I must admit that in various leadership team meetings and staff conferences I have been known to ask the group if they are Uncomfortably Excited!
I do like this expression because it sums up well I think the modern day work situation and is a useful and valuable work ethic.
I don't know of too many teams or businesses that would say part of their success was in being comfortable. Equally the journey with all its ups and downs we hope is overall remembered as exciting.
I recall attending a conference where the speaker (an experienced HR professional) was giving some career management advice. One of the final points she made was that;
if everything is going ok and things are comfortable then you are probably not pushing or challenging yourself and your team hard enough!"
As a leader of many teams and businesses over the years I have always strived to find a balance in setting goals for excellence and results without crossing too far into unrealistic demotivation. This would often mean times of uncomfortable reality in setting goals and targets that were well above our historical or current rate of performance. This target "gap" as we would refer to it, really threw up the challenge of walking the fine line between what was possible vs the fear of failure.
I remember also exploring this a while ago with a CEO friend (a leader of a very large organisation) in discussing the role of leaders and managers in setting targets. He threw an interesting point back to me in asking who was I to set the limits on what the staff and teams were capable of?
I learned to not set and limit the teams performance by where I personally felt comfortable, but to put the stretch challenge out there and work with the team's reactions, fears and ideas. Everyone's level of comfort and excitement is going to be different. Your team's acceptance of stretch targets and goals may actually be greater than your own. The role as leader and manager is then to encourage, foster and support the uncomfortable excitement!
I do think it is sensible and useful to set and be guided by business and personal visions and goals. However, today's world is one of constant and rapid evolution in which issues and opportunities arise quickly, and any state of status quo can soon disappear. Speed of awareness and response agility therefore becomes ever more critical.
Another reason why I think being in a productive state of Uncomfortable Excitement is such a good philosophy for today's operating environment.
Can the fear of a significant challenge and the unknown really be "exciting"?
Think back to the time you learned to ride a bike, drive a car, move to a new job in a new city, start a new business. The reality was that much of the future outcome at that time was unknown. You had done enough research and training to assess the basic risks and take the challenge. The rest was then up to you (and factors of the new situational environment). Perhaps you just took the dive into the deep end and quickly learned and managed risks and consequences the hard way!
As human beings, much research would suggest that we are programmed toward both problem solving and risk management. The degree of tolerance (and nervous excitement) in moving into the Uncomfortable Zone is going to be based on both real and perceived threats to personal safety and security, both physical and emotional.
Whilst we as humans enjoy elements of familiarity and pattern, we are also stimulated and motivated to resolve "cognitive dissonance" - the uncomfortable state between the current reality and the need or desire for a new or different reality. We are basically programmed to try and accept (or justify) the current state, or act to change the current situation into the new desired state of reality. That is the exciting and very real power of dreams, goals and ambition!
So how do you productively manage levels and states of comfort and excitement?
In coaching on leadership and management, I often refer to three spaces of personal learning and progress being (a) the Comfort Zone, (b) the Uncomfortable Zone and (c) the Terror Zone. The most positive advances being made in the "Uncomfortable Zone", also often known as the Learning Zone.
I hear from many people that with the dynamic, volatile, disruptive pace of today's business world, there is not much time or space to ever be comfortable. That is true but I think we can also acknowledge and observe that at times people and teams seem more toward the comfort zone than higher risk exploration and innovation in the uncomfortable zone.
The approach to managing oneself and leading others deeper and further into areas of uncomfortable excitement does however require thoughtful consideration.
If for example I had pushed too hard, given up or reprimanded my son or daughter when learning to ride their bike for the first time, they would very likely have also given up (and also demanded a new instructor). We all had to accept that they would fall off, there would be broken parts on the bike (and some physical and emotional bruises also) and quickly learning where a change in location or approach was required.
Most importantly, I was there for encouragement, guidance and a safety net between the fine line of productive nervous excitement and unproductive fear! Such also is the role of a great people leader and manager.
Some have even suggested to me that to really drive momentum and energy, an experience into the terror zone is necessary to really focus attention and get things moving. Once the element of crisis is understood, then further structure, support and controls are applied to bring people back into the Uncomfortable Zone and figure out the best solution.
It is at the outer levels of "Uncomfortable Excitement" that new possibilities, new discoveries and great achievements occur!
As Larry Page (CEO Google) also advised at an address to Michigan University students in 2009:
... pursue work that is “uncomfortably exciting”. “The best people want to work on the biggest challenges,” he said. “Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition.”
In conclusion.
Are you uncomfortably excited?
If you are not uncomfortable, are you operating at your best, are you truly exploring your full potential, are you taking on big enough goals and challenges?
If you are not excited then maybe it's time to try and do something different - step a little more into the arena of dreams, goals and unknown possibilities. Back yourself. Surprise yourself.
If you are a leader of people and teams, are you the one actually limiting the teams potential? Are you creating and providing an environment where people are prepared and supported to step out of the comfort zone? Are you prepared to step up and show leadership yourself into bold new areas of opportunity and possibility? Do you recognise and reward those who have tried and failed along with those who have tried and succeeded?
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