Where Strategy Meets Soul

We’ve turned “Get out of your comfort zone” into a corporate weapon.

Usually it is well-intentioned advice and given many times a day across the corporate world from seniors to juniors, peers to peers. Even as you read this and listen very intently, you can hear it dimly echoing somewhere in corporate sky! But it has the tendency of also being misused or is often applied without enough nuance.

A pattern I’ve observed is that when someone delivers consistently, understands their role deeply, and operates with ease, it can raise quiet concerns “Are they too comfortable?” or “Do they need more stretch?”

Some people are more than capable of completing their responsibilities on time, some have the uncanny ability to look relaxed and calm in every situation. Some don’t practice (rightly so) the art of “looking busy, hassled and stressed” for corporate theatre.

This is where we risk misreading the situation. Overzealous managers or colleagues who have a different work temperament may see a ‘visibly relaxed persona’ around them and mark them as being “in-a-comfort-zone.” The label is easy to give and does a lot of damage. The employee who’s wrongly labelled as being in one is now burdened with proving that they are, in fact, not in one.

I once worked with a colleague who delivered flawless results quarter after quarter with seemingly minimal drama. Instead of being celebrated, she kept receiving feedback that she “needed to be challenged more.” The truth? She wasn’t in a comfort zone, she had achieved mastery and made excellence look effortless. But we only realised it after breaking her spirits as a team and losing her.

There’s a real difference between:
• someone who has plateaued
• and someone who has developed mastery and made the role look easy
When we don’t distinguish between the two, we unintentionally reinforce the wrong cues: That a) visible strain signals value and b) ease needs intervention.

Over time, this shapes behaviour. People optimise for appearing stretched, not necessarily for delivering better outcomes. Over a period of time it can lead to productivity loss, innovation not happening, tampering of psychological safety, inauthenticity and general deterioration of work culture.

Growth absolutely matters but it should be driven by capability and context, not by how effort looks from the outside. Not everyone who appears comfortable is in a comfort zone. Sometimes, they’re simply operating at a high level.