Public Safety Insights Newsletter: To Best Serve Your Community, Operate Outside Your Comfort Zone

To Best Serve Your Community, Operate Outside Your Comfort Zone
Public Safety Insight:	One way that people learn and grow is to challenge themselves by testing and stretching their perceived boundaries. Public safety leaders who regularly operate outside their comfort zones gain valuable perspectives and experience that serve their communities well.

Those of you who chose public safety as a career didn’t do so because you wanted to be comfortable. The nature of your job guarantees that you experience many uncomfortable situations. The good news: that discomfort is the source of personal and professional growth that serves everyone well, including your followers and your community.

Think back to the first time you raced to an incident in which you were the leader. You might have been a new captain of a three-person crew, or a training officer with a rookie, or the IC in charge of an entire scene. At some point you probably felt way out of your comfort zone. Yet that experience made you a wiser, more capable leader.

The fact is that you learn and grow by testing your perceived boundaries and continually pushing them outward. Forging into the unknown is a scary proposition that definitely forces you outside your comfort zone – though perhaps it also is exhilarating to some. A number of years ago one of my colleagues said, “I’m learning to become comfortable in my discomfort.” Knowing that his business couldn’t grow if he continued doing only those things he was comfortable with, he chose to embrace discomfort as a constant companion. The lesson: putting yourself in uncomfortable situations helps you gain valuable perspectives and experiences that result in personal and professional growth.

Imagine what public safety in our communities would look like today if past and current leaders had opted to remain inside their respective comfort zones. That picture probably would not have inspired you to choose a career in public safety.

Here are some questions for you to assess your state of continuous learning and growth:

1. What percentage of your time do you operate outside your comfort zone?
2. Does your answer indicate that you are continuing to learn and grow?
3. If yes, how will you sustain it? If no, what will you do differently to get back on the continuous learning and growth track?
4. What does your answer to #1 indicate about the example you are setting to others?
5. What percentage of their time would your staff/crew say they operate outside their comfort zones?   
6. Do their answers indicate that there is room to improve their focus on continuous learning and growth?
7. If yes, what will you do about it?

A community whose public safety leaders are in a near-constant state of discomfort caused by continuous learning and growth is one that is most likely to be safe, healthy, and economically viable. How has your discomfort level helped YOUR community? How will you ensure that it continues to do so well into the future?

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To find articles and resources that may be of value to you, I invite you to visit my web site at www.PublicSafetyInsights.net.

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©2014 Pat Lynch | Public Safety Insights