Happy New Year! With an exciting year ahead for Vermelho, I have been reflecting on what topics would be useful for those who follow my posts. I will therefore be posting a series or two of themed blogs this year. I am extremely passionate about what makes a team more resilient during periods of change, and one key factor is that they have resilient role models. So the first series I will be focusing on is Leadership Resilience.
With the start of 2018 well underway and the challenges and opportunities of the year in front of us, a topic I have pondered has been discomfort and the impact it has on the decisions leaders make and on their performance.
It is natural for most people to avoid discomfort. A simple example we can all relate to is when we want to exercise more. Changing our habits towards increasing the amount of exercise we do results in some feelings of discomfort. We may find it difficult to wake up earlier to go for a run, or the exertion at the gym while we are unfit is uncomfortable. That level of discomfort means we often give up and resort back to sleeping in or not exercising at all. A comfort zone is a very easy thing to stay in. And it is also a demotivator. People seldom grow in a comfort zone, but with some resilience they can step out of it.
Unfortunately, naturally avoiding discomfort is perhaps one of the biggest limiting factors for leaders and teams. Some of the symptoms of a leader/team who avoids discomfort include:
- Engaging in busy work so there is no time to take a look at the big picture;
- Putting off decisions by analysing and re-analysing information, especially in highly uncertain situations. This results in missed opportunities, increases feelings of frustration and undermines trust;
- Fear of looking stupid and feeling insecure;
- Constantly changing your mind to keep everyone happy;
- Not providing guidance and accountability.
If leaders learn how to be comfortable with discomfort, and pass the skill on to their team, the benefits are numerous. These include:
- Mastering procrastination, due to no longer avoiding tedious tasks;
- Improved team discussions and coaching even over difficult subjects;
- Decreased resistance to change resulting in increased engagement and productivity;
- Improved team dynamic, through increased levels of trust;
- Increased resilience through periods of uncertainty;
- Increased abilities to master new skills.
The longer answer to how to step out of a comfort zone lies in habit and self discipline. This is NOT a "No Pain, No Gain" situation. It is rather different. It is an exercise in looking at the discomfort in a different light. My experience in managing change within organisations and building resilience in teams has shown that sometimes the discomfort in a change process never goes away. But it is important to realise that discomfort isn’t a bad thing that needs to be avoided. And discomfort is not something that needs to be changed either. Leaders sometimes get into a habit of constantly trying to fix discomfort. A good habit to develop is to know when to allow it to happen, and create a place where it is safe for people to feel it.
Another important step is to practice expanding your comfort zone. For example, if your comfort zone is sleeping until 7am, then you would need to expand your comfort zone if you want to wake up at 6am. This means consistently waking up at 6am, through the discomfort, until a tolerance occurs.
There is a little personal challenge/exercise that I do with teams to help them understand the feeling of expanding a comfort zone. You can try this in your chair right now.
When you have been sitting for a little while and you feel like getting up or shifting position, sit still and don’t move. Then when you feel the urge to shift a second time, remain still and don’t move. And when you feel the urge to shift a third time, that’s when you allow yourself to move. Sit through the urge and discomfort twice before finally giving in the third time.
Now do this again and reflect on the following:
- Watch yourself as you get a bit uncomfortable — are you starting to complain (internally)?
- Are you looking for ways to avoid it?
- Do you give up quickly or stick through it?
- What happens if you stay with it, and don’t do anything?
Finally, there is a lovely quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet that I often repeat to myself during times of discomfort:
Essentially, understanding that a feeling of discomfort is what it is, and that it doesn’t need to be labelled good or bad makes it much easier to deal with.
I would love to know how you allow yourself to feel comfortable with discomfort and how you overcome a challenge. Please leave a comment.
If you have any ideas for what you'd like me to talk about in my blog series, please send me a message!