.

01
24-Question Deep ProfileDouble the depth of the Clarity Source. Surfaces patterns that a shorter assessment cannot reach.
02
Full Written Development ReportYour dominant pattern identified. Which strength is quietly working against the others. A complete development plan grounded in your specific results.
03
30-Minute 1:1 with Dr Catherine DugganA personal debrief of your results. What they mean for how you lead. What to do next. This is where the real work begins.
Go deeper
Mindset by Design
Live Your Potential
€249
One-time · Includes 1:1 with Catherine
→24-question deep profile
→Full written development report
→Guided development framework
→21-day practice plan
→30-minute 1:1 with Dr Catherine Duggan
Begin Mindset by Design →

You will hear first when spots open.

Work With Me

1:1 Coaching with
Dr Catherine Duggan

Sometimes you need a direct conversation rather than a self-directed process. A focused hour to work through what your scores mean in the context of where you are right now and where you want to go.

Grounded in the same research framework as all of the Mindset by Design tools. Delivered personally.

€150
Per hour · One-to-one with Dr Catherine Duggan
Book a Session →
What we work on
→

Interpreting your Clarity Source scores in the context of your specific situation

→

Identifying the one strength that is limiting everything else right now

→

Building a precise, actionable plan grounded in your actual scores

→

Decisions, leadership challenges, and high-pressure moments that need clarity now

Results

What You Are Saying

The Science

The Research Behind The Method

Psychological Capital is one of the most replicated frameworks in leadership research. Three of the findings that shaped how The Clarity Source and Mindset by Design were built.

Hope and Performance

High-Hope Leaders Outperform Across Every Measure

Luthans and colleagues found that Hope is one of the strongest single predictors of performance in uncertain, complex environments. Leaders who score high in Hope set more ambitious goals, sustain effort longer, and recover from failure faster. Not because they are more talented, but because they have more mental routes available when the obvious path closes.

Read the research →
Resilience and Wellbeing

Resilience Protects Performance Under Sustained Pressure

Research published in the Annual Review of Organisational Psychology demonstrates that leaders with higher Resilience scores show significantly lower rates of burnout, even in high-demand roles. The key variable is not the amount of pressure. It is the speed and quality of recovery.

Read the research →
PsyCap and Leadership

Psychological Capital Is Trainable and Measurable

The foundational insight of the PsyCap research tradition is that Hope, Confidence, Resilience, and Optimism are not fixed personality traits. They are state-like psychological resources that respond to deliberate, focused attention. What can be measured can be developed. What can be developed can be built by design.

Read the research →
My Story

I have always lived life to the beat of my own drum. I have spent most of my life following the instinct that there's always more within — even when life doesn't go to plan. I have made mistakes, taken wrong turns, and questioned myself more than once. But I also built a habit of recovering quickly, recalibrating, and moving forward. Something in me has always refused to give up. And if you're here, there's a good chance you have that in you too.

My career has taken me to Tokyo, Seoul and London, working with The Financial Times. Throughout my time there I learned a huge amount about business, about myself. But deep down, I knew it wasn't where I was meant to stay.

I returned to Ireland. I built and ran a creative business for fifteen years. That experience taught me more about pressure, decision-making, and responsibility than any corporate role could. The economic crash in 2008 changed everything. At a stage when many people start to slow down, I chose to begin again. First a Master's. I was awarded a competitive Irish Research Council scholarship to fund a PhD.

I needed to understand something. Why do some people keep going when life gets hard and others get stuck? The answer came down to four psychological strengths: Hope. Confidence. Resilience. Optimism.

These aren't abstract ideas. They are measurable. They can be developed. And when they are built deliberately, they change how you lead, decide, and perform.

That's why I developed The Clarity Source and Mindset by Design from my research. I wish someone had handed me a blueprint like this twenty years ago. It would have saved a lot of unnecessary grinding.

Dr Catherine Duggan

Dr Catherine Duggan

PhD Organisational Behaviour

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

The Clarity Source is a 12-question psychological strengths assessment. It measures four constructs — Hope, Confidence, Resilience and Optimism — and gives you a precise score for each one, along with a full written interpretation and a personalised action plan. It is not a personality test. It is a diagnostic tool grounded in Positive Psychological Capital research developed by Luthans et al. (2007).

Personality tests tell you what type you are. The Clarity Source tells you where you currently stand across four specific psychological strengths. The difference matters because your scores are not fixed — they are state-like, meaning they can be developed and improved with deliberate attention. A personality type cannot change. Your psychological strength scores can.

The Clarity Source takes under ten minutes to complete. Your results appear on screen immediately after the final question. The Mindset by Design assessment takes approximately 20 minutes and is a deeper instrument covering the same four constructs in greater detail.

You receive a link to complete the 12-question assessment. Once complete your results appear immediately on screen and include: your four construct scores and bands, a full written interpretation of what your scores mean for how you lead, a personalised action plan based on your specific results, and a 21-day practice plan built around your lowest scoring construct.

Your results link remains accessible for 30 days after purchase. We also recommend saving or printing your results and action plan when you first see them. If you purchase Mindset by Design, Dr Catherine Duggan sends you a full written development report by email which you can refer back to at any time.

Mindset by Design is the deeper, personalised version. It includes a 24-question assessment, a full written development report prepared personally by Dr Catherine Duggan interpreting your specific score combination, a guided development framework, and a 30-minute 1:1 session with Catherine. Where The Clarity Source gives you your scores, Mindset by Design takes you to where you want to go.

No. Mindset by Design includes its own deeper 24-question assessment so you do not need to have completed The Clarity Source first. That said, many people find The Clarity Source a useful introduction to the framework before going deeper.

Yes. Both products are grounded in Positive Psychological Capital, one of the most replicated frameworks in organisational behaviour research. The four constructs — Hope, Confidence, Resilience and Optimism — have been studied across decades of peer-reviewed research and consistently shown to predict performance, leadership effectiveness and wellbeing under pressure. Dr Catherine Duggan holds a PhD in Organisational Behaviour and completed her doctoral research in this area.

The Clarity Source and Mindset by Design are designed for leaders, founders and entrepreneurs who want to perform more consistently under pressure. If you are already performing well but sense that something is getting in the way — decisions taking longer than they should, self-doubt appearing at the wrong moments, recovery from setbacks slower than you would like — this is built for you.

Completely. Your results are private and visible only to you. If you purchase Mindset by Design, Dr Catherine Duggan receives your scores in order to prepare your written report, and this is treated with full professional confidentiality. Your data is never shared with third parties. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

You are welcome to get in touch directly at cmacduggan@gmail.com. If you want to go deeper on what your scores mean, a 1:1 coaching session at €150 per hour is also available — see the Work With Me section above.

Quick Taster

Where are your strengths right now?

Four questions. One per strength. A rough indication of where your profile sits — and where to look first.

Hope

When the obvious route to a goal gets blocked, I can usually find another way forward.

Confidence

I back my own judgement in difficult situations, even when I do not have all the information.

Resilience

After a setback or a difficult period, I recover my momentum relatively quickly.

Optimism

Even in uncertain or difficult periods, I generally expect things to work out.

One last step

Your results are ready.

Enter your email to see your taster profile and receive a short guide on your lowest strength.

No spam. Unsubscribe any time.

This is a rough indicator based on four questions. The Clarity Source measures all four strengths in depth across twelve questions and gives you a precise, personalised score and action plan.

Get Your Full Score · €49 →
Free Resource

Not ready yet?
Start here.

A free 15-page guide that introduces the Mindset by Design framework, designed to lead you through each stage of building sustainable psychological strength.

01
Define a Clear VisionDesign Hope as a structured, adaptable mindset
02
Strengthen Self-BeliefBuild real confidence from evidence, not affirmation
03
Develop ResilienceTransform adversity into growth
04
Emotional AgilityBuild optimism grounded in realism
05
Mental DisciplineFocus your energy where it counts
06
Purpose AlignmentConnect daily actions to what matters most

No spam. Unsubscribe any time.

Privacy Policy

Your email is collected solely to deliver the free guide and follow-up emails via Kit. It is never sold or shared. Unsubscribe any time. Data requests: cmacduggan@gmail.com

Terms of Use

The Clarity Source and all materials are the intellectual property of Dr Catherine Duggan and Mindset by Design. Purchase grants a single-use personal licence. Results may not be reproduced or used commercially without written permission.

Disclaimer

The Clarity Source is a research-informed developmental tool, not a clinical instrument. It is not a substitute for professional psychological or medical support. Results are intended to support personal and professional development.