THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSTANTLY STEPPING OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE
One of the primary concepts I continually share when working with emerging frontline leaders is that if they haven’t already realised it, they need to be increasingly “comfortable with feeling uncomfortable”. Whether someone has warned you or not, signing up for leadership means signing up for a whole new group of challenges, relational idiosyncrasies, and decisions which will make you feel more uncomfortable than you ever have before.
It’s not necessary to do whatever it takes to cause this feeling of discomfort to diminish. It’s perfectly natural and actually an indicator that something good is happening or could potentially happen.
Years ago, I was delivering leadership training to a group of infrastructure supervisors and team leaders for a multinational company. Wherever possible I try to invite senior leaders of the business to open leadership programs and also talk about their own leadership journey, especially the learnings that occurred to them in early leadership roles.
On one program I had a regiona manager join me, who had opened other programs previously and so it was great to hear him once again share a particular story of leading and supporting his team in an overseas position. That position, on one occasion, required him to reach out to the then Prime Minister of New Zealand to get one of his team members evacuated on board her prime ministerial plane for a medical emergency. He shared with the group his favourite leadership saying (which has also become one of my favourites over the years)-: “Comfort is the enemy of learning”. I have since adapted it so that the saying has now become: “Comfort is the enemy of growth”.
In essence both of those statements mean something very similar. If you are experiencing discomfort then there is a very good chance that you are also experiencing learning and growth (or at least an opportunity where you could be learning and growing). These statements tie in nicely to the concept of becoming ‘increasingly comfortable with being uncomfortable’, because they make discomfort the very real silver lining to a possibly dark cloud of circumstance. It is providing you an opportunity to grow in whatever area you’re experiencing the discomfort, be it as a spouse, a parent, or in the many uncomfortable situations you might find yourself as a first-time leader.
