{"id":24462,"date":"2019-10-19T06:32:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T13:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24462"},"modified":"2019-10-19T06:32:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T13:32:07","slug":"great-things-dont-come-from-comfort-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/great-things-dont-come-from-comfort-zones\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Things Don\u2019t Come From Comfort Zones."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe comfort zone is a psychological state in which one feels familiar, safe, secure and at ease. If you always do what is easy and choose the path of least resistance, you never step outside your comfort zone. Great things don\u2019t come from comfort zones.\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019re operating in a world of safety and comfort, where a quick fix mentality prevails, a low threshold for pain that constantly seeks systems relief rather than fundamental change, where people would rather not take responsibility[2]<\/a>. There is need for a leadership approach that will help us under the prevailing conditions. This is in total contrast to the days in the past that are associated with great achievements like the renaissance when explorers took on discovery journeys that were treacherous and on uncharted paths. their adventures led to many discoveries and inventions that increased knowledge and prosperity. Through the ages, it\u2019s the spirit of adventure and risk taking that brings about progress and problem solving. Friedman[3]<\/a> attributes many family, corporations and institutional failures in our day to leadership that conforms with safety and conformity, empathizing with the followers rather than a differentiation approach of presence and being.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Friedman points to that leadership that will work in our day as: Having the capacity to get outside the emotional climate of the day; having a willingness to be exposed and vulnerable; persistence in the face of resistance and downright rejection; stamina in the face of sabotage along the way; and Being headstrong and ruthless.[5]<\/a> These are attributes of a leader who takes responsibility, looks to himself rather than the followers and differentiates himself and focuses more on his presence than with methods and who will excel in our day. This is the kind of leadership that will work in the prevailing conditions our day. That leader is not the one who concentrates on accumulating data but the one who could express himself or herself with the least amount of blaming and the one with the greatest capacity to take responsibility for his or her own emotional being and destiny.<\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s book is not easy to understand but there are great insights that I really appreciate and will apply in my leadership context. This is a book that I will set aside in my library for reference and further reading. It challenges many of my long-held assumptions about leadership and my dependency of methodologies, especially in motivating employees or family members and trying to identify troublemakers. While I still feel that there is place for identifying problems to resolve them and for methodologies, I appreciate the insights that I have learnt from the work of Friedman. As I do my dissertation on Bible based financial literacy for empowering Christians in vulnerable communities, there is a lot to learn from Friedman on the kind of leadership that will produce results in the churches that will adopt the resultant financial literacy curriculum.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Roy T Bennett (2016). The Light In The Heart: Inspirational Thoughts For Living Your Best Life. <\/em>Roy Bennett Publishers.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Edwin Friedman (2017). A Failure Of Nerve: Leadership In The Age Of The Quick Fix. <\/em>Church Publishing. New York. USA. Page<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Edwin Friedman (2017). A Failure Of Nerve: Leadership In The Age Of The Quick Fix. <\/em>Church Publishing. New York. USA.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Edwin Friedman (2017). A Failure Of Nerve: Leadership In The Age Of The Quick Fix. <\/em>Church Publishing. Loc 724, Kindle.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid,\u2026.Loc 3713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe comfort zone is a psychological state in which one feels familiar, safe, secure and at ease. If you always do what is easy and choose the path of least resistance, you never step outside your comfort zone. Great things don\u2019t come from comfort zones.\u201d[1] We\u2019re operating in a world of safety and comfort, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1392,1658,1660,35],"class_list":["post-24462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-failure-of-nerve","tag-dminlgp9-friedman","tag-edwin-friedman","tag-leadership","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24463,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24462\/revisions\/24463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}