Joelle K. Jay

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Three Strategies All Women Need to Master to Network Like a CEO

As critical as networking is, it’s still a challenge for many people. For example, most

of us as are involved with social media platforms like LinkedIn, but are your

LinkedIn contacts the right contacts you need to have to attain that next career goal?

The top 20% of performers at companies excel at developing networks, not just to

find a new job but to connect them to resources inside and outside their firm, help

them master best practices, solve problems, connect to people of more influences to

get more done, and acquire better raises, among other accolades.

I recently met two networking experts who have creative tools to make networking

easy and effective. The first was Tom Gaunt, CEO and co-founder of NQuotient, who

was on several executive boards. The second is Marilyn Nagel, Co-Founder and Chief

Mission Officer at NQuotient, formerly the Chief Diversity Officer at Cisco, which she

left to run a woman’s organization called Watermark. The question they both asked

about growing networking skills was this: How do you sustain learning and make

behavioral change stick?

That answer is unique for everyone, and especially for women. It’s important to

recognize that there are unique elements for women when it comes to networking

that can give them an advantage – like, generally speaking, an innate ability to build

and nurture a relationship, prioritize relationships, and offer support.

As a woman looking to grow her networking skills, try these three strategies that

Nagel and Gaunt recommend:

Check your attitude. Gaunt and Nagel say that your attitude toward networking is

either an inhibitor or an impetus for success. Put simply: If you don’t network well,

it’s an inhibitor for you when it comes to reaching long-term career goals. But if you

do network well, it can lead to success.

Redefine how you network. If the idea of going to a room full of strangers is too

daunting, flip the script. Networking can be a range of activities: Meeting people

one-on- one for planned and meaningful conversations, having a regular conference

call with a trusted mentor, sponsor or peer, attending industry events, or even

connecting online via email, social media or professional chat groups. You can even

start conversations at work, on the train, or in a meeting. See that all the work you

do with people at every level of leadership is an opportunity to build a network.

Make sure your circle is diverse. Networking can be self-limiting if you’re

networking with only women or only men. Embracing differences in genders or

race, instead of using them as a way to rationalize differences, opens us up to a

broader, more diverse thought process that is often more consistent with the

marketplace on both a national and international level.

Ultimately, the goal for an ideal networking strategy first and foremost is to remove

barriers to connect.

In that spirit, let’s return to our LinkedIn example. LinkedIn is an effective tool, but

it can also a noisy environment. For example, if you have a 1,000 connections, but

out of that group there aren’t many you couldn’t call immediately if there was a

problem, then it’s time to evaluate and take on an active role to develop as a

network manager. As a network manager, ask yourself these questions before you

reach out: What are my goals for networking? Who can help me meet these goals?

How does networking fit into my life? Set reminders of what to say to people and

when to reach out.

The message for women leaders is to find your confidence in your networking, and

be sure you are actually committed to connecting with others and building your

reputation.

If you’d like additional support growing and nurturing an effective network, check

out NQuotient. You can take a free self-assessment online and learn more about

where to focus your networking efforts to be more effective. You can find it here.

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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The Leadership Strategy Most Successful CEOs Fail At Practicing

We all see the daily headlines: Mark Zuckerberg’s networth rises by additional millions as Facebook’s value increases, Arianna Huffington kickstarts a new “Thrive” venture, Bill Gates’ foundation makes a huge donation to a charity in need. Successful CEO’s are American heroes–we follow their path to top and hope to emulate their success in our own lives.

But many executives today–as well as managers, account executives, and many employees across the spectrum of the corporate ladder–often overlook the first, and often most powerful, leadership strategy: Personal leadership. As a result, they only obtain part of the equation for success. They earn the income but neglect to take care of themselves. Or they take care of themselves but forget to give to others. The result is a life of overwork streaked with a persistent sense of dissatisfaction and that nagging question, “Where am I going wrong?”

The key to success that includes the whole package–wealth, health, and meaning–is personal leadership.

Personal leadership is the leadership of the self. It involves developing a sense of ownership and responsibility for one’s own success–including leading positive change, overcoming challenges, and determining a career path that will be fulfilling on a personal level and impactful for the organization.

So, if these leaders are already successful, why do they need to hone their personal leadership skills? In my years of coaching experience and research for the Leadership Research Institute, I’ve found that when leaders learn and practice personal leadership, they gain a sense of empowerment. They feel more committed to their work and feel very energized about overachieving their goals and results.

If you’re a leader looking to feel fulfilled both professionally and personally, here are two ways to start on your path to refine your personal leadership skills:

Get clear on your vision. It sounds like something most successful C-level executives should already have, but many leaders don’t have a clear perspective on their vision. This isn’t the vision for your company, now–it’s the vision for yourself. What is the path to both your long-term and short-term goals? How do you answer that question both personally and professionally? Without a clear sense of vision, leaders can lose that sense of meaning, and so they get discouraged. They become stressed, burned out or exhausted. If they can’t resolve the situation, they fade out of leadership roles and may even leave the company.

When you do have a vision, it’s time to put it into words. A vision statement captures your future into one succinct statement. Done well, it gives you the language you need to refresh on the images you envision for your future and keep you on track toward that vision in day-to-day life. Unlike the vision statement for a company, your vision statement need not be pithy or profound. You don’t have to hang it on the wall or carve it in marble. What does help is to repeat the statement in your mind once a day to really lock it in.

Get a coach. Developing a vision is only part of the equation. The next part is achieving that vision, and here’s where a coach can be most helpful.

Executive coaches teach leaders the practices of personal leadership so they get clarity about their vision and goals, as well as their value to the organization.

  • Coaches help leaders become very focused on their priorities, so they can emphasize on the ones that have the greatest impact.
  • Coaches help leaders take clear, specific action to get results, with accountability and measurement.
  • Coaches help leaders fill in the gaps. Do you need to identify and leverage your strengths? Learn to maximize your time? Build a personal support team? Through coaching, leaders stop spinning their wheels and put into place the skills and strategies that will help them be successful.

As a result of coaching, leaders feel accomplished and supported at the same time–and that translates into a commitment to their goals, their organization, and their own personal success.

No matter where you are in your career path, you can make it a priority to advance your personal leadership skills. When you do, you’ll find yourself becoming more and more committed to the future you want, and the present you enjoy. You will develop even more clarity bit by bit about what the vision looks like in daily life. And you will achieve it.

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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The Two-Step Formula To Articulate Your Value To Your Boss

No matter where you are in your career, you can seize the opportunity to take leadership of your own path to reach higher-level positions. So, when it comes to articulating your value to your manager to be promoted into these positions, this kind of verbal metric is a new way for leaders to think about owning their careers and advancing themselves

Being able to articulate your value is a key tool for success and advancement. Here are three ways to successfully do just that for your next review:

 

Start by asking yourself these questions: Are you able to gracefully, elegantly, and clearly articulate the value that you bring, the contribution that you make? If you feel that you’ve had difficulty answering these questions in the past, it’s likely not that you haven’t met expectations, but rather that you have not clearly articulated how you’ve met expectations.

When you sit down to answer these questions, give yourself permission to be formulated and robotic. First, just get your words on paper, and then you can practice saying those words so that they can become more natural. Then, look for the correct and appropriate context in which you layer them in to a larger statement.

 

Align your value to matrix and measures. What have you done to create those results, what role did you play, and how do you feel about that? This is when you pull exact numbers to support your case, or, as I often say to leaders I coach, these are your “concrete measureable results.”

The way you articulate concrete measurable results is to say something like: “As a result of my effort to do [identify your action], I have achieved [results] which provided the following specific benefits to the company, [fill in numerical data].

 

To give you an example of the two-step formula in action, I’ll use the story of a recent client who is an Executive Vice President in a Fortune 500 company. She felt that she should have a seat on the Executive Committee, and she had a meeting with the committee to make her case. Many of her bosses and managers agreed that she would be a good candidate, but not everyone saw that she had made concrete contributions. So, we sat down and we identified what she had done to earn that C-level title. She identified that as a result of her effort to think about the entire enterprise-wide contribution of their team to the end-goal results of their company, she was able to transform the organization and significantly improve their impact, including a figure that she could identify in real dollars in the seven-figure range. By being able to articulate the sentence: “As a result of doing this, I’ve achieved these results, with this specific benefit for the company,” she got clear and more confident about what she had actually achieved, and what she had led her team to do. Then she was able to look for appropriate ways to say to the executive committee members: “This is the team that started here, these are some of the things we’ve accomplished, here’s how we’ve benefited, and here’s how the company is moving forward–and I’d like to lead a discussion on where that actually takes us next.”

Remember, being able to articulate your value isn’t bragging–your statement is simply a fact put into context. Verbalizing your contributions for others in a way that deepens understanding of the bigger picture of what’s working for the company as a whole can be a real contribution to your organization as well.

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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5 Quick Tips To Master Managing Remotely

In a recent Inc column I wrote about the two traits you need to master to successfully work from home: discipline and self-control, which highlighted that working from home isn’t just for small businesses anymore.

For example, I recently worked with a senior level manager at one of the Big 5 tech companies who “managed remotely,” meaning that even though he had over 250 people reporting up to him from around the globe, he almost never saw them face to face. Senior executives, business owners, and entrepreneurs in companies of all sizes are learning to work from home, manage others as they travel, and lead teams with members living in other states or even countries. As we get smarter about our use of technology in the global world of business, more and more workers will need these skills.

Leadership always has its challenges, but those challenges are multiplied when you’re managing a team from home.

 

How do you remain productive and keep the team cohesive, when you all may be on different time zones and working out of individual locations? Today, I’m sharing some of the best practices I’ve seen for setting yourself up to succeed as a leader wherever you are.

 

Work at your high-energy time. Do you have more energy for productivity in the morning, or at night? Plan your day around your high-energy zones, and you’ll get more done in less time.

 

Have regular hours. It can be tempting to work at off hours when you’re always “at the office.” But setting a schedule for yourself, whether it’s a 9-5 or a 7-3, can offer a sense of separation.

 

Make your office your office. Give yourself the chance to take a “mental commute,” even if your “commute” means just walking down the hall to your home office. Also, make sure the space you choose for your office is only used an office–that’s 100% work space, not where your kids or your spouse hang out and do their own thing. This is important in order to avoid distraction.

 

Set office hours when it comes to colleagues and clients. For example, make it known to your clients that all of your appointment hours are between 10-2, keeping 2-5 as your quiet productive hours. This allows for action planning to create a to-do list system for projects so you’re not tempted to leave the office and do other things.

 

Use the word “office.” When it comes to mentally preparing to work from home, it’s important not to neglect the rhetoric you use. When you’re working in your home office, you’re “in your office,” not “at home.” Other important vocabulary to exercise include the words “working,” “being in a meeting,” and “staying offline.” Keep all verbiage office-oriented for mental association. Not because you’re embarrassed in any way to communicate that you’re working from home, but rather to build credibility and accountability. If you think about your work the same was as you would if you are downtown, it will create a similar air of focus.

 

When you implement these practices, “managing remotely” becomes less about the “remote” status and more about simply “managing.” By optimizing your hours based on your productivity, setting your appointment hours around it, and cultivating your office environment, both you–an and the team you’re leading–have a clearer focus on the work you’re doing, no matter where on earth you may be.

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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5 Steps To Do To Take The Summer Off From Your Job

Remember when you were back in school, and you had every summer off–the bell rings, and you run toward a summer full of fun and relaxation: The beach, camping, long days with nothing to do, laying in a hammock drinking lemonade.

What if you could recreate that as an adult? What would you do?

Imagine yourself in the hammock reading a book: What do you want to read? Would you swap 30 minutes on the treadmill for a hike? Would you take more time for higher-level thinking? You can get the time. You can even take a “semi-sabbatical” if that’s easier for you and your schedule. Taking a summer sabbatical doesn’t only have to be for professors and researchers–and I’m here to tell you that it’s not too good to be true for anyone from mid-level to CEOs, because I’ve done it, and I’m here to coach you on how to take your own summer sabbatical from your job.

Business leaders have started to catch on to the benefits of flexible summers. Some companies I’ve worked with even have a sabbatical program that you can apply for in advance, and they adjust your pay so you can be paid full time while you’re off to relieve the financial burden. European workers know this well, as the majority of European-based companies give their employees flexible summer schedules and vacation time.

 

Take these five steps to create a summer sabbatical for yourself:

 

Define the parameters. How much time do you need, and how do you want to take it? Be realistic in how much time you need to take off, and how much you can take off before catching up becomes unmanageable when you return. Next, decide if you want to take the time in one full stretch, or broken up into one-week periods through a three-month period, for example.

Define the purpose. Is your sabbatical a vacation, or a “working vacation” so you can continue to work independently on focused strategy away from your traditional working environment? Be honest with yourself on whether you’re preventing burnout, or whether you’re looking instead to shift your focus on one or two specific priorities that are work-related.

 

Communicate. As soon as you have defined the objectives mentioned above, start communicating with people you work with as early as possible to get as much lead-time as you can. This can help prevent any emergencies that may pop up during your sabbatical that would require your immediate attention, as well as give your team confidence that you have everything in order to make the break work.

 

Put milestones for achievements in place. To make sure you don’t end up spending your entire break sitting on the beach, especially if you’re taking a “working sabbatical,” pencil some deadlines on your calendar. For example, if you’ve chosen to take a three-month sabbatical, give yourself the first month for pure relaxation, but around the two-month mark start working toward a goal that you’ve set for yourself.

 

Picture yourself as a kid again, heading out the doors on the last day of school. Be sure to preserve the time you created for yourself. Other people will try to impose themselves on your time, but promise yourself that you’ll take the time you need.

Taking the summer off can be great when you’re in transition in your career or between jobs, and it can also make you a better leader. People take the summer off from their jobs for different reasons, but the outcome of being more refreshed, motivated and productive when you return is the same.

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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2 Traits To Master To Be More Productive Working From Home

Working from home is becoming more than just a trend. More and more often, entrepreneurs are choosing to work at home, saving on office rent, rather than lose important time and money commuting and maintaining a space.

But working from home isn’t just for small businesses anymore. I recently worked with a senior level manager who took a new position at one of the Big 5 tech companies who was surprised to learn that he would be working from home, which was a big life change for him. He had grown used to the routine and conveniences of an office space. Now he had to build a new routine and create new conveniences at home. The difference was that whereas the office environment had provided that all for him, now he had to do it all for himself.

“I don’t know if I can work from home,” he said. “I feel like I’m going to be so distracted!” Plenty of home-based workers have had to overcome that same fear. Some actually embrace it and look forward to it. Either way, the commitment to working from home requires an intentional approach, as well as some new ways of.

 

Two tools that will help you succeed with working from home are familiar in any situation involving change: discipline and self-control.

  • Discipline means doing what you’re supposed to do.
  • Self-control is not doing what you’re not supposed to do.

The difference is subtle but significant. When you have discipline, you do eat your vegetables; when you have self-control you don’t eat the brownie. When you have discipline, you do focus on the person in front of you when they’re talking; when you have self-control you don’t check your email at the same time. You need both, or else one could sabotage the other.

 

Now let’s apply these two tools to working from home.

First, cultivate discipline. What do you need to do to make working from home a success?

  • Maintain consistent office hours.
  • Be obsessive about calendaring meetings with others.
  • Keep everything orderly.
  • Stay stocked up on office supplies.
  • Get dressed, get out there, and meet with clients.

When you’re doing what you need to do to run a successful business, your discipline will help you stay focused and moving forward.

Now layer in some self-control. What do you need to not do–or, what do you need to avoid – to protect your plan?

  • Don’t spend half your day puttering back and forth to the kitchen.
  • Don’t take personal calls.
  • Don’t let your office become a dumping ground for the family mail and junk that didn’t have a home.
  • Don’t get lost on Facebook or skip out early every week for the baseball game.

Without self-control, you can sabotage all of your efforts at discipline.

 

The twin tools of discipline and self-control are helpful for any kind of change or improvement. Whether you’re focused on staying healthy, spending more time with loved ones, making a bigger impact at work, improving profitability, or yes, working at home, these two important traits will make the difference between the distraction and failure that everyone fears–and the success that is yours to come.

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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5 Steps For A Successful Meeting with your Manager

Lately I’ve seen a new trend–a lot of companies are moving away from traditional annual performance reviews in favor of more frequent evaluation meetings with a manager. Two companies in particular that I’ve worked with, Adobe and Microsoft, have adopted this approach, which went viral late last year.

Whether or not your company has decided to implement manager meetings, this is a practice that you could cultivate, at least once per quarter, to talk about the growth of your career.

For your next meeting with your manager, use these five steps to ensure that you get the most out of your time:

Share your goals. Tell your manager what you’re working on, and inspiring to work on, essentially to give them a deeper sense of what you’re working on and where you want to go- share the results that you’re seeing so far, and update them on what your ultimate goal is.

Is your goal to get promoted in the next 6 months? To become partner? Sharing this information with your manager will give them a clear sense of what you want your path to be so that they can help you get there.

Describe your achievements so far. Once you’ve communicated your ultimate goal to your manager, describe to them where you are relative to that goal. This will help them to engage with you and take initiative to help you.

Ask for input and advice. The point of the meeting isn’t to show off, it’s to move forward, and to do so faster than you would on your own. Come into the meeting prepared with several questions that would direct your manager to give you advice and take on a mentorship role.

Discuss other matters related to your career development. Once you and your manager have a shared understanding of your focus and direction, then take the opportunity to enrich the discussion in other ways. This is a good time to ask for your strengths and weaknesses- ask if there are things you haven’t demonstrated yet that they’re looking for, what you need to learn to do well, or what you need to be doing more of. You might also ask about other opportunities to get involved, contribute to the organization, and expand your responsibilities.

Identify and commit to next steps. After the meeting is over, go back through your notes on the conversation and formulate your next steps. Also make sure to record your notes in a way that you can use them as a tool to inform your next meeting, to follow up on the items you discussed.

Planning these steps for manager meetings are what high achievers do to move forward in their career. As the saying goes, if you want to be in the top 5%, you have to do something different than the other 95%.

The previous article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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3 Essentials For A Successful ”Mastermind” Leadership Support Group

Do you have a support group of leaders you connect with often, or, as I call them, a “mastermind”? Being a member of a mastermind is a powerful strategy used by high-achieving leaders to move ahead quickly on their goals.

A mastermind is a small group of dedicated peers who share and support each other through the challenges of leadership. It provides a mutually beneficial source of inspiration, information, and collaboration for all of the members. Your mastermind members listen to your questions, offer their advice, and help you find solutions. Then, when your problem is resolved, you turn and listen to theirs. This is the essence of a mastermind.

Far more than a typical network, a mastermind is your inner circle—your A team.

Now that you know what a mastermind is, let’s talk about what makes one successful.

Confidentiality. Like your meetings with your executive coach, or your mentor or sponsor, your meetings with your mastermind are confidential. This is a safe place, where you can be a “work in progress.” All of the members of a mastermind are asked to commit to that confidentiality. Your job as a mastermind member is to trust the members of your group to keep that commitment, so that you can be open and forthcoming in the discussions and help create a valuable experience for everyone.

Preparation. A mastermind is not just a conversation. It’s more like a coaching session. To prepare for a mastermind:

    • Review your vision, goals, and the concrete measurable results you’re trying to achieve.
    • Refresh your action plan, and bring a version you can share with your group.
    • Bring questions you want to ask your group, and a clear sense of what you want to walk away with.
    • Do that, and you’ll walk away from the meeting considerably closer to achieving your goals, because you’ve moved past some of the obstacles with the help of your mastermind.

Accountability. As long as you’ve prepared for your mastermind, you will leave the meeting with clear action steps. Your mastermind can hold you accountable to those action steps as added motivation to keep up the momentum. Be sure to report back on your progress the next time you meet!

A mastermind is very different from a networking group, a professional association, or a common interest group. While these types of groups serve important purposes for leaders, that’s not the focus of a mastermind. Rather, a mastermind is a group so cohesive that the members operate as one, focusing exclusively on the needs of one member at a time, and then another, and then another. Many leaders thrive with the support of their masterminds. If you focus on building your mastermind with the elements of trust and confidentiality, preparation, and accountability, you will too.

The previous article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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Stop Managing, Start Maximizing: A New Approach to Time That Could Make You Happier and More Productive

Time management is all about trying to squeeze in everything you need to do into those boxes on your calendar. When executive coaches talk about “time management” they’re generally referring to the way that you organize and plan how long you spend on specific activities.

“Good” time management takes that definition further – it requires an important shift in focus from activities to results. The problem with that is that you can end up with more to do than you initially anticipated. That’s why I prefer a new take on time.

The secret to managing your time effectively is knowing what you want to do, and when you will do it, and so over the last few years I have been teaching people to “maximize” their time.

Maximizing your time means clearing away obstacles to increase time and productivity. For example, let’s say you’re going on a business trip. Managing your time would mean you get out your calendar, you slot in all of the things you need to do, you crunch and cramp them into the calendar as much as you can, perhaps even double booking yourself, and sometimes even adding an additional to-do list.

There is nothing wrong with managing your time – but you need to recognize your time limits. All that time management does is get you organized, which makes you feel like you can get more done in a day than you probably can. But is that the only goal?

Maximizing your time means making the most of your time. It requires asking yourself important questions like: What’s essential? What’s my number one priority? What’s the impact of this priority? How does it compete with the other things that might otherwise be on my calendar?

To use the travelling example, instead of just making the calendar schedules and to-do lists (managing your time), you might rather identify for yourself the one thing that’s most important to you to get done on the trip. Carve out your time on your travels to do that action item, eliminate some of the other items of lesser importance on the list, the things that you could choose not to in service of a greater goal.

If you’ve ever been to Europe, you might have had the experience of sipping wine or coffee at a cafe for hours in the middle of the afternoon, or luxury eating in an hours-long dinner with family and friends well into the evening. Europeans may sometimes be as stressed as we are, but they have routines that allow them to maximize their time in a way that allows them to take control over how they want to prioritize their day.

Now the next time you’re on a business trip, instead of scheduling and managing your time, try maximizing it by prioritizing your time. You’re thinking about not how to get everything done, but how to be your best. Being your best might mean that you get in bed early, get extra sleep, wake up feeling refreshed, eat only healthy food while you’re there and focus on that one essential thing you need to do.

You’ll feel a dramatic difference when you maximize your time. Life slows down, you feel centered, you feel aligned, you may even feel like you’re living a higher quality of life that’s very different from the mad dash that many of us feel on a daily basis. Maximizing your time may seem like a luxury that you feel you can’t afford right now, so maybe you might make the big bold leap to maximizing your time with these practices only for one day a week to start. Give yourself the opportunity to experience the difference.

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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How To Maximize Achievement And Minimize Burnout: Know Your 3 Zones

Gut check: Are you feeling challenged at work?

Are you challenged enough?

Are you too challenged?

To be your best–hitting your targets, meeting your goals, advancing your career–it’s important to get the answer to those questions right. And there isa “right” answer. You need the optimum amount of challenge to stretch yourself (without overdoing it). Too little challenge, and you’re underperforming. Too much, and you’re at risk of burning out.

Finding that optimum amount of challenge is critical for high achieving leaders in fast-paced companies, but it’s not always easy.

  • Sometimes leaders and high achievers race so fast after the next level goal that they forget to enjoy the space they are in right now.
  • Sometimes the pace is so fast they feel they can’t slow down.
  • And sometimes there’s a mismatch between individuals and their managers about how much stretch is enough. Recently I had an interesting conversation with a manager who was highly motivated about advancing one of his employees. He wanted her to get out of her comfort zone, to stretch and challenge herself, to be bold and take risks. He wanted to see her career to take off by gaining experience with diverse challenges. But when I talked to the employee herself, she seemed exhausted. She said, “Sometimes I wish I could just relax and settle into my job.”

To assess your own amount of challenge, consider three options:

The “Comfort Zone”

The “Stretch Zone”

The “Panic Zone.”

The Comfort Zone. Your comfort zone is the place where you feel most comfortable. Here things are easy. You know what you are doing, and you have done it before. You feel a sense of peace, security and confidence. There is no question that in your comfort zone you feel good most of the time. However, the comfort zone is not the ideal place to live long term.

The risks of complacency live in the Comfort Zone. Here you can neglect to challenge yourself, which causes stagnation and can eventually stop growth and progress. If you’ve been in the Comfort Zone too long, you may start to feel a little anxious–a sign it’s time for you to get out and do something more.

When you have been in your comfort zone long enough to build up your confidence and feel like you know what you are doing, that is the time to step it up and move up into your stretch zone. Remember, leaders must constantly work to challenge themselves, acquire new skills, meet new people and say “yes” to new experiences in order to grow.

Remember the example of the employee above whose boss was excited to challenge her? In her exhaustion, she was craving a little time in the comfort zone. She felt she needed time to reflect, readjust, and become comfortable and confident before taking on the next challenge. The Comfort Zone isn’t a bad place to be. Just be sure you don’t stay there too long.

Stretch Zone. Your Stretch Zone is your sweet spot. This is the place to stay as much as you possibly can. In the stretch zone, you set goals that are just out of reach: realistic and reasonable, but challenging. You say “yes” to new opportunities.It is that place where your mental productivity and performance reach their peak. You look for ways to expand your knowledge, your skills and your expertise. You try to improve yourself in significant ways that have an impact on you, your goals and the people around you. In your stretch zone, you are constantly raising your hand, getting in there, trying new things and constantly moving onward and upward to something better and better. The great thing about the stretch zone is that it is energizing, and uplifting, gratifying, fulfilling and accomplishing – all the ingredients that define excellent performance.

For the manager that wanted to stretch his employee, the Stretch Zone would be the best place for both of them to be.

It is possible, however, to take it too far, and that is when you move into the Panic Zone.

Panic Zone. The Panic Zone is where stretching becomes stretched, where risk-taking becomes too risky, where being bold becomes too much. In your Panic Zone you are so far out of your comfort zone that you no longer feel there is a floor beneath you.

The dangers of the panic zone are multiple. You can get distracted. You can move too fast. You can make mistakes. Ultimately you can burn out.

It is in the panic zone I meet too many talented people who are squandering their precious resources–their talents, their contributions, themselves. They are stretched so thin that they are no longer effective.

You can see how this might be the next step (or the last straw) for our overly challenged employee. Stretched too far for too long with no end in sight, she was becoming anxious and less effective than she could be.

As a visual reminder of the three zones, think of a rubber band. A rubber band lying on the table, not doing its job, is very useless, full of potential, but unrealized potential, just waiting to be used. A rubber band that is stretched to an optimum level has a job to do, to hold things together. A rubber band that is stretched too far will start to fray, and will eventually snap. When you’re in the panic zone for too long, you can feel yourself ready to snap too.

When it comes to the three zones above, ask yourself:

  • Which zone are you in?
  • Where do you want to be?
  • What would it take to get there?
  • What decisions do you need to take, and what conversations do you need to have?
  • Can you define the perfect stretch zone for you?
  • Where do you want things to ease up, to keep you out of the panic zone?
  • Where can you step things up to move into the stretch?

These are all questions you can ask yourself to get to the perfect level of energy where you are focused, clear and gaining momentum with excitement and energy for the long term.

The previous article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!