Successful Leaders step out of the comfort zone

“The comfort zone makes one feel that everything is fine, that you are the jack of all trades and you are doing everything right. But what it does to you without you realising is it kills your risk appetite, and holds you back from moving ahead as a leader”

There is a place that is so mesmerising that once discovered, many stay there all their lives. This is the comfort zone, otherwise known as ‘the status quo.’  This is a place that holds all that is familiar, the already faced challenges and the ready answers. To many people it is a much desired place,  unless they are leaders, in which case stepping out of the comfort zone is imperative.

Comfort zone going by the dictionary means “a psychological state in which things from the environment are close and familiar to a person and under their control, enabling low levels of stress and anxiety”. Alternately, “a place or situation where one feels safe or at ease and without stress.”

What’s discomfiting about being too comfortable?

When the chair is too comfortable, the pleasure of sinking into it is high, but it comes with the cost of losing agility and dynamism. Leaders need to constantly be one upon change and innovation to make their organizations contemporary and ready for the future. Staying in the comfort zone builds a fear of rocking the boat, taking risks, even when sitting at sea means facing a storm.

A leader in the comfort zone is tuned to only hearing what’s safe and familiar,  blindsiding them from valuable feedback and criticism, making it difficult to create or sustain a strong leadership led culture.

The comfort zone – a place of bliss, or danger?

On the surface it sounds positive and perhaps looks like what one should aim for. After all, a stress free zone is best for leaders and employees, right? Why do we then expect someone in a professional environment to step out of their comfort zones?  This is what we will try to look deeper into in this article.

Let’s start with an example. If you have broadly followed the evolution of cricket as a sport in India, you will know this. In the 80s, a sure way for a batsman to get a place in the Indian team was to play exceedingly well in the domestic tournaments, against first class bowlers. Many of the chosen batsmen were indeed the ones who made big scores against spin bowlers, on flat pitches,  and got selected to play for India. But, at the international level, with pace bowlers pounding down the pitch, they failed miserably. Only very few of the batsmen could survive at the global level, and that was because they were intrinsically adept at playing fast bowlers.

For all other batsmen, playing on home pitches against slow bowlers was their comfort zone. It could give them an entry but not help them survive at international levels.

Stepping out is imperative

The comfort zone makes one feel that everything is fine, that you are the jack of all trades and you are doing everything right. But what it does to you without you realising is it kills your risk appetite, limits your behaviours, prevents you from learning, not letting you push yourself to become better. You almost become like a pampered child, a batsman who keeps hitting the slow bowlers on a flat pitch.

Leaders in a familiar environment with the same teams never get any tough feedback, are made to think they are always right. The comfort zone actually creates a cozy cocoon around the Leaders.

When a leader realizes that they are getting too comfortable at taking the easier options, even if they’re not the best, they should figure out that  it’s time to step right out.

Quite often when Coaches are identifying strengths and areas of development for their Leader Coachees, they discover that one of the main reasons for the Coachees to be blinkered about their shortcomings, and not understand outside perspectives are the direct results of continuously  staying in comfort zones.

How to step out of your comfort zone?

Challenge yourself

The first step to take is to challenge yourself. Leaders should not assume what they do is always right. They should question their own decisions, think long term, not just to solve the problem on hand. A safe conservative coder stops once the piece of code works. A thinking coder doesn’t stop there, he or she tries alternative codes to achieve speed, efficiency, code stability etc. Same applies to Leaders.

Be open for opposing or contrasting views

A confident leader is willing to receive alternate opinions from others outside the team. Good Leaders recognise the capabilities of team members and other colleagues, draw upon their knowledge and come out with the best solutions possible, and not get fixed on their own solutions alone. Doing this has several advantages; it’s easier to build consensus and push for ideas;  and, bring others on board and build a conviction around major decisions.

Let’s look at the Moon landing of India. After the first failure ISRO decided to try again. To go for Chandrayaan was not a top-down decision alone but one that the whole organization was convinced they should go for. Several Leaders needed to get out of their comfort zone to be part of this mission. The nation could see the commitment of the entire team both when the project failed and then succeeded. However what was more apparent was that the risk appetite of the team leaders encouraged the entire team to reach higher, to greater heights.

Change is a key factor

Leaders who step out of roles they have played for a long time and take up new roles in a new environment, ones that they are unfamiliar with, represent simple yet profound instances of stepping out of comfort zones. In challenging their own status quo, a confident leader sees the opportunity to learn afresh, discover their leadership capabilities in newer terrains, and add freshness to the new role they have taken up.

In Government portfolios, we have seen that unexpected changes in the portfolios of Ministers and Bureaucrats have yielded high degrees of success.

Starts with me

So, let’s look at ourselves, are we too comfortable with what we are doing today? Are we too set on what we do day after day? Then it’s time to create a disruption right away.

Author – Sriram TV, CFI Coach