Suppose you have to do something you’ve never done before and you come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid doing it. Procrastination. Recognizable? Then you are not the only one. Many people find it scary to do something unfamiliar. Because it’s outside their comfort zone. We also encounter this fear regularly in development teams. As a manager, what can you do to ensure that your team members do dare to develop outside their comfort zone ?
From a ‘fixed mindset’ to a ‘growth mindset’
The realization that you can consciously move yourself to a “growth mindset” is what we encourage in such situations. From a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Create an environment with each other where it is about learning and not necessarily always about achievement. When people start coming up with goals for themselves, they are often achievement goals. While by asking what a person’s learning goals are (what do you want to discover, what do you want to try) you take the pressure off a particular performance. It’s about the path a person takes and what you encounter, experience and learn in it. That is as much the result than necessarily achieving the end goal.
You Rock!
At Synergio, we introduced the “You Rock” stone for this reason. A golden brick awarded each month to someone who has stepped outside his/her comfort zone or just taught another person something valuable. By reflecting on this monthly, you make it very common to talk about learning by trial and error and what it means for someone to dare to step outside their comfort zone.
Create the conditions under which people dare to develop.
What else you can do as a manager is to be a servant leader. A servant leader does not first ask for the result, but asks from genuine interest what someone is experiencing, what he or she is up against or what someone still needs to be able to take a certain step. It is also important that people be given time to develop as well. Learning is hard work for the brain and this takes time – in addition to energy. Learning requires a different default of the brain and for this you literally have to be able to disconnect from your regular work for a while to learn something new.
Want to spar?
Want to know what Synergio can do for the development of your teams? Feel free to call us for a no-obligation consultation. We are happy to think with you.
We are Synergio. And this is what we offer our customers:
- Effective Portfolio Management.
- Continuously adding value.
- Continuous learning and improvement.
- Effective teams.
