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To Activate the Comfort Zone —— The Last Step to Success

Wed, Jan 16, 2019

Author: Long Fengming  2013 MBA Alumni 

 I started to engage in educational training industry after graduating from Tongji MBA program, having the opportunity to encounter various enterprises and individuals and understand some of their problems. Two of the most typical problems are: firstly, what is the most effective way for development when an organization choose and cultivate its team? Secondly, How could an individual realize his or her value through choosing a career path?

It is common to see such a situation in the workplace: the enterprises increase their awareness of the importance of talent, endeavoring to attract talent and build teams, aiming to promote the efficiency of the organization through the power of the team, but often feel wronged for great efforts on hunting and cultivating people while no expected return. The employees neither develop as expected nor bring value to the organization, may even the opposite. Another situation is that individuals attach great importance on personal growth, and are ambitious to achieve their own value in the workplace, trying to do something well, but end up with a dissatisfactory result. Here we’re definitely talking about organizations and individuals that actively want to change the status and continue to improve. Nevertheless, We can see there are still a large part of the organization or individual can not get ideal results though they actively want to change and improve, all of this is because they have not activated the “comfort zone”.

Comfort zone refers to the mental state and habitual behavior pattern that a person presents, in which he or she feels comfortable. Once out of the area, people feel uncomfortable, awkward, or unaccustomed. One view is that if people want rapid growth, they have to get out of the “comfort zone”, or break the “comfort zone”, organizers also constantly make such kind of instruction, as a result, people run or are pushed outside of the “comfort zone” for striving, finally with nothing achieved. Many even regard breaking the “comfort zone” more as job-hopping, changing jobs from one enterprise or a position without many years’ accumulation within a decade, finally getting a worse ending, which is neither good for organizations nor individuals.

Over the years, I have observed that people who are successful in a particular field love their jobs or careers. Jobs once said, ” The only way to achieve great things is to love what you do.” So he became obsessed with Apples and continued to persist regardless of physical health, and finally created the Apple myth. How can we reach the state of love? People in the “comfort zone” feel comfortable, relaxed, stable, able to control and safe, so that there is a reason to love. Only by activating the “comfort zone” can we release our “super power”.

I am very lucky to find my “comfort zone” in advance, in which there are many factors: outgoing personality, strong affinity, enjoying working with people, love of learning, faith, helping others, harmonious preference, a sense of purpose, high efficiency, strong power, preference in leading teams and team work, positive energy… I have been doing jobs and career associated with these factors all the way: 15 years in marketing position, 10 years in education training career, 8 years in the entrepreneurial journey. I love each of them as “first love”, the reason is that I have activated factors belonging to my “comfort zone”, so as to release my “super power” which includes the access to Tongji university. In the absence of 985, 211 university background, Tongji university accepted my application with her broad heart, I think it’s greatly because the Tongji interview committee found my “comfort zone”, and saw the factor that would make me grow into a talent in business administration. Hereby I am truly grateful to my alma mater, Tongji university. 

How to find your own “comfort zone”? Advantage? Interests? These are not comprehensive enough, it’s closely related to our personalities. Enneagram is the most comprehensive and authoritative method to analyze personality. According to people’s habitual mindset, emotional reactions and behavioral habits, Enneagram divides people into nine types, which are called nine types of personality. Enneagram has been widely applied to personal growth and career choice, interpersonal relationship, marital relationship, parent-child relationship, enterprise management, team building, sales skills, education and training, psychological counseling, and many other fields.

In order to make it easier for you to identify which type of person you are and what factors you have in your comfort zone, I make a comparison table as follows:

 

Personality type Personality traits Behavioral traits (part) Comfortable zone (part) Suitable position reference
No.1 Perfectionist Introverted Black or white, no gray zone. Critical, fair, strict and abstemious.Efficient, detail-oriented, pursue perfection and have a strong system plan. Diligence and aversion to laziness. Introverted, fair, just, principled, honest, orderly, detail-oriented, diligent, critical thinking, planning, high AQ Quality inspection, production, finance, legal affairs, discipline inspection, supervision, EHS, salary, judge, etc
No.2Giver Extroverted Sensitive, willing to help others, eager to be loved, easy to envy. Convinced that helping others is the root of happiness and willing to sacrifice,but also possessive, requiring same return from people they care about. Extrovert, like helping others, patient, affinity, sensibility, enthusiasm, gentleness,high EQ. Services, personnel, logistics, secretarial, sales, general assistant, training, trade unions, public relations, etc
No.3Achiever Extroverted Goal oriented, value fame and fortune, pragmatist. Care about performance in front of others, high competition consciousness. Let others see the best side, confident, energetic, like to show off. Be the first, be recognized, be the object of admiration and attention. Extroverted, like to deal with people, strong sense of purpose,high efficiency, competition consciousness, love  learning, good eloquence, attention on image, vitality, high EQ. Sales, public relations, team leading, development, marketing development, negotiation, speech, training, etc
No. 4 Romanticist Introverted Romantic thoughts, strong imagination, unique views on things, like to express personal feelings through aesthetic things. Introverted, emotional, artistic, often thinking about the meaning of life and pursuit of uniqueness, unwilling to participate in things that they do not understand or agree with. Introverted, solitary, fond of mental traveling, pursuit of uniqueness, yearning for romance, strong artistic appreciation, self-centred, melancholy, creative intelligence. Design, creativity, literature and art, appreciation, tea art, art, writing, calligraphy, drama, etc
No.5Thinker Introverted Keen to seek knowledge, like analyzing and discussing abstract concept, so as to establish a theoretical framework, self-sufficiency in the world of thinking, hair-splitter, lack of action, focus on work, don’t like dealing with people inside. Introverted, solitary, analytical, thinking, research, exploration, logical thinking, systematic thinking, indifferent interpersonal relationships and high IQ. Planning, research, strategy, data, technology, research and development, stock market, strategic layout, etc
No.6Loyalist Introverted Recognition and obedience to authority, responsible. Long lasting loyalty and commitment to family, friends and community. Indecisive, cautious and anxious. In the case of dissent, easy to fall into contradictions and dilemma, and delay in responding. Introverted, obey to authority, risk conscious, cautious,  anxious, steady but slow in decision-making, high AQ. General assistant, finance, assignment, legal affairs, operations, investigation, EHS, supervision, quality inspection, etc
No.7 Enthusiast Extroverted Outgoing, not depressive,persist own way , informative, naughty,  material desire, hedonist, don’t care about others’ feeling, unusual talking, like to explore new things, self entertainment. Extroverted, fond of freedom, stimulating, happy, humorous, exploring new things, playful, gluttonous, creative intelligence Public relations, sales, literature and art, creativity, design, planning,  event planning, etc
No.8Leader Extrovert love to control others and the environment, decision-making power, risk-taking, entrepreneurship. Self-willed, aggressive and expansive, once not feeling respected or valued, will build another kingdom. Decisive, dare to take responsibility, have protection. Extrovert, controlling desire, commanding, team leader, responsible,  risk taking, strategic, super high AQ. Leading, controlling, developing, team leader,  law enforcement, sales, strategy,territory opening up , etc
No.9 peacemaker Introverted Willing to be realistic and believe in fate, not keen to adjustment, fear of conflict, unwilling to compete, no own standpoint, strong predestination. Introverted, believe in fate, like harmony, dislike conflict, good at listening, good at coordinating relationships, more greedy to eat and sleep, high EQ. Labor unions, personnel, administration, logistics, warehouse management, secretarial, staff relations, negotiations, etc

People of each personality have different “comfort zones”, and comfortable feeling helps them grow in the right fields.

As an organization, in addition to the assessment of academic qualifications and experience, it is more important to discover the “comfort zone” of its team members and activate their comfort factors. For example, employees with outgoing personality who like to work with people (No.2, 3, 7, 8) can be arranged to do marketing, letting them fully enjoy the comfort in working with people, which is easier to make achievements. Also, arranging employees with strong analytical, research and logical factors (No.5) to do research and development would make them feel enjoyed and obtain remarkable achievements. Another example is to arrange employees with a strong sense of principle, integrity and fairness factor (No. 1) to do quality inspection, which would make them do a good job and achieve a sense of worth.

As individuals, it is important to know where is the “comfort zone”, what are the comfort factors that help to carry out a specific work type, and to set it as a fundamental keynote to design their own career path. If the factor inside can’t support his or her career, inspection and deep thinking is necessary — to adjust the career path, or to learn from people who have the ideal comfort factors, so as to expand the “comfort zone”, while the second path is relatively difficult.

Organizations must activate team members’ “comfort zone” to release the “super power” of the team, individuals must activate the “comfort zone” if they want to release their own “super power” in the workplace . JUST TRY! YOU ARE THE BEST. 

Warm prompt: Enneagram is an abstruse subject, readers who have interests can subscribe to Helen Palmer’s Enneagram, also can contact me (Long Fengming: WeChat & TEL 13915035605) Let’s jointly explore its magic charm.

X Thank you for your interest in Master of Global Management, Tongji University!