Leading Outside Your Comfort Zone

A research-backed guide to leading with confidence and resilience in an age of anxiety.


Leading is inevitably frustrating and emotionally demanding, yet leaders get little training in how to deal with painful emotions. Since the global pandemic, stresses on leaders have only grown. To lead effectively in an age of anxiety, leaders must build the capacity to act in spite of unpleasant emotions, and bring a learning mindset to challenges that can otherwise feel overwhelming. Leading Outside Your Comfort Zone draws on a wide body of research to show how well-being and resilience emerges from this struggle; leaders grow by adopting a learning mindset in the face of unpleasant emotions. The book explains how to:


Confidently face new challenges


Accelerate progress toward goals


Improve productivity during discouraging, "unfruitful" periods


Overcome frustration with difficult personalities and organizational politics


Build confidence and a mindset of stress-less productivity


Build resilience throughout the organization


Leadership expert D. Christopher Kayes integrates insights from diverse disciplines, including management and organization studies, psychology, sports and military psychology, neuroscience, and education, and presents original research involving over 1,000 leaders. The book focuses on five tools that help leaders develop positive emotional engagement, creative problem-solving, learning identity, flexibility, and social support.