Good leaders stretch people.
They provide opportunities and experiences that require new thinking, skills, and behaviors. They design or offer challenges that require sustained effort and that reward experimentation and initiative.
They know people grow fastest when they operate with autonomy. So they design challenges that require independent decision-making.
They encourage team members to experiment, show initiative, and display resourcefulness, and then to reflect on what they have learned.
With the right opportunities, people grow and develop quickly and become eager for the next challenge.
The best leaders know another secret about stretching people. They have learned that to fully grow and develop, people need to feel both challenged and uncomfortable while also feeling safe.
People who experience adversity with low risk build resilience and confidence. When the risk of failure or judgment is too high, then a challenge can appear overwhelming and stressful.
Not surprisingly, those who face adversity with high risk often become fearful and anxious.
The key to professional and personal development is to find or create challenges that make people uncomfortable but that come with a safety net. The bigger the safety net, the more discomfort a person can handle.
Lowering the risk of failure lowers the perceptions of adversity. In other words, high adversity is viewed as more moderate when the risk is low.
The critical question is what counts as risk.
Elevating safety in challenges isn’t about coddling people or removing any or all consequences from the equation. The right amount of safety to create low risk is all about the consequences of failure or inadequate performance.
When team members feel they won’t be judged harshly for underperformance, believe they will be supported by their leader regardless of the outcome, and know that any misstep will not be linked to negative repercussions, then they perceive the risk as low.
As a result, they then want to step up to meet the challenge.
By lowering the risk, leaders can ratchet up the challenge and enable people to grow and develop faster. Adversity is muted when the risk is low.
This soft adversity is what team members, players, and children need to grow. The best leaders stretch people with the right amount of challenge and risk.
In the middle of every challenge lies the consequence of failure. The best leaders mitigate the risk.
