We are all too comfortable with working levels below our mastery.
All of us have a circle of comfort from which we operate. Over the years, this circle may have widened but I guarantee you that you are still stuck in the middle of the zone. What happens when you get to the edge of your comfort circle? You know, you generally bounce off the edge and turn right back around into your comfort zone.
Our job as business leaders is to understand mastery on two levels. The first level is the personal level. What do I know, feel, see, or believe in such mastery that I have no fear to expand beyond my boundaries. The second is the business level. What do I do, believe or know better than anyone in the world – this is my mastery. Are you uncomfortable with the questions? Time to move out of that circle of comfort.
Gay Hendricks and others in the personal development world have written and taught about working in your “zone of genius”. This is the mastery of which we are speaking. So let’s get comfortable with the question. Do you know where your particular genius lies? Do you understand where you are masterful?
Successful businesses are gifted at matching task to talent. Why learn skills that bore you and frustrate you? Can’t you see how this takes you out of focused mastery action? Are you willing to delegate 30%? 40%? 50%? 90%?
Ask yourself why you are unwilling to delegate? If the answer is that it’s easier for me to do it or nobody can do it the way I can, recognize that you are stuck in your circle of comfort. I tell my clients all the time, even though we are striving for excellence and transformation, at times 80% of something/some effort is better than 100% of nothing.
When you work in your zone of mastery, you take focused mastery action. This will propel you forward with enthusiasm, passion and joy into your unique offering in the world.
To Your Inspired Leadership,
MP