Leading Outside Your Comfort Zone
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A research-backed guide to leading with confidence and resilience in an age of anxiety.
Leading is inevitably frustrating and emotionally demanding, yet leaders get little training in how to deal with painful emotions. Since the global pandemic, stresses on leaders have only grown. To lead effectively in an age of anxiety, leaders must build the capacity to act in spite of unpleasant emotions, and bring a learning mindset to challenges that can otherwise feel overwhelming. Leading Outside Your Comfort Zone draws on a wide body of research to show how well-being and resilience emerges from this struggle; leaders grow by adopting a learning mindset in the face of unpleasant emotions. The book explains how to:
Confidently face new challenges
Accelerate progress toward goals
Improve productivity during discouraging, "unfruitful" periods
Overcome frustration with difficult personalities and organizational politics
Build confidence and a mindset of stress-less productivity
Build resilience throughout the organization
Leadership expert D. Christopher Kayes integrates insights from diverse disciplines, including management and organization studies, psychology, sports and military psychology, neuroscience, and education, and presents original research involving over 1,000 leaders. The book focuses on five tools that help leaders develop positive emotional engagement, creative problem-solving, learning identity, flexibility, and social support.
—Gavin M. Schwarz, UNSW Sydney Business School
"Based on his experience as a scholar, educator, and consultant, Kayes explains how leaders develop well-being and the ability to learn continuously—through adversity. This book will help leaders make decisions and act in the face of complexity, ambiguity, change, and uncertainty to drive team and organizational performance."
—Matthew Eriksen, Raymond T. Butkus Professorship in Management, Providence College
"Weaves research findings and case studies with a useful guide for leaders, professionals, educators, and anyone wanting to strengthen their resilience and well-being."
—Ellen B. Van Oosten, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Director of the Coaching Research Lab at Case, and co-author of Helping People Change
"Kayes squarely hits the most critical aspect of leading: you cannot lead others effectively until you can lead yourself. Veteran leaders realize that safe spaces rarely exist, being triggered is often discretionary, and leadership itself can be stressful. This book is for leaders who have the courage to grow and to rethink their approaches to living, learning, and leading."
—J. Goosby Smith, Vice President for Community Belonging and Chief Diversity Officer, Pepperdine University
