Leading outside of the comfort zone

After living in Japan for seven years and taking many trips to Japan for a mix of business and leisure, most recently I headed there to tackle a portion of the Shikoku pilgrimage and the experience had me ruminating on what it takes to step out of your comfort zone and why leaders need to push their boundaries to succeed.

The Shikoku pilgrimage is over 1200km in total, featuring 88 temples where the Buddhist priest Kūkai is believed to have trained or have spent time during the 9th century. The trail is imbued with history and taking the journey is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in incredible natural surroundings and meet wonderful people.

Of course, I only took on a section of the pilgrimage – the entire route can take six weeks, so we’ll be back to complete it sometime soon – but it still provided an opportunity to stretch my abilities and my motivation, as well as some time to reflect.

Leaders, push yourself out of your comfort zone

While I knew what I was getting myself into with the Shikoku pilgrimage, there were moments where I – alongside my travelling companions – needed to complete tasks that didn’t seem possible. Sometimes it looked like 1400 steps to reach a shrine, other times it was staring up at 1000m of elevation to reach the top of a mountain for the next temple.

I often looked at these challenges ahead of me and wondered whether I could do it. But each time, with encouragement, teamwork, and patience, we made it. We weren’t always comfortable or happy, but we achieved the goal by pushing past those lines of comfort and sameness. Now, we stand on the other side of the goal, proud of what we’ve achieved and ready to tackle the next thing.

The journey might not look the way you planned

Making a plan for any project or goal is important, but be prepared to throw the plans out the window. On our Shikoku journey, we had no one single leader. We each lead in our own ways, sharing ideas, working out the best option and moving forward with it. But leading these ideas – owning them and following them through – was our own kind of leadership in the situation we were in.

Your leadership journey doesn’t have to follow the ‘rules’ or a blueprint that someone else has given you. Every journey will require you to exercise your foundational leadership skills:

• Communication skills
• Listening
• Support
• Communicating
• Relationship building
• Reflection
• Trust

It doesn’t matter what the journey looks like, as long as you reach your end result safely … there are no cameras or scoreboards along the way! This is true whether you’re climbing mountains or launching a new product.

When you throw expectations out the window and focus on leading effectively and listening to your team, your journey might not follow the expected path, but you will achieve things that you might have thought impossible at the beginning of your journey. It’s always worth looking at things differently and being willing to take that calculated risk.

Want to be a leader that is ready to get out of the comfort zone? People Make the Difference can help. To find out more, visit www.pmtd.com.au or call us on 0412 333 415.