Women CEOs Speak: Pursue what stretches you, even if it scares you

“Looking back, I found some of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life happened when I was outside my comfort zone.” Karen Lynch, CEO of CVS Health

One of the core themes that emerged from Korn Ferry's latest Women CEOs Speak research is how critical it is for women to take on stretch roles and do the very things that scare them. In fact, over half of the female CEOs interviewed in the study (including CVS Health CEO, Karen S. Lynch ) stated that embracing tough assignments helped them gain the courage, confidence, and visibility they needed to propel their careers forward.

Of course, putting oneself ‘out there’ – risking failure, rejection, criticism, and exposure - is easier said than done. It takes courage, the virtue that Maya Angelou called the most important of all the virtues because, to quote Angelou “without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue consistently.”

This is true for women and men alike. Yet the call to courage holds a unique relevance for women who must contend with an array of barriers and biases , gender norms and double-binds, that add complexity to their career journey.

To that end, if you’ve been holding back from stepping up to the plate in bigger bolder ways for fear of what might happen if you do, here are four strategies to defy that fear that preferred you didn’t. ??

Doubt your doubts

“Who do you think you are to do that?” “You not smart/ talented/ deserving/ experienced/ fill-in-the-blank enough.” “What if you fail? What will people say?

Sound remotely familiar?

Many women have a daily wrestling match with what Arianna Huffington called ‘the obnoxious roommate’ in their head. That critical hyper-cautious voice constantly second-guessing their smarts, pointing out their shortcomings, fueling?‘imposter syndrome’? and imploring them to play it safe and settle for the status quo.

Regardless of gender, none of us are immune to?self-doubt . Yet a variety of factors -such as a lack of positive role models - set women up to doubt themselves more and back themselves less than their male counterparts.

Accordingly, the most successful female leaders I've encountered have consistently shared that mastering their inner critic and leaning into their fears has not only bolstered their confidence, but has opened new doors of opportunity, many far bigger than they could have imagined.

Trust yourself, not your fears

Cast your mind back to a sig challenge you once faced. Chances are you felt stressed you’d be unable to handle it.

And yet here you are! Someone who is that bit stronger, wiser, and more resilient for the experience.

The lesson?

You are capable of more than you think!

Now apply that learning to your current situation. What possibilities might open up if you trusted in your resourcefulness to rise to the challenges at hand? As I wrote in?You've Got This: The Life-Changing Power of Trusting Yourself , learning to trust in yourself to figure it out as you go along will not only spare you pointless stress, it will unleash the potential your fear may otherwise have held dormant.

Connect to a purpose beyond yourself

Two facts about the human condition:

1. Fear is our dominant default emotion.
2. In the absence of a compelling reason to risk what we fear, we won’t.?

This brings me to an important question:

For the sake of what are you willing to be brave and put yourself 'out there'?

Answer this question will connect you to a purpose more compelling than staying comfortable and avoiding failure. In also helps to reframe the risks of playing it safe, including the ultimate risk of missing out on ever knowing the person you could become. In short: purpose activates courage.

It compels you to dig deep and go ‘above and beyond’ in critical moments and career junctures. In fact Korn Ferry's leadership research has found that operating from a ‘courage mindset’ is a key distinguisher of exceptional enterprise leaders. To quote one leader in the CEO Speaks study: “Don’t settle. Follow your passion and purpose…. leaving your fingerprints on every assignment that you have.”

Embrace the detours. No career is linear.

“One of the biggest decisions is to get comfortable with risk-taking, that is when growth happens.” - Ginny Rometty, former CEO of IBM and co-chair of OneTen .

Of course, not every risk lands a wildly successful outcome. Sometimes we don’t get it perfectly right the first time. Sometimes we do fall short of the high bar we set for ourselves. Yet even when our risks don’t land our ideal outcome, we still learn and we still grow far beyond what we would by playing it safe.

“Women are their greatest critics and have this idea that they cannot take a bigger risk and they always feel they’re not ready for the next step," said Rometty.

“No path is linear,” shared another CEO. It’s why the dots always connect backward. Learning to lean into the curves - using situations that test you the most to teach you the most - will bolster your resilience to bounce forward faster.

“I learned the most when I was doing something I had not done before.

So go ahead and take that stretch assignment. Consider the bold job move.

Get out of your comfort zone and pursue your passion.” - Karen Lynch

Having wrestled with that doubting voice in my own head countless times, I can attest to the possibilities that unfold when you dare to defy it.

So I encourage you to make peace with discomfort. Not to make you squirm, but to help you grow.

What does that look like?

It looks like deciding to "show up" - to speak, act, hold yourself - as the leader you aspire to become.

It looks like leaning into what scares you; trusting your strengths, not your doubts.

It looks like owning your value and giving yourself permission to start before you feel ready.

And when you don’t land the perfect 10? It looks like cutting yourself some slack, mining for the lessons, and then moving forward, wiser and braver.

The world needs your courage, not perfection.?

Margie Warrell is a bestselling author and Senior Partner in the Board, CEO Succession & Leadership practice at Korn Ferry. A contributor to the Women CEO Speaks study, her doctoral dissertation focused on how more women can rise to the decision-making tables.