Becoming antifragile is not just about coping with change. It’s about using change to become a stronger, more inspired version of yourself: clearer about who you are, what matters most to you, and more able to achieve those things, so that every setback, as well as every success, enables you to clarify your priorities, build your enthusiasm, and increase your ability to achieve what matters most to you.
To achieve all this, we can’t simply manage ourselves differently: we have to lead ourselves differently.
Management looks outwards. It’s about measuring what we did yesterday, doing what needs to be done today, and anticipating the issues that might arise tomorrow. But before we can know which actions to take, what issues to ignore, we first need to decide what matters most to us and what we are willing to let go: we need to choose between our conflicting priorities and choose which direction to head in. This is the role of leadership.
Leaders have to choose for themselves. And the only way they can do that is by knowing what matters most to them.
The focus of leadership starts by looking inwards.
So, if we want to become antifragile in this time of change, our first step is both deceptively simple and incredibly important. Our first step has to be to improve our ability to bring ourselves back to a state of inner calm: strongly connected with who we are at our best and what matters most to us, no matter what is happening around us.
The deeper we build this inner connection then, like the roots of a tree, the better we will be able to survive the droughts and stay upright during the storms. And when times are calm, the depths of our inner ‘roots’ will determine how far we are able to spread the ‘branches’ of our influence out into wider challenges and roles.
Our first step to becoming antifragile in this time of change is to look inwards and know ourselves more deeply. This lays the foundations for everything else that follows.
How good are you at remaining calm, strongly connected with what matters most to you and who you are at your best, even in a crisis? How easy do you find it to choose between conflicting priorities, even when all around you is uncertain? Would it be useful for you to deepen your roots and strengthen your connection with who you are at your best and the priorities that matter most to you?
Adapted from The Churning, Inner Leadership: a framework and a set of tools for building inspiration in a time of change.
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