Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

The one signal leaders miss when complexity hits

17 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, the speaker emphasizes the importance of monitoring one’s own somatic responses as a primary indicator that a leader is confronting complexity in a counter‑productive way. When the nervous system is activated—manifested as a clenched fist, tight jaw, forward‑leaning posture, or other bodily tension—it signals that the leader is fighting the problem rather than engaging with it using complexity‑friendly methods. Recognizing these internal cues allows leaders to shift their approach, reduce stress, and handle complex challenges more effectively.

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The most important one I think is, what is happening in me? So you mentioned kind of what's happening somatically. I think this is absolutely crucial because, as we just talked about, one of the key signals that we're dealing with complexity but not approaching it in a complexity-friendly manner is our nervous system is activated. And so because we're fighting, we're trying to kind of figure something out by beating our head against the wall. So noticing in ourselves what that feels like, for different people it's different. You know, some people it's sort of almost like a clenched fist. Or a tight jaw or kind of forward leaning. It's different for different people, but being able to notice that is super important.