To achieve this new approach to leading in a time of change, we need to develop seven new sets of skills or competencies.
When we do this, the benefits come to us in five stages.
First, by applying any tool of Inner Leadership, we get to solve the immediate problems we face. We stay calm in crisis, find more opportunities for moving forward, and so on.
Second, by applying all these tools together, we become more inspirational leaders. We not only fix our immediate problems, we also become more able to lead ourselves and others quickly out of any situation.
As we repeat the process we become better at it. In a time of change, people and organisations that can respond to change quickly, by finding the best way forward and putting it into practice, have competitive advantage. They become what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls ‘antifragile’. They use change to become stronger. This is the third level of benefit.
Combined together, these three benefits are a step by step approach to achieving what some people call Conscious Leadership or Purpose-Driven Leadership.
And there are two more levels to come.
Einstein told us that we cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it. Many of the problems we face today are the direct result of decisions taken in the past. It is those decisions that have created the world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that we have today. If we’d had different ideas about what it means to be a leader we would have taken different choices.
By developing a new style of leadership, one that focuses on building inspiration amongst the largest number of stakeholders, we can expect instead to create a more stable, abundant, and (re)generative world. This is the fourth level of benefit.
Finally, the fifth level of benefit is joy. This is something we don’t often talk about in business but perhaps we should. Because your joy shows you where your purpose lies, and when you are working on something in line with your purpose you feel joy.
Purpose, Inner Leadership shows us, is the essential key to achieving all the benefits laid out above. Purpose helps us to stay calm in a crisis. It helps us find and choose the best way forward. It inspires us to put that choice into practice. And purpose is the key to creating the antifragile people and organisations that have competitive advantage in a time of change.
Purpose and meaning are also what we desire most as human beings. By living in line with our purpose we experience joy, and by experiencing joy we have more energy to put our purpose into practice. So the fifth and final level of benefit you can expect to gain from reading and applying the tools of Inner Leadership is joy.
In summary, the five benefits are:
- Quickly solve the immediate problems you face
- Become a more inspirational leader of yourself and other people
- Use change to become stronger
- Create a (re)generative world
- Find your joy
Which is most important to you?
Adapted from The Churning, Inner Leadership. Buy the Book
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