Measurement is an important part of all our lives, both for defining our objectives and for tracking our progress towards them.
Measuring how antifragile we are might be more difficult than measuring many other things but it still matters. After all, it’s useful to know our strengths and weaknesses. And it’s important to be able to measure our progress as the tools of Inner Leadership start to make a difference.
So the book asks us to rate our ability at the seven skills or competencies that will make us antifragile: the seven skills or competencies that enable us to shift our inner state to become able to use change to become stronger and more valuable.
Imagine we start in the bottom left hand corner of the picture, in a state of ‘Churning’.
From here, the first skill or competency we need is the ability to shift this inner state to become ‘Centred’ and ‘Grounded’: to connect with what matters most to us and who we are at our best, even in a crisis. This gets us started on the journey and the tools of Chapter 1 show us how to achieve this.
The second step, in Chapter 2, is to shift our inner state to feeling ‘Confident’ or ‘Sure’. And the way we do this is by making clear sense of the situation, quickly and reliably.
In Chapter 3 we realise that every challenge contains an opportunity and we learn to find more opportunities in any situation. This shifts our inner state to become more ‘Optimistic’. Now we have taken the third step in learning to use change to become stronger and more valuable.
The fourth skill is the ability to choose our best way forward, even when the situation is unclear and the outcome is difficult to predict. The tools needed to achieve this are covered in Chapter 4. They shift our inner state to ‘Directed’.
In Chapters 5 and 6 we review our purpose and values and create an inspiring description of the outcome we have decided to create. This enables us to inspire ourselves and other people to long to make it happen. Now we have taken six steps to becoming antifragile and our inner emotional state has shifted to ‘Determined’ and then ‘Inspired’.
Finally, in Chapter 7, we learn to maintain and build our inspiration in the face of the obstacles we will undoubtedly encounter as we move forward. With this skill strongly in place we are ‘Ready’ to begin.
Each of these steps, on its own, is simple and straightforward. Combined in the right order they become a transformational staircase that anyone can climb. And the more you build your ability at each of these seven competencies, the more antifragile you become — more able to lead yourself and other people through change, in ways that make you stronger and more valuable.
If you would like to use change to become stronger and more valuable, start now. Rate your ability today (on a scale of zero to ten) at each of the seven competencies of becoming antifragile. Then ask yourself what a ‘ten’ would look like for you, for each of the skills. Where is the biggest gap? Where would a small improvement make the biggest difference to your life right now? Where do you want to be in a year’s time? What actions are you taking to achieve that?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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Photo By William Warby via StockPholio.net