CHAPTER 7

Operating Outside Your Comfort Zone

Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

—Helen Keller

International assignments exacerbate tensions that exist in any working woman’s life because you are out of your comfort zone.

—Wiser Pauline

Your comfort zone is that sweet spot where you can perform well, with relative ease and without anxiety. When you operate within your comfort zone, your brain shifts into a kind of “automatic pilot” mode, and you perform your tasks without thinking too deeply about what you are actually doing. High levels of learning occur immediately outside of your comfort zone and can overwhelm far beyond your comfort zone ­(Figure 7.1). If you go abroad, where everything is likely to be new and different, you want to be prepared to move far beyond your comfort zone. WiSER Lindsay told us that even the smallest differences can make you feel a bit uncomfortable. “Prior to moving, I looked at the list of the team that worked for me,” she said.

Figure 7.1 Operating outside your comfort zone

I [thought to myself]: “G-E-R-G-E-L-Y Z-A-J-K-A-S? How on earth do I say that?” He likes to be called Greg, which is a lot easier, actually. But it was those kinds of strange things that make you feel really quite uncomfortable and unfamiliar.

As humans, we are creatures of habit and typically prefer some degree of certainty and predictability. Leaders, whether they are operating locally or globally, must be prepared to deal with uncertainty. However, the level of uncertainty is bound to be especially high for expatriates where everything is new and different. Therefore, being able to operate outside of your comfort zone is crucial.

Operating outside your comfort zone may include taking risks, and it will require open mindedness and flexibility. “Be flexible,” advised WiSER Martine.

Don’t try to continue doing things your way. Adjust to the culture that you are living in and remember you’re a guest. That is very significant. What you do at home is your decision, but it is very important that you adjust to the world that you are living in when you are outside your own home.

She revealed how her own experiences in East Germany, in 1997, influenced her perspective on life. “In general, people are always complaining that we are going through so much change,” she said. “When I moved to East Germany … a few years after the wall came down, that’s when I really realized how much change these people had gone through—and were able to cope with it.” She noted that her colleagues in the former East Germany had witnessed more change than most people were likely to experience in a lifetime. “That is [a] very memorable experience that I’ve learned a lot from—also with respect to my own flexibility,” she said.

Ultimately, working and living abroad stretches you beyond your current personal and professional boundaries. We defined the competency of “Operating Outside your Comfort Zone” as follows:

Notably, 87 percent of the WiSER clearly demonstrated that they were able to operate, or were operating, outside of their comfort zone. All of those working on an international assignment in Africa and Asia were able to operate outside their comfort zone (100 percent), compared to 87 percent of those working in European countries and 75 percent of those working in North America. The percentage was lower (75 percent) among WiSER who had self-initiated their expatriation than among those women who had been sent abroad by their organization (91 percent).

On the spectrum of operating outside your comfort zone, where do you think you fall? Where would you like to be? What steps can you take to get there?

Routine Challenged Panic

Our emotions range widely from positive to negative, with either extreme being unhealthy. When you are in the “Challenged” part of the Comfort Zone spectrum, this is where the greatest growth occurs. Undoubtedly, when you move abroad you may feel negative emotions more frequently because you are outside of your comfort zone and everything is foreign to you. You will encounter new situations, dilemmas, and emotions—and you may need to be creative in order to develop the right approach to address issues. The WiSER provided three best practices to manage stress, and build resilience, when you move outside of your comfort zone, in order to avoid moving into “Panic” on the spectrum and grow your professional capabilities.

Managing Stress

During an expatriate assignment, you must exercise global agility, pushing yourself to “boldly go where no (wo)man has gone before.” Difficulties are magnified, and you can no longer rely on your “automatic pilot.” You may experience higher levels of uncertainty which can lead to panic, reacting rather than responding, poor decision making, poor health, and unhappiness. Instead, you must remain calm and focused. It is easy enough to speak of these things, but how does that work in practice? How can you manage anxiety and stress in order to concentrate and perform well under such different, and in many cases difficult, circumstances? How do you avoid panicking? How do you make sure that the increased level of stress does not interfere with your power of judgment? How do you remain logical and not let your emotions get the best of you?

The human response to new situations is visceral. When we find ourselves in unexpected situations, for example when we experience the shock of a new culture, our limbic system is immediately stimulated. This means that our brain is struggling to determine whether this unexpected situation offers potential benefits or poses a significant danger. The more open-minded you are, the greater the chance that you will see the potential benefits of an unexpected offering. If you perceive an unexpected ­situation as dangerous, your mind moves to a “fight or flight” response, which essentially hijacks your higher reasoning—the capacity for which you were hired. Severe stress can even morph strengths into liabilities that can derail the best of leaders. Let’s illustrate this with a parable.

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew in through the window and sat on a woman. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic-stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping and swatting, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone else in her group also got panicky. The woman finally managed to push the cockroach away but … it landed on a man from her group. Now, it was the turn of the other fellow in the group to continue the dramatic response. The waitress rushed forward to their rescue. In the chaos, the cockroach next fell upon the waitress. The waitress stood firm, composed herself and watched the cockroach on her shirt. When she was confident enough, she grabbed it with her fingers and threw it out of the restaurant. Was the cockroach responsible for the customer’s hysterical behavior? If so, then why was the waitress not disturbed? She handled it without any chaos. It was not the cockroach that caused the chaos and the stress. Rather, it was the reaction to the cockroach. As an expatriate leader, outside of your comfort zone, it is important to remember that there will be many “cockroaches.” It is even more important, to stay calm under stress and respond appropriately. The customers reacted, whereas the waitress responded. ­Reactions are instinctive, whereas responses are thought through.

As mentioned, when we are overwhelmed with new experiences, the “fight or flight” response will come into play, often resulting in flight. Recognizing this, WiSER advise you to “fight,” in other words, step up to the challenge. WiSER Annette revealed in the interview that she forced herself to move beyond her comfort zone to explore a new city. “I was in Paris by myself for eight months, and I used to go home quite a bit over the weekends,” she said. Recognizing that this was an opportunity to learn more about a major metropolitan center, she began to set aside time to explore the city. “One night a week, I would take the metro to somewhere that I’d never been to before,” she recalled. “I would get something to eat in a restaurant, and then I would walk back to my hotel. Paris is really small, and I decided … I’m going to see Paris at least while I do this.” The alternative, she realized was to spend time in a hotel room watching DVDs. “But what’s the point?” she said. “You have to ask yourself, why are you are doing this? I think being able to be … tough on yourself is important.” Following is a tool you can use to separate feelings from fact in order to identify and rationalize unreasonable emotions and manage stress (Table 7.1).

Table 7.1 Stress reduction exercise. Based on Laurel Mellin and University of California School of Medicine, Creating Effective Organizations