Christopher Kayes explains how leaders can manage difficult emotions to lead outside their comfort zone
Yet stress, anxiety and emotional struggle are an unavoidable part of the human condition—a key force for people’s creativity and drive. They affect some more than others; the important thing is learning to control them.
Despite being one of Britain’s greatest prime ministers William Pitt the Younger was prone to stress and anxiety, sometimes being physically sick before speaking in the House of Commons. Even the most able leaders can struggle to control their emotions—let alone foster resilience in others.
While not facing Napoleonic invasion, business leaders today are living in another age of anxiety; one caused by the unpredictability of our fast-changing business world, competition for talent and ideas, and relentless pressure to increase performance and the bottom line. Leading effectively in this environment, when beset by multiple adversities and challenges that take you outside your comfort zone is emotionally draining for even the best of leaders.
Accepting in his new book, Leading Outside Your Comfort Zone, that there is no easy solution, Professor Christopher Kayes, Chair of the Department of Management at The George Washington University School of Business, shows how, through self-awareness and acceptance, and developing a learning mindset, leaders can surmount the inevitable emotional demands of leadership, and grow through resilience, learning and experience in the face of adversity.
Sub-titled The Surprising Psychology of Resilience, Growth, and Well-Being, this book is not a deep dive into the psychology or neuroscience of emotions, rather it is an eminently practical, research-based, guide for executives seeking to manage the emotional demands of leadership. It offers a framework for navigating everyday stresses, frustrations, and setbacks, and sets a course towards growth for leaders, their teams, and their organizations. It is also a reminder that transforming organizations starts with self-awareness and with understanding how others are wired to deal with adversities and to contribute.
Kayes basic contention is that emotional demands and pressures cause business leaders to stay in their comfort zone, turning to old methods, relying on existing skills, and consequently being closed to new ways to learn and grow. To snap out of this debilitating complacency means taking chances and embracing new creative approaches to decision making and leading. The comfort zone is a place characterized by procrastination, avoidance of conflict, and failure to address difficult emotions.
In this rigid, inflexible state, fear of failure and of trying anything new can lead to an over-emphasis on performance, says Kayes. Maintaining a level of steady performance through tried and tested ways may seem admirable—yet it implies sticking with the status quo, which in a volatile rapidly changing world can be a recipe for disaster. Leaving the comfort zone requires agile, courageous leadership open to innovation and change—as well as an understanding that short-term, frustrations and hindrances are a part of the process and can be sources of learning.
Echoing Friedrich Nietzsche’s “What does not kill me makes me stronger,” Kayes' book draws on a wide body of research to show how well-being, resilience and growth can emerge from the struggle to tame unpleasant emotions. The book explains how, by adopting a learning mindset, leaders can build the capacity to make decisions and take effective action in spite of unpleasant emotions that may previously have been overwhelming.
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