Like most of us, I desire comfort and predictability.  Boring can be good.  If I had to choose only one automobile option, I would choose ‘cruise control’ over anything else.  If you are fortunate enough to have a business that is on ‘cruise control’ – good for you.  You’ve likely worked very hard to get it to that point.

I have noticed, however that any time I have experienced significant growth in my life I have been uncomfortable, or forced into an uncomfortable job/role.

Many years ago, I was thrown into a role that was available because of someone who was fired.  It was a design position, and I new nothing about design.  I was told to ‘figure it out’.  It was a very uncomfortable situation, but proceeded to teach myself CAD – and ultimately converted the design department from very archaic 2D presentations to full 3D interactive presentations.  I taught myself, in the madness of the busy season, which ultimately this allowed me to lead the team in the modern world of 3D design and 3D photorealistic renderings.  Even better I ended up learning a skill that sky-rocked my self-esteem, and became a big part of what I do every day – design work.  I wasn’t highly educated, didn’t do all that well in school and used to struggle with many insecurities.  This was the first time in my life I felt ‘smart’ and could contribute to something at a high level.

Then decades later it happened again.  When COVID hit, I was forced into taking over the leadership of my Operations Team.  I knew nothing about Operations – yet got deep in the weeds to learn it.  This situation catapulted me into truly understanding my business, how it worked, and how to manage it properly.  It also gave me a fire in my belly, and a passion for building systems, operational stability and healthy team building.  I would never have become the person I am today if it weren’t for that crisis.

Even today, I am still forced into learning new way to lead a team, encourage vision, lead by example and to be the best boss that I can be by valuing people’s worth and value.

Any weight lifter will tell you that the only way to build muscle is to tear down those muscles, breaking fibres and allowing them to repair.

This doesn’t mean you can thrive or live well in a constant state of  being uncomfortable or under stress – the same body-builder will tell you that your muscles also need time to rest and rebuild to maintain a healthy state.

But the lesson here is to never shy away from taking on an uncomfortable challenge.

If you’re awful at dealing with confrontation and want to improve, practise healthy confrontation.  If you’re terrified of being in front of a crowd – try some public speaking, and you’ll be a better presenter and leader. If you’re bad at numbers, volunteer to present the month-end financials to your board, or partners.

You may just find that through this stress you will find your purpose, your passion and make massive forward momentum for both your company and yourself.

Growth and comfort cannot co-exist for too long.

When my kids were young and were in organized sports, my daughter wasn’t the sports-type.  However I knew that team sports was so beneficial to the growth of a child.

My daughter would be out there looking at flowers, sitting down bored.  Disengaged.  As a dad I so wanted to see them engaged, and I would frequently cheer, holler and applaud for one minuscule fragment of effort.  It seemed that even just getting off the ground aroused a cheer from me.

My wife had the same experience when she was a child.  She didn’t care about soccer, she just wanted the ice cream bribe at the end of the game.

We found this to be a problem at my company.

We were new ownership on a team of well established people.  We were trying to win the hearts and minds of the people, and it didn’t work.  It seemed that we were over-appreciate, over cheering and over praising for people just showing up for work, or putting a piss-poor effort.  Heralding people for just doing their jobs.

We focused too much on a ‘we’re all friends’ great culture.

“How you manage underperforming staff reflects on how you value your whole team.”

There were some legitimate people putting in an effort that deserved praise, but for a lot of them, especially ones who have been there (and possibly felt they were untouchable) we continually cheered for them hoping one day they would just lift their asses off the soccer field.  We expected and asked more from them, but were too afraid to challenge because of the potential of them walking away. The entire team deserved more effort from them, but they only wanted was the ice cream at the end of the game.

We were celebrating mediocrity.  There were high paid people that weren’t going over and above what we asked, or anticipating significant needs of the company.  Ultimately that left us in the dark, and without information to make good business decisions.

We encouraged an environment, where putting piss poor effort was acceptable.  How you treat lack of performance reflects on how you value your team overall.

Don’t ever celebrate mediocrity.

You are not a charity, and there are no volunteers on your team.  You are signing everyone’s pay checks, and you demand excellence.

How you allow misbehaviour reflects on how you value the entire team.