Taking the Risk and Trying the New
Part Four of “The Intangibles: They Make You or They Break You”
By David Drury
Let’s face it—you have to really screw up to get fired at most
organizations. Sure—people get laid off
or factories downsize. But few people
are fired because they under-performed.
Because of this many leaders just coast.
You don’t have to really risk much to keep your job,
you just have to side-step landmines along the way that would blow up in your
face. This is unfortunate for many
organizations because when a bunch of leaders are just doing enough to not get
fired then things go nowhere.
However, some leaders know how to take risks and not just
swim with the current. These leaders try
new things to get their department or ministry or branch out of a rut. They have some intangible drive, a subtle
gear above the rest that enables them to shift into the passing lane from time
to time in their organization. They may
not take risks every day—but they know when to get out of the rank and file to
take a risk that yields high rewards for the organization. These leaders are the best leaders, even if
you can’t see this intangible on a resume.
Top leaders in an organization are wise to notice which of their leaders
have this intangible, and which don’t.
When you don’t take risks and try new things:
Coasting seems fine for a while. Who wouldn’t like a relaxing
Sunday-afternoon-drive-pace job?
However, over time the ones that never take a
risk and never try new things get in a rut that lessens their effectiveness and
shrinks their influence. Their peers
will be the first to notice it. It’s not
that they are screwing up—it’s that they are simply clocking in and clocking
out. There’s a Japanese motto that says:
“The tall grass gets mowed.” Leaders
without this intangible have that kind of uninspiring work ethic and their
peers begin to notice it and to cut them out of the loop on important
discussions and decisions. When their
name is mentioned some people roll their eyes and sometimes people even say,
“Yeah, as if they are going to be any help with this! Let’s ask someone else.” After a while, the clients or constituency
that the leader works with will pick up on the coasting. They will notice the mediocre passion, the
lack of excellence, the forgetfulness, the inattention
to detail, the lack of top notch performance.
Their clients or constituents or volunteers will drift away. It won’t be an earthquake, but instead it
will be a small erosion over time—again not enough to get fired. But eventually the boss notices the erosion
and follows it uphill to the coasting leader.
When you do take risks and try new things:
Risk-taking leaders know that they aren’t going to get much
done with the status quo. They know that
clocking in and out on the job would not only hurt the organization but would
be just plain boring for them. They need
a challenge from time to time. When they
hear something new—an innovative idea—their first reaction is to consider if
they could pull it off themselves.
Someone without this intangible is likely to sluff off new ideas or
risky ventures… hoping someone else picks them up. But leaders with this intangible are often
the first to volunteer. They’ve figured
out in the past that the highest rewards come with the highest risks. They’re not prone to vague measurements of
success—or incremental goal-setting.
They sometimes set their sights higher than the leaders above them and
may even need to be reigned in a bit. Risk
taking leaders who try new things are the fuel that makes an organizational
machine run. Instead of just offering
incremental benefits to the team they create potential growth engines for the
future.
How to develop a risk-taking
spirit:
If you’re questioning whether or not you’re coasting (or at
least in a very low gear) then do these things to develop:
q
Consider
what decisions you’ve made in the last 5 years have truly been risks and
evaluate whether you’ve taken enough risks in your work.
q
How
many of the things you are currently doing were new to you or the team when you
tried them?
q
Talk
to several people who have your role at another organization that are way ahead
of you. Ask them about the new things
they’ve tried and then try them yourself.
q
Ask
some of your peers and your boss to rate you on a 1 to 5 scale on how much of a
risk-taker you are.
q
Offer
to take on a project that has potential of failure from time to time–not just
the “sure things.”
How to spot & reward
someone who has a risk-taking spirit:
Organizations often reward longevity rather than the people
who are actually causing the growth through trying new things and taking
risks. Most bosses are far more likely
to give a 5-years of service reward than to reward someone who took a risk that
grew the organization by 5% (and even if they do reward that person they do it
in private—when perhaps they should be made a good example to the whole
team). Look for people in your
organization that are willing to take on risky projects or even come up with
them on their own. When you look at your
team do you have a hunch that many are coasting? If so, your whole organization may feel like
it is coasting. So put the risk-takers
in a position to impact the whole organization rather than just a slice. Be sure to give good support to their new
ventures as well. Often times its
success will be dependent on funding or communication or staffing—elements out
of that leaders control. You also don’t
want a risky venture with high returns to fail, because you lose the potential
returns and the rest of your team will be less likely to become risk-takers in
the future. Your team members who have a
risk-taking spirit won’t be less likely however. It’s part of who they are. They’ll be trying new things before you know
it—even if the last thing failed. Make
sure you know of this intangible and reward it.
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Or email David@DruryWriting.com
_________
This is part four of The Essential Intangibles. Come back for more on each intangible. Click here
for the introduction to this series.
© 2006 by David Drury
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