This time of change that we are living through is calling on us to develop a new approach to leading ourselves and other people.
When we do this, it will bring us benefits on five levels.
First, by applying each tool individually, we will solve the immediate problems we face: we will stay calmer and more connected in a crisis, we will see situations more clearly, find more opportunities to move forward, become better at moving to action (even when the outcome is uncertain), and so on.
Second, by applying these tools in sequence we will become more joined-up leaders of ourselves and other people: we will become more able to navigate not just the individual issues of change but the whole process of change.
Third, as we repeat that process we will find that staying calm in a crisis helps us to see the situation more clearly, which helps us find more opportunities and better opportunities, which makes us feel more inspired, so we stay calmer in a crisis, which helps us to see the situation more clearly, and so on… We will create a virtuous circle, a self-reinforcing loop, that enables us not only to cope with change but actually to thrive because of change. Now we become able to use change to become stronger and more valuable.
And there are still two more levels of benefits to come.
Einstein told us that we cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it. This volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world that we are living in is the direct result of the leadership decisions that we and others have taken in the past, both individually and collectively. We have created this world that we are living in. So if we want to create a less volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world then we have to change the way we take decisions.
This will happen each time one of us learns to improve our inner leadership and become antifragile. The more people then become antifragile, the more stable the world as a whole will become. And then the VUCA times will recede. This is the fourth level of benefit.
Finally, the fifth level of benefit is Joy. Because the more antifragile we become, the more clearly we know what really matters to us, and the better we become able to achieve that. And both these things then bring us Joy.
These are the five benefits of learning Inner Leadership. Which would be most valuable to you today? What steps are you taking to achieve it? Would it be useful to start to learn a simple framework and practical tools, whose benefits will build progressively as you strengthen your abilities?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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