Photograph of a leadership team having a meeting

Up until now, I’ve tried to be very careful about how I write these blogs because I don’t want to put a shelf life on them. After all, the subjects I’m writing about – the principles of leadership, the importance of identifying your employees’ strengths, etc. – are timeless and universal. The topic I’m going to talk about today, why it's essential for leaders to step out of their comfort zone, is timeless too. However, I'd be avoiding the elephant in the room if I didn't at least give the nod to what's going on in the world right now because the conflict in Ukraine has pushed a lot of leaders out of their comfort zones in ways they could never have imagined at the start of this year. Not just the leaders of countries and governments, but the leaders of major global corporations; BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Boeing, Volvo, Daimler, Apple, Dell, Ericsson, Harley Davidson, Maersk… As I’m writing this (which might be weeks, months, or years before you read it), they've all severed their business ties with Russia over the past few days. That isn’t just a moral, political, and (if you want to be cynical about it) intelligent PR decision; it obviously carries a tremendous number of economic consequences too.

And, let’s face it, getting your economics right is what being an effective business leader is all about.

Now they’ve made that decision to pull out of a significant world market, all those business leaders have got more difficult decisions to make over the next few weeks and months about how they’re going to recover that abandoned ground and substantial loss of revenue.

Did those leaders willingly step out of their comfort zones? Probably not. Most, if not all, of them, were forced out of their comfort zone by Russia’s actions and the West’s response to it. But now they're out of their comfort zone, a lot of those leaders will begin to realise something a lot of their peers already knew…

Authentic leadership begins where the comfort zone ends.

I realise the current world situation is a macro example of how quickly the comfort zone carpet can be whipped out from under you, but, from a micro perspective (i.e. the world the majority of us do business in), there are important lessons we can learn as well.

Don’t wait for circumstances to push you out of your comfort zone and force you to step up and be a leader.
Step out of your comfort zone right now and learn how to own it. Your leadership will be all the better for it.

The false comfort of the comfort zone

The comfort zone makes you feel that everything is safe, secure, and how it should be. It tells you that if you step out of your comfort zone, there's a massive risk that everything will go disastrously wrong, so why would you take that chance? Stay in your comfort zone, keep your behaviours limited; how you're performing now is just fine. Slow and steady wins the race.

Your comfort zone is lying to you.

Effective leaders know that staying inside their comfort zone is a dangerous place to be. It means they’re not growing; they're not learning; they're not pushing themselves or their employees to become better. They're not getting the results they could be.

How can you step out of your comfort zone?

Challenge yourself: it’s easy to challenge somebody when they’re telling you what to do. When you’re a leader, and you’re the one making those decisions, it’s not so easy to challenge yourself. That’s why you need to do it. Don’t assume that your decision is always the right one, and don’t limit yourself to focusing on just what’s required right now. Think beyond those limits. Be fearless and challenge your own vision.

Don’t lead from an island: ineffective leaders isolate themselves from everybody else's opinions. That might be because they've got the mistaken idea that only they know what's best for the business, or it might be because they don't want to risk looking like a weak leader by calling upon other people's advice. Sometimes, it might even be because they're afraid that the people below them will have better ideas. Whatever your reason is for leading from an island, please stop it. Genuine leadership means working with others and not being afraid to draw upon their knowledge or listen to their opinions. That's the way leaders demonstrate courage, bring everybody on board, and align them with their business's purpose. It's also the way they build loyalty and respect in their workforce.

Challenge the status quo: leading from your comfort zone means never changing what you’re doing. That’s a dangerous, self-defeating mindset because businesses must adapt, modify, remodel and restructure all the time to keep growing. Be daring, don't stay within the tramlines of "this is the way it's always been done, so let's not change it." Successful leaders never settle for 'what is'. They're always asking, 'how can we make this better?'

Be innovative: the 'best practices' you put in place yesterday aren't necessarily going to be the best practices for today. Be creative and innovative, investigate new ways your business can do things. Successful leaders constantly innovate and aim higher.

Build a stronger culture: Every business has its own culture—the better and stronger the culture, the more successful the business. Weak leaders sit at the top and let their organisation's culture work it out for itself. When they do, the culture's most likely to be confused and lack direction. Great leaders lead their organisation's culture. They form it, nurture it, and take responsibility for it. When they do, they’re proving they’re a strong leader too.

Don’t be afraid to rock the boat: One of the biggest reasons weak leaders stay inside their comfort zone is that they're scared of being criticised by stakeholders, peers, and employees. But always remember that stakeholders like to stay inside the comfort zone, too, so when a leader is afraid to challenge them, they're effectively holding themselves and their business back. Successful leaders are heroic. They're not scared of criticism. They show conviction in what they believe and, instead of being afraid to rock the boat, they find ways to convince other people – stakeholders, peers, employees – to buy into it too.

If the leader starts to realise that their convictions are flawed during that 'buy in' conversation, that's good too. It demonstrates a) they're not leading from an island, b) they haven't been afraid to challenge the status quo, c) they're not afraid to make themselves vulnerable, d) they're willing to keep learning. Those are all traits of a great leader who leads from outside their comfort zone.

Surround yourself with the best: Leaders who stay inside their comfort zone are afraid of giving the spotlight to other people. On the other hand, great leaders who step outside their comfort zone recognise the talent in other people, cultivate it, and find ways to use it to everybody’s advantage.

Lead from within: The best leaders take every opportunity they can to make things better. They’re always focused on making improvements. They know that things always have to change if they’re going to be made better but change only happens when things are challenged. That’s the only way to make improvements, and every improvement starts when a leader steps out of their comfort zone.

Finally, bringing this topic down to about as micro as it could get, here’s a small stepping-outside-a-comfort-zone example from my own life.

You might already know that I host a podcast called Blocktalk (and if you didn’t, you do now!)

If you’d asked me two years ago if I was ever going to do a podcast, I'd have said not a chance in your life. Just the thought of it took me way, way out of my comfort zone. But, now that I’m doing it, I’m delighted I took the step because it’s given me the opportunity to talk to a lot of extremely interesting people, learn a lot of new things, think about some of the things I thought I knew in a different way, and broadened my horizons. It felt awkward to start with, but now I'm happy I stepped out of my comfort zone.

If you're currently in a comfort zone, whether it's a leadership comfort zone or a 'general life' comfort zone, I think you'll be happy when you step out of it too.