The workplace can be nerve racking. You want to make a good impression and continuously prove your worth by excelling in your tasks. You also want to grow and move your career forward by experimenting with new projects and ways of working.
It's a tough balance to strike, but if you ask many in leadership positions, they'd likely encourage getting out of your comfort zone. It's taking those risks on the job that helps you and the company learn critical lessons and ultimately find success.
Here are three CEOs on the importance of leaning into the unknown.
'Go into places and experiences that make you uncomfortable'
Edward Jones CEO Penny Pennington started her career in corporate banking helping businesses with funding. Then in the year 2000, she was hired to be a financial advisor to individuals at Edward Jones.
"I had never worked one-on-one with families before," she previously told CNBC Make It. She didn't even have the various certifications and licensing she needed to do it. But the company helped get her up to speed, and along the way, she learned what it meant to serve individuals. It helped pave the way for her position as head of the company now.
"Go into places and experiences that make you uncomfortable," she said, adding that, "that's where the growth comes. That's where the confidence comes."
Meet new people and 'connections will fall into place'
Sometimes, that scary new opportunity comes in the form of meeting new people.
"When you're willing to put yourself out there, you're going to be uncomfortable. Your stomach might be turning in the moment," said Nick Bailey, CEO of real estate company Re/Max. But doing so is incredibly valuable for expanding your knowledge and potentially helping you solve problems on the job down the line.
Baily recommends attending a networking event for a different industry, sending a cold email to a CEO you've long admired or simply approaching a professional with decades of experience in your workplace. The worst people can do is tell you they're not interested in talking. But that's rare, he said. Most people are flattered when someone genuinely expresses interest in their work.
When you do that, "connections will fall into place," he said.
Take 'one risk per day'
Some leaders would have you tread unchartered waters pretty frequently.
"One risk per day, that's what we all should be doing," said Sander van 't Noordende, CEO of human resource consulting firm Randstad. He tells the story of needing to call a new client in one of his first jobs, someone he'd never spoken to before.
"He picked up the phone, I did my introduction, and he liked my pitch," he says, adding that, "the worst thing that could've happened is that he would've said, 'no,' and he would've hung up the phone." But, instead, the client was interested.
Taking those risks on a regular basis "really brings you further in life," he says.
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