Growth is costly! Whether it is personal, organisational, business – you name it – growth comes with a cost attached. When we stop making an intentional provision for this cost, growth is exchanged with stagnation and decline, or worse, death. So, what is the actual cost of growth? While “cost” could be measured a multitude of different ways, I would like to highlight ten common costs of growth that usually emerge personally and organisationally.
First, Higher Pain Threshold. In his book, Leadership Pain, coach and consultant Sam Chand highlights that anytime leadership does not generate pain, you are likely to be in a season of “unusual blessing,” or you are really not making a difference. Chand notes:
Growth = Change
Change = Loss
Loss = Pain- therefore
Growth = Pain
Leadership attracts pain. It is the cost we incur in order to keep growing. Your inability to deal with doses of pain will be the ceiling to your personal and organisational growth. Your pain threshold must increase in tandem with your organisation’s growth. As Chand notes, “You’ll grow only to the threshold of your pain.”
The challenge is that too many leaders are searching for problem-free solutions. They do not exist. Anywhere! When you choose a solution, you simultaneously choose the pain and problems that go with that solution.
When I pursued my Executive Masters in Business Administration several years ago, I needed to re-ignite my academic writing muscle, and so I had to endure the pain of receiving feedback for my very first assignment. I anxiously opened the feedback rubric. What I read was disheartening to say the least – there were blood-red corrections everywhere. But I had to make a decision: do I want to grow, or do I want to write the type of assignments that would jeopardise my degree?
Second, Intensive Coaching. Conferences are excellent at inspiring us to make changes, but they are horrible at actually producing those changes. That is not their intent. Events inspire change, process creates change, and habits sustain change. While an event might inspire us to do something new or different, a process of growth must follow the event so that change can ultimately become a new habit in our lives.
This type of change is often experienced through one-on-one coaching and mentoring. These intensive growth relationships help us gain wider perspective, identify better solutions, and make wiser decisions. Always remember that a good coach will help you unlock your potential by providing assessment, insight, and motivation (feel free to reach out to me for a coaching chemistry session at www.quintuswealth.co.za in support of your growth journey).
Part of the cost of one-on-one coaching and mentoring is the accountability to actually do what one learns. The aim is not to merely acquire more knowledge. That knowledge has to be translated into action. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and your coach or mentor’s time. Another component of this cost is money…and that brings us to our third cost.
Third, Increased Investment. I have discerned something about growth: the more you grow, the harder it is to find coaches to help you go to a new level. Eventually, you have to own up to a simple but sobering fact: high capacity coaching costs money.
When you hear the word, “cost,” you more than likely think of money. The same is true of personal and organisational growth. It requires an increased financial investment. While technology has made it easier – and cheaper – than ever to access information, tools, and best practices, there comes a time when you have to dish out cash to move from “here” to “there.”
Fourth, Stronger Accountability. Certain obstacles, especially in areas of personal growth, are hard to overcome. I have found this to be true in the areas where I have the least intrinsic motivation to grow. To conquer these obstacles, I have to search for stronger accountability.
When we have somebody to hold our feet to the fire, we are able to reinforce our efforts to experience change. The cost of accountability is rarely pleasant. It exposes our weaknesses and makes us feel vulnerable. But this cost is what closes the gap between aspirations and reality.
Fifth, Unfamiliar Environments. Leaders regularly suffer from the disease of “senseless socialising”. Senseless socialising takes place when the thinking life of a leader experiences a deficit of knowledge capital or a relational network. In other words, how I think is limited by what I know, who I know, or who I listen to. I become “sense-less” because I am “socialising” with the same people and draw from the same well of knowledge. Simply put, my growth inputs are congested with larger amounts of old ideas from the same sources. Author and pastor Andy Stanley captured the essence of senseless socialising when he said: “If you are surrounded long enough by people who think like you think, you will become more and more certain that’s the best way to think.”
The cost of “unfamiliar environments” is the treatment of senseless socialising. It is uncomfortable. It feels strange, even unnatural. When we love to be in an environment where everybody knows us – or even admires us – it is difficult to intentionally pursue environments where we are suddenly thrust into anonymity. But these “unfamiliar environments” hold the gold you have been trying to mine in your current environments, yet consistently come up empty-handed.
The most strategic and impactful growth of my life has taken place in unfamiliar environments and roles. Specifically, my dynamic shift from corporate life to the world of non-profit. Wow, what an experience! A roller coaster ride, peppered with leading a fifty strong organisation in the midst of an unfamiliar environment called Covid-19 – taking volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity (VUCA) to another level! Yet, I am treasuring what I have mined from this lived reality – my faith muscles were definitely stretched. Are you willing to pay this price? Are you willing to learn from others who don’t think like you or believe like you? Are you willing to read books outside of your field or industry? Are you willing to attend events sponsored by organisations outside of your business or comfort zone? The keys to unseen growth are often found in unfamiliar environments – go ahead, lean into them.
Sixth, Uncomfortable Risks. Author Larry Osborne once said, “Highly successful leaders ignore conventional wisdom and take chances. Their stories inevitably include a defining moment or key decision when they took a significant risk and thereby experienced a breakthrough.”
Growth is hazardous. You have to do things you have never done. You have to make hard decisions that feel like a roll of the dice. But is there really any other viable option? Leadership without risk is not leadership at all. It is letting the tail wag the dog. It is letting others dictate your vision.
John F. Kennedy once said, “There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” If you are unwilling to pay the cost of uncomfortable risks, you will never know a future any better than your current reality. In fact, it will only decline. Wayne Gretsky, a famous ice hockey player, stated, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you never take.”
Risk does not mean unwise. It does mean courage. Anytime courage is needed, the landscape is full of fears. Your mandate as a leader is to courageously lead into the unknown, and therefore, risk is inevitable. Eleanor Roosevelt summarised this point so aptly, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face.” Risk always precedes reward. Courage always comes before victory.
Seventh, Direct Feedback. “Feedback is the breakfast of champions” is a quote often attributed to Ken Blanchard, author, speaker, management expert, and business consultant. Leaders need to make it their mission to seek out candid feedback, and actively turn it into change.
I have witnessed a number of organisations become paralysed by bureaucratic red tape and a fear of conflict. In the end, the organisation turns into stone. It also takes place personally. A reluctance to hear the truth, confront the harsh facts, and adjust our sails, results in a personal stagnation and eventual decline.
The cost of candid and direct feedback is critical. Bill Hybels says, “Facts are our friends.” Even when those facts are challenging or depressing, they are the starting place for change. They define our reality. Welcome them. Embrace the cost of candid feedback!
Eighth, Relational Transitions. This one is hard. Sometimes we outgrow the people around us. Sometimes we reach a point that the people we serve together with we simply cannot go to. It is not because they are not good people. It is not because they are not valuable, important, or worthy. It is not necessarily an issue of character, competence, or chemistry, but rather capacity. They do not have the capacity to grow to the point we need to go.
Combined with “higher pain threshold,” this is the most emotional cost. Be it personally or organisationally, there comes a time when you have to “move on.” It does not mean you cannot still be friends (although this may be the case if the person is involved in destructive behaviour that is negatively impacting you). What it does mean is that it is time for a shift to take place in what the relationship looks like.
The transition may shift from “employee” to “non-employee,” from “close friend” to “friend,” or from “regular supporter” to “disgruntled customer.” Transitions can also go the other way. Sometimes they go from “friend” to “accountability partner,” from “associate” to “coach,” or from “acquaintance” to “close friend.”
Just know that relational transitions – good or bad – are a cost of growth. They usually include a wide spectrum of emotion…from stress, to pain, to joy.
Ninth, Determined Focus. No person, or organisation, can do it all. While we intuitively know that to be true, we look for every way possible to avoid it. Focus is a cost. In fact, unclear vision is one of the inhibitors to progress. It always means giving something up so you can do something better. It requires a powerful blend of clarity and discipline.
Clarity assists you in identifying a specific vision, strategy, or model. Discipline helps you unequivocally commit to it every day. That means you will give up a large number of ideas. You will have to differentiate between an opportunity and a distraction. But the result will be worth it.
Clarity and discipline in the face of obstacles is not possible unless one believes that a solution exists – no matter the cost – and it does exist, waiting to be found as a result of bold experiments and imaginative endeavour.
In in my own growth journey, I am finding that everything that happens in this world is brought about by faith. If it were not for faith and trust, little would be accomplished. Faith then is the significance of knowing that I have the determination to cope with costs of daily living. Faith is great, but on its own without clarity and discipline we can waste a great deal of our potential. When you have clarity of what your purpose is, and you tackle the task ahead with discipline, then you will see that we have to learn to live our lives with determined focus.
Tenth, Patient Delays. I wish I did not have to include this cost. Whether in a line at the supermarket, at a traffic light during rush hour, or sitting in the airport waiting for a thunderstorm to end, we hate delays. As paradoxical as it sounds, waiting is the cost of progress.
Please hear what I am not saying. I am not saying we should be lazy or irresponsible. I am not saying we should simply sit back and watch the world pass us by. And I am not implying that we lose our passion for our vision or mission.
What I am articulating is that delays, setbacks, failures, and obstacles are part of the cost we incur in order to grow. Even though we do not enjoy them, we cannot rush past them. We have to patiently endure – and grow through – them. These experiences invariably shape our lives and form our characters. On an organisational level, delays test our ability to stay focused, and to stick with what is best for the health and growth of the organisation.
For fast-paced leaders, patient delays feel like torture. The key with this cost is to settle it with reflection and wisdom. Reflect on what is going on during these slow times – go so far as to facilitate pause times. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived a Nazi death camp and went on to write Man’s Search for Meaning, shared this sentiment: ”Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Therefore, take the time to pause and dissect lessons in the delay. Resist the temptation to abandon your values, hop on the latest fad, or completely jump ship. Choose your route carefully and wisely. This season will pass, so do not short circuit what needs to happen in it. Your response now will set up what happens, or does not happen, next.
Question: Which cost are you dealing with right now? What other costs have you had to incur?
Feel free to reach out to me today for a complementary coaching chemistry session in support of your growth journey.