Latest Thinking

The Reach Interview Series is an informal dialogue between Andy Molinsky and respected thought leaders about the challenges of stepping outside your comfort zone, especially in the process of developing yourself as a leader.

We all want to be as productive as possible. But we’re also human.

Every now and then I visit an old friend of mine at his Fortune 100 corporate headquarters – and every time I do, I’m struck by the incredible amount of people he knows and is seemingly friends with.

Stepping outside your comfort zone in a meaningful and consequential professional situation can be very challenging to do.

You’re an accomplished professional. And because of your excellent performance, you’ve skyrocketed up the organization and are now running a team, or perhaps even an organization.

Have you ever sat down to work on a business pitch… or your resume… or an important speech you’ve been ask to give… and then realized it would be much less stressful to check the sports scores… or play solitaire… or check Facebook?

I was recently speaking with a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company who was lamenting the fact that so many of his top employees were such bad networkers and schmoozers – incredibly uncomfortable in a room full of people they don’t know.

Just the other day I was working with a highly competent, high-achieving executive, whose penchant for overscheduling and overcommitting was running him into the ground.

There is a significant problem in corporate America today with foreign workers and it’s not the problem Donald Trump is obsessed with (that there are too many foreign workers).