Leadership Truths: Growing Beyond Comfort
Most people spend their lives inside their comfort zone. It feels safe, familiar, and predictable. But our brains are not wired to excel there.
Research shows that our minds prefer patterns we already know. (My brain certainly works that way.) Scientists call this cognitive inertia, the natural resistance to change. It’s what makes people repeat habits, even when they know better. Clearly this has an impact on the little things we catch ourselves doing in our lives (think changing small habits and how hard that can be), but even more so for a full project based change management event.
Interestingly—but maybe not surprisingly—in a McKinsey study, 86 percent of leaders said they modeled new behaviors during change, but only 53 percent of their teams agreed. There are likely multiple factors that lead to these results, but much of it would be attributable to that cognitive inertia, and the discomfort that comes from changing habits and routines.
The result of this ends up being leaders who think they are doing the right thing. There is a disconnect with what others are seeing, the project ends up losing traction and momentum, and the initiative falls short of expectations. Additionally, no real growth happened at the individual level.
Growth happens when you choose discomfort on purpose. When a leader does that, teams notice. They start to lean into their own growth instead of waiting for it to happen. Attention to intention makes a world of difference.
Comfort Is the Trap That Feels Safe
Comfort is not the same as calm. Calm brings focus. Comfort brings complacency. Comfort zones are built from past success. We hold on to what worked before and assume it will keep working. But markets shift. People change. Skills expire. That is so evident right now as AI has become a key topic everyone is talking about. Change will happen. Those who intentionally work on learning new skills, experimenting with these early stages will succeed in the long run. This will be a dynamic process in the years ahead.
Comfort feels safe, but it hides risk. The longer you stay in it, the harder it is to move.
As we see AI working its way into new areas of work and life, you can already see change curves breaking. What some thought would immediately take over hasn't. Old routines and comfort zones are reappearing, and some dismiss AI as not what they expected or needed. In other areas, it is creating real change. People are embracing working differently and finding new opportunities to do things better or different.
A leader who stays too comfortable starts repeating patterns that once worked but no longer move the team forward. They attend the same meetings, use the same scorecards, and run the same reviews. The results slowly flatten.
Action Points
Write down one area of your leadership that hasn’t changed in the past year. Ask yourself if it still serves your team today.
Schedule one new conversation outside your normal circle, with a peer in another department, a frontline team member, or a mentor.
Watch for routines that once made you efficient but now make you rigid.
Discomfort Is a Signal, Not a Threat
When you step outside comfort, your body reacts. You may feel your heart beat rise, your muscles tense, or even have scattered thoughts. That is a sign of change, which your body might interpret as danger. We are still wired with the same brain that was built to sense wild animals potentially eating us. Just like the sensation we may feel before a public speaking event, our body reacts. How we choose to listen to it can make a big difference. You can reframe that feeling to be excited, instead of afraid. You can shift a mindset to ‘get to’ versus ‘have to’. Those will help in embracing the space outside your comfort zone.
Leaders who learn to stay in that discomfort zone longer build adaptability and courage.
Fear of failure is real and can be at the core of change resistance. Expose that to yourself and your team, then work through those challenges together.
Action Points
Reframe discomfort as progress. When you feel uneasy, tell yourself, “This is my brain growing.”
Try one new challenge each month. Keep it small but meaningful.
Reflect after each uncomfortable moment. What did you learn that comfort would never have taught you?
Your Team Follows What You Model
The Leadership Growth Loop
We all work in cycles. This will likely immediately connect with you. Change equals: current comfort (routine or habit) → challenge (something changes) → growth (we try new things) → new comfort (begins to feel familiar).
You build confidence, you master a skill, and then you settle. The danger comes when you stop cycling forward. Growth halts. Innovation fades. High-performing teams keep moving through that loop together. They don’t chase discomfort for its own sake. It is no different from events that take place. A big store visit is on the horizon. You do new things, you get very focused and productive, you get the store the way you want. The visit happens, you breathe a sigh of relief and relax a little. Suddenly two weeks pass, and you realize many habits that lead to the scramble before the visit have returned. I cannot tell you how many times I experienced that myself. It is difficult to remain intentional and on top of everything all the time. Building the support structure to maintain those things is often the missing piece and requires the biggest growth transition as a leader.
Action Points
Review your team’s last six months. Where have you all grown? Where have you settled?
Identify one stretch goal that feels just beyond reach. Turn it into a shared focus for the next quarter.
Discuss how the team can support each other during uncomfortable moments. Make it a shared responsibility.
Summing Up: The Zone That Builds Leaders
The comfort zone protects the past. The growth zone builds the future.
If you always do, what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve already got.
Every great leader learns to live just beyond what feels safe. Not forever, not recklessly, but regularly. That is where growth happens. That is where credibility deepens. That is where teams begin to see and feel what leadership really looks like. No one changed the future by remaining in the comfort zone.
Ask yourself, “where am I too comfortable right now? And what’s one small step I can take this week to move just beyond it?”
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