Imagine: you are at a public event, there is someone who has a presentation. The speaker is stressed, he stutters a bit maybe, his face is red and his voice is shaking. Clearly, he is not comfortable with public presentations. What would his reception by others be like? Positive? Negative?
It is difficult for him and clearly, he is determined to act outside of his comfort zone.
It might sound as an obviousness, but I think we still need to encourage people to be positive and step outside of their comfort zone. I think It should be one of the measure of people’s progress.
Staying positive is not an ignorance
Staying positive is about seeing the reality as it is, and maintaining a positive mindset: a can-do model, where we maintain a conviction that we can deal with and solve challenges.
When I say “keeping positive” I’m not talking about being an optimist, or acting with bravado, or ignoring the reality. I’m not saying that everybody who talks about potential issues is a blocker or a negative guy. I’m talking about seeing the reality as it is, and maintaining a positive mindset: a can-do model, where we maintain a conviction that we can deal with and solve challenges. With this mindset we can much more easily focus on building a capacity for dealing with challenges.
No perfection out of the comfort zone
It’s worth promoting the idea of people taking up challenges, even if they were not successful at the beginning. It is crucial to appreciate the persons who steps out of their comfort zone and provide them with a safe learning environment.
The concept of our comfort zone is propagated widely – so it can be seen as overused, however in my opinion, its worth using this idea. Development almost always begins when we go out of the comfort zone. To get different results, we usually need to change the way we do things (or how we think about things) which can sometimes be an unpleasant experience (because doing new things can make us feel insecure).
Do you support and appreciate people who are ready to act out of their comfort zone?
Are you ready to accept the fact that ‘out of the comfort zone’ will be no perfection?
It’s worth promoting the idea of people taking up challenges, even if they were not successful at the beginning. Personally, I think it is crucial to appreciate the persons who steps out of their comfort zone and provide them with a safe learning environment.
What is the impact of developing this value into the culture? The team starts from a completely different place when it comes to deal with uncertainty. It is much more likely that they will think how do deal with it, how to use it for a favor rather than trying to avoid it.
In order to confront the rapidly-evolving world around us, we need to have a system in place to adapt with the changes. This article is the third from the series which aims to describe basic approaches, which can help to be more responsive and adaptive. Sign up to the newsletter – so you will never miss an update!
