Leadership Today - Practical Tips For Leaders
Business:Management
Research demonstrates that becoming comfortable with discomfort is the key to progress.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to episode 147 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore research demonstrating that becoming comfortable with discomfort is the key to progress.
Learning new things requires us to step out of our comfort zone. If we’re feeling comfortable, we’re not learning.
But it’s also natural to want to avoid discomfort. That can steer us away from new learning experiences.
New research shows that how we interpret discomfort impacts our ability to continue learning. The research by Woolley and Fishbach involved participants undertaking an improvisation class. Half of the group were given instructions for the activity and told the aim of the activity was to feel awkward and uncomfortable. The other half were also given instructions, but not instructed around feeling awkward and uncomfortable.
The researchers found that the group encouraged to feel awkward and uncomfortable spent more time actively improvising and took greater risks. They undertook more practice which gave them a greater opportunity to enhance their skills.
When we’re looking to grow and develop, we should anticipate and embrace feelings of awkwardness and discomfort. Instead of seeing these feelings as reasons to stop, we should instead see them as signs of progress and development. Changing our mindset around discomfort can help us to progress and develop.
REFERENCE
Woolley K, Fishbach A. Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort. Psychological Science. 2022;33(4):510-523. doi:10.1177/09567976211044685
Episode 166 - Is it Better to be Pessimistic, Realistic or Optimistic?
Episode 165 - Expecting to be Bored is Boring
Episode 164 - How Biased People Become More Biased
Episode 163 - The Key to Building Professional Connections
Episode 162 - Cross-Cultural Leadership
Episode 161 - Letting Go and Moving On
Bonus Episode - Don Schmincke - What Leaders can Learn from Samurai, Mountaineers and Entrepreneurs
Episode 160 - Clearing the Way
Episode 159 - Delegating for Development
Episode 158 - Connecting - Collaboration and Support
Episode 157 - Developing - Building Capability and Capacity
Episode 156 - Inspiring - Aligning Motivation
Episode 155 - Reflecting - Where it All Begins
Episode 154 - The Two Most Common Leadership Mistakes
Episode 153 - Working Out How to Work
Bonus Episode - Dr Ciela Hartanov - The Future of Work and What it Means for Leaders
Episode 152 - Background Music Makes You Faster (and Less Accurate)
Episode 151 - Does Working From Home Limit Creativity?
Episode 150 - When Good People Do Bad Things
Episode 149 - Cooperation Among Strangers
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