Why You Must Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
You cannot learn in your comfort zone
Keynote Type: Opening – Themes: Leadership & Culture, Business, Change, Emotional Strength, Feeling, Vulnerability.
Are your people just going through the motions?
Are your people avoiding difficult conversations at work?
Have your leaders and your staff lost interest?
Let Sharon teach your people how to feel uncomfortable
Free yourself, free your staff, free your business
Get out of your comfort zone
Are you and your people hiding in your comfort zone?
When people prefer to stay in their comfort zone it may feel ‘safe’ but it’s artificial. People cannot learn while they stay in their comfort zone. They are in the habit of saying “It’s all good”; “No worries”. Disengaged staff are more likely to run to HR to complain every five minutes?
Organisational surveys highlight a decline in employee engagement. One estimate is that 80% of employees globally are disengaged at work.
What about the decline in leader engagement? This is one of the biggest risk factors that your business is likely to encounter over the next 3-5 years.
It is imperative that leaders are trained to have difficult conversations, and to be able to give and receive negative feedback, develop strategic thinking and find a deeper purpose in their role.
“Whatever is going on in the business is a reflection of the leader”.
Leaders who are vulnerable are perceived to be authentic and trustworthy
The word vulnerability comes with a lot of baggage and myths. When you live a life of going through the motions, you feel exhausted at the end of the day, you feel demotivated and wander around feeling, “what’s the point?’ A lot of people believe that feeling vulnerable is a risk.
Why is it a risk?
You might feel exposed. You might say to yourself: “Don’t let your guard down”. Don’t let people see your weaknesses. It might be held against you. It is not safe to be yourself.
When leaders are connected to the vulnerable part within themselves, they have a presence and an energy that is very engaging. The outside world doesn’t know this, they just feel they can trust their boss. They get a sense that their boss is real. Your communication improves and everyone’s productivity increases.
“The health of a business mirrors the well-being of its leader”
Feel ‘Negative’ Emotion for your health and wellbeing
Feeling ‘negative’ emotion is essential for health and wellbeing. For people to avoid feeling negative emotion they tend to suppress, avoid, distract, deny, numb, or pretend that everything is OK when it is not. This behaviour impacts performance. When you hear someone say “it’s all good” when it’s not really, this is energy draining and leads to fatigue. When people feel fatigued productivity drops.
“What got you here won’t get you there”.
Move towards the pain
Feeling pain is not suffering or wallowing. Suffering and wallowing are thinking and meaning making.
You can get stuck in your head and suffer, or you can drop down into your body and feel. The idea is to move towards the pain and feel. You can build capacity for pain and feeling. Most people believe that we have a limited capacity. There is no ceiling on your capacity unless you believe so. It is like going to the gym to build muscle, you get stronger and more confident in your ability to lift a heavier load.
“Sharon Faye has spent her entire professional life studying emotion, partly because as a young person she was numb. Emotional Strength saved her life.”