Being uncomfortable is something that most people strive to avoid but in business that can condemn sales and company owners to mediocrity or irrelevancy. That’s why Technical.ly’s article Getting ‘uncomfortable’: Allysa Dittmar on going full time with ClearMask resonated so strongly with me. It’s a great example of how Dittmer embraced feeling uncomfortable to allow herself to focus on growing and developing her company.
People have a comfort zone in which they prefer to operate. They may occasionally venture outside the boundary of their comfort zone, but typically only for brief periods.
Acting in a manner different than what your comfort zone dictates may give rise to a realm of uncomfortable feelings like fear, doubt, anxiety, and even guilt. There’s an emotional security of sorts to operating within your comfort zone, even if so doing yields less than optimum outcomes.
As Dittmer alludes to, there’s a big potential problem with comfort zones. In the sales arena (and most other arenas, as well), growth is a function of one’s ability to recognize and accept the changing nature of the environment and the willingness to adapt by taking appropriate action. In other words, if your environment is changing and you don’t change with it, you’ll get left behind. Sometimes we need to challenge ourselves and make a conscious effort to move beyond our comfort zone if we expect to thrive in an ever shifting environment.
And that’s just as true for organizations as it is for people.
It’s always appropriate for company owners, C-suite executives, and other leaders to ask: Where are our organizational comfort zones . . . and which ones do we need to move beyond?
Stepping onto a brand-new path can be difficult, and it can bring about all kinds of strong emotional responses – but in the long term it’s better than remaining in a situation that’s familiar, but not moving you quickly enough toward your most important personal or organizational goals.
|
|
You might also be interested in:
