Getting Comfortable with Discomfort

Physicist Peter Carruthers, once the leader of the theoretical division at Los Alamos Laboratory, had a wonderful viewpoint about the discomfort that comes with taking on an interesting challenge:  

“There’s a special tension to people who are constantly in the position of making new knowledge. You’re always out of equilibrium. When I was young, I was deeply troubled by this. Finally, I realized that if I understood too clearly what I was doing, where I was going, then I probably wasn’t working on anything very interesting.”

As I reflect on the past few semesters of teaching, I'm reminded of the profound insight captured in this quote.  Moreover, I'm mindful that many students are deeply troubled by the discomfort that comes with learning something new and difficult.  Or, they shy away from particular activities that they find uncomfortable, such as making a public presentation or speaking up in class.  In education today, I think we are often allowing students to nestle in their comfort zone.  As a result, they are missing tremendous fairly low-risk opportunities to stretch and grow their skills in the safety of a classroom.  

What happens when they enter the workforce?  Will they seek opportunities that "fit" their skills, or will they look for challenges that will grow their skills?  For those who seek comfort and fit, they may excel early in their career, but will they plateau at some point?  Will they grow bored eventually with repeating tasks at which they have become quite adept?  Meanwhile, what about those who stretch themselves?  We need to prepare them for the failures that will undoubtedly occur.  We need to encourage them to be self-reflective, to learn quickly from their mistakes, and to adapt based on the feedback of others.  If we teach them to be resilient learners, they will thrive in the long run. 

Leaders need to think about how to best develop talented young people in their organization.  They need to insure that these future stars don't limit their potential by simply seeking comfortable opportunities in the early part of their career.  I told my students the other day that they should not shy away from the mess in their future organizations; they should sometimes run to the mess.  In those situations, there's the opportunity to fix broken things, and to learn a ton from that process.  Leaders, of course, need to support those who take on these challenges.  They will need to be encouraged, and they need some help not being frustrated by the failures along the way.  

Victim of Layoffs? Don't Burn Bridges, Focus on Development

Source: Flexjobs

Eleanor Pringle has written a good column for Fortune titled, "Do’s and don’ts of layoffs: These are the things you should never post on LinkedIn if you lose your job."   

Pringle has some sound advice.  Naturally, she appropriately recommends "leaving well" - that means no burning bridges, no calling out companies or colleagues who you believe may have mistreated you.  She stresses that posting while upset is a recipe for disaster. Pringle has some other sound recommendations, including advice about leaning into professional development opportunities, such as short courses.  She writes:

DON’T waste time while you’re not working.  Not got a job? Prove you’re proactive and post about it. Alistair Stirling, adviser at Stirling Careers Consultancy, said he always encourages his clients to do volunteer work and short courses while they’re on the hunt for their next role.  He explained that not only does it give people something to talk about –either on interviews or on platforms like LinkedIn– it shows you’re not just sitting around at home.

I agree with the recommendation regarding development.  I would stress, however, that everyone should be developing a plan for lifelong learning, if they do not have one.  It's not something that should wait for the unfortunate circumstance of a layoff.   Each person should be thinking about a stream of development activities, above and beyond the training provided by one's company.  Many of these development activities don't cost much money, if at all, these days.  Others do require an investment.  These opportunities should sometimes be about practical skill building ("I'm going to learn how to code...").  However, other opportunities should be just about stretching your perspective and stimulating your thinking on an important subject ("I'm going to read this book about motivation...")   

Pledging to Reinvent Yourself

This week, Adam Bryant interviewed Christopher Cabrera, CEO of software firm Xactly, for his New York Times Corner Office Column. Cabrera talked about the notion of personal and organizational reinvention. Here's an excerpt: 

We talk a lot about reinventing ourselves. I’m constantly in front of the company explaining to them, “The skills that I had to take this company from zero to $20 million are very different than the skills that are going to take this company from $100 million to $200 million. Every six months, I’ve had to reinvent myself, and so what are you doing to reinvent yourself? And we’ll give you the tools you need to help you do that.” We have to just keep reinventing as time goes on, and part of that reinventing is constantly challenging each other about what could we do better, and what could we do differently.

Cabrera offers an important lesson for leaders here.   He reminds us that people and organizations need to reinvent themselves from time to time.  They have to learn and develop new skills and capabilities.   The CEO sets the tone. By talking about his own need for personal reinvention, Cabrera offers an example for all the people in his organization.  He can't stand pat, so they should not do so either.  He's pledging to develop new capabilities and asking them to do so as well.   In too many organizations, CEOs ask their employees to engage in training and development activities, but they don't seem to think that they need them.  The best leaders acknowledge to all that they are still learning and developing as well.