Currahee Mountain (#32)
Growth requires discomfort. Discomfort, or stress, puts new requirements on ourselves which stimulates growth. Athletes embrace the discomfort zone. For me, the hard day of sprints or a demanding day of hills each week on the bike makes me stronger when trying to hang with the fast group rides.
The comfort zone has been defined as “a space where our behaviors and activities fit a routine and pattern that minimizes our stress and perception of risk.” The current crisis has caused all of us to move out of our comfort zone and enter the discomfort zone. Working from home, supervising virtual schooling, managing remote teams, using masks, making Microsoft Teams work, and social distancing were all outside of our routines in February. Yet this discomfort has stimulated growth in us as people and as leaders.
Last week, my daughter, Samantha (the dog), and I did the three mile hike up Currahee Mountain made famous by Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment during their training at Toccoa, Georgia. Running up and down the mountain in 1943 (and hiking in 2020!) caused discomfort in Easy Company which resulted in physical growth and mental toughness. These runs helped Easy Company during the tough fighting in Normandy, in the Netherlands, and at Bastogne.
Growing yourself as a leader requires periods of discomfort and recovery. As I put one foot in front of the other as we hiked up Currahee Mountain, I reflected on my discomfort as a leader over the past four months. Since February, I have embraced discomfort and growth on my path as a leadership and business consultant — I learned to blog, built my own website, learned search engine optimization, gave my first webinar, tried to develop a presence on LinkedIn with posts on #leadership, helped organize a sales team, and grew my own business. All the while in the midst of a the pandemic and trying to train a very skittish rescue dog.
It is worthwhile taking stock of how you have grown as a leader over the last four months. What new skills have you had to develop? What old skills aren’t as valuable?
More importantly, you need to look forward to the next six months and identify your own “virtual Currahee Mountains” — those places or events that are going to take you to the discomfort zone and help you grow as a leader. I know in the next six months I have to keep improving my web page, enhance my blogging skills, and start turning the blogs into a book.
If there aren’t any Currahee Mountains on your horizon, maybe it is worth adding a couple? Learning a new leadership skill during a webinar, changing or developing your team’s planning process, changing your operating rhythm, or trying a new way to do contingency planning can take you and your team to a discomfort zone where you can learn and grow.
