Comfort Zones

Over the years of hiring and working with various leaders, I have noticed that people who have rotated across various roles and across industries have tended to perform consistently stronger than peers who have stuck to their role and/or industry unless these are specialist roles.

 

How many of us have actually gone through very long phases in our careers working in the same department, with very similar roles, same managers, etc? What this does to us is that we get used to our roles, the office we come to, the environment around us, the people we work with, the manager we work for and the technical aspects of the job. We get in to a comfort zone. And are extremely happy about it.  More so, if the organization continues to recognize us for the work we do without expecting us to move around a bit. After some time, we stop thinking in our jobs.

 

I am reminded of an experiment that was done with a mouse. Sensors were fixed to the mouse and it was released in to a maze. At the end of the maze was a piece of cheese. The mouse could smell the cheese and started finding its way to the cheese. It was progressing slowly as it got stuck in the maze, but the sensors showed that its brain activity was extremely high. This experiment was repeated over the next few weeks. By the end of the first week, the mouse got used to the maze and just ran straight to the cheese. Now, the mouse was faster in getting to the cheese, but the sensors showed absolutely very little to no brain activity.

 

This is what happens to us when we get in to our comfort zones.  We tend to stop thinking through the job and job gets a bit boring for us. We go through the motions of the role, but the job is really not adding value to us. Our learning stops and our ability to get value add for ourselves and to add value to the role, the people who work for us, etc. starts decreasing.  This is exactly why we need to get out of our comfort zones.

 

So, how do we get out of our comfort zones?  Working in different environments i.e. across various business units or departments in our organization, for different managers, in different geographies or even across different industries will really help.  When I look back at my career, I have worked across different geographies, worked for over 30 managers, worked across industries, worked in different departments, managed business unit profit centres, managed cost centres, etc.  All this has helped me to broad-base my knowledge, keep myself refreshed and also added significant value to me. I have also been able to add value to the organization and to the people who work with me.

 

We all talk of learning organizations.  It would be good to keep refreshing our knowledge too. Somehow, many of us tend to think that reading stops once we leave University.  It is absolutely essential to keep reading and learning. I have used this habit effectively over the years and this helps me keep refreshed. It also helps me understand trends in business and, therefore, make decisions that are of better quality.  Learning and refreshing ourselves is essential. This takes us out of the comfort zone and keeps us on our toes.  What happens to us when we stand up on our toes? I mean literally...we can reach things that are kept at a greater height. 

 

Someone once told me laughingly, "Always be on your toes to reach greater heights."  There is so much truth in this statement.  We reach greater heights, both personally and professionally, if we are willing to get out of our comfort zones at any time.