Find Your ‘Discomfort Zone’: 5 Tactics to Become a Better Leader

To become a better leader, it’s been said that you need to get out of your comfort zone.

If that’s the case, the place you want to be is your “discomfort zone.” But gosh, doesn’t that sound uncomfortable?!

Yes, it probably is. But the discomfort is only temporary.

Finding the Discomfort Zone

So how do you find it? Where is it? If you’ve not been there before, how do you know when you find it?

Experts say it takes planning to move from comfort to discomfort. You have to plan to take the steps.

So it helps to keep an eye out for signs along the way that there’s an opportunity to wade into the discomfort toward becoming an even greater finance leader. Here are five:

1. Pay Attention to the ‘Check Engine’ Light

You know you’re ready to embark on your journey to discomfort when you realize you’ve been ignoring that little “Check Engine” light that’s been on in your life. It’s an internal light fueling feelings of discontent.

That’s not necessarily negative. It’s true that in your vehicle, “check engine” tells you something is wrong. But the feature also comes programmed with a series of steps to fix the problem, if you use the proper tools.

In much the same way, those feelings of unease can lead to a new life of purpose.

If we’re paying attention, discontent tells us that something is amiss. And a series of new things can clear it.

2. Swim Away From the Reef

One of the best analogies about how people end up in enormous comfort zones is a lesson from a college Psych 101 course about coral reefs. Reefs start tiny, being built by teeny coral as they create their exoskeletons.

But they end up by building massive barriers of rock all around them. Life in and around the reef is safe, productive and friendly. The environment came about so gradually, who noticed?

Sure, the things that are outside the reef appear rough and stormy, full of great unknowns. But there’s no growth within the reef.

Leaving the reef is leaving the zone. New things await. You just have to be prepared for a storm.

3. Break the Habit: Un-know Yourself

The ancient Greeks long ago cornered the market on the popular philosophic phrase: “Know Thyself.”

But when you want to leave your comfort zone, you must start to UN-know yourself.

That can be even harder. Here’s why.

The traditional maxim of “know thyself” represents past success and strengths. It means you have formed habitual, automatic behaviors because you once dealt with something successfully, tried the same response the next time, and found it worked again.

That’s how habits grow and why they feel so useful. But they may not always work — and you’ll only find out if you try something different.

To explore the idea that new and greater success lies ahead, you may have to give up on many of your most fondly held (and formerly successful) habits, and try new ways of thinking and acting. You must UN-know yourself and your habits.

4. Dare to Kiss a Few Frogs

It’s big. It’s ugly. It’s scary.

Who wouldn’t naturally hesitate when staring down such an unappealing task, like kissing a slimy, cold, croaking amphibian.

But what a payoff! Remember — the frog turned into a prince.

So what’s the worst that could happen? Actually, don’t answer that. Just dive in. Risk failure.

Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: Do one thing every day that scares you.

5. Break the Rules

We know, we know: Finance professionals live by the ledger and stay between the lines. You follow the rules.

But, once in a while, breaking the rules can help you become a better leader.

Don’t get us wrong: We aren’t suggesting you do anything unethical, immoral or illegal! And you may not want to actually break rules.

But if you bend one or two to test new boundaries now and then, you open up the potential to new possibilities, greater opportunities and improved operations or performance.