SwitchGear Insight #26

Be Uncomfortable!

Too often, leadership is defined in big terms like Charisma, or Being Bold, or Visionary Public Speaking but none of these are actually the root of leadership. We all know bold, visionary, charismatic people who are not great leaders, nor are these the first characteristics required to start change and deliver exceptional results.

If the job of a manager is to help her people improve today’s business, then the job of a leader (regardless of title) is to get her team from where they are today to where they have never been.

Thus leadership is about creating positive change and getting your team to change behaviours (and beliefs); to do something they have never done before, so by definition it is … uncomfortable!  If “doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result” is the definition of insanity, then the root of all leadership starts by “Getting comfortable being uncomfortable”.

Vince Lombardi once said “Everyone has the will to win. Few have the will to PREPARE to win”. So taking the easy, comfortable route rarely delivers the best outcomes. Vince was right; leaders themselves must be prepared to do hard, uncomfortable work.

Consider how fundamental this is: You will never be good at anything the 1st time you try it – driving a car, hitting a golf ball, coaching a rep. Whether you are speaking in public or learning a new sport, getting good at anything in life requires that you do it over and over again, long enough to get good, then great.  If a team or an individual always retreats from being uncomfortable … they will never get any better than they are today … and usually end up getting themselves stuck.

The root of all leadership always requires the following:

• Forget Looking Good… Baseball great Lou Brock once said “Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time”. Many of us don’t take the lead because we are afraid to fail, worried about public embarrassment or hate the awkward feeling as we struggle to start something new. The first few steps will always have the most uncertainty and where we’ll feel incompetent! Taking our first steps means risking looking bad, struggling for a while … and leaving our comfort-zone.

• Get Started: The term “analysis paralysis” is a metaphor for indecisiveness when something seems big, complex or scary. Don’t try to figure it ALL out – pick a direction, create a vision that energizes the team and then take a FEW steps.  Easier to get the team rallied around some action rather than delaying while you try to have the perfect plan and remove all risk.

• Patient Support and Constant Recognition:  Have you ever helped a toddler take their first steps? … what did you do?  You held their hands, cheered them on with a squeaky voice and probably didn’t force them to go faster. Change fails because the first steps are slow, unsteady and will cause fatigue, so it is easier to start the next BIG thing instead (ever heard of “flavour of the month”?). Great leaders generate HUGE amounts of positive energy all the time but especially when uncertainty and discomfort are high.  Go Team Go!

If you are comfortable learning more…

Carol Dweck (Fixed Mindset vs. the Growth Mindset), Elizabeth Gilbert (emotional labour) and Seth Godin (your Lizard Brain) all describe it differently but the simple view is that those who lead, who tackle difficult change, first start by getting comfortable being uncomfortable. That enables all other personal and organizational change and forms the root of all leadership.

Click here … to read about Carol Dweck’s work on the Fixed vs Growth Mindset.
Click here … to view Elizabeth Gilbert’s Ted Talk (author of Eat, Pray, Love).
Click here … to learn about your Lizard Brain … that little voice that say’s you’re not good enough.

Regards Afshan, Bruce & Winston

Authors of “Call Centers For Dummies, 2nd Edition” and “Game Changing Ideas”