Becoming a Leader: Risky Business

May 6, 2014

Becoming a Leader:  Challenge #13–Learn to Evaluate Risk

Risk is part of business, relationships, life, change, you name it. Typically, when you operate inside of your comfort zone, you don’t experience risk nor do you develop the ability to evaluate risk when it is presented. Innovation suffers. Change ceases. The status quo is all-consuming.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  —Albert Einstein

In today’s fast-paced market environment, the definition of insanity should probably read:  doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the SAME results.

Remember when the BlackBerry(TM) smartphone was the device of choice for mobile connectivity?  Today, RIM (the maker of the BlackBerry) is suffering in the marketplace because Apple (and their iDevices) and Google (with the Android operating system) innovated by taking risks. Remember when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the most used web access software? Today we have Chrome, Safari, and FireFox–all free.

Becoming a Leader:  Talent #13–Influence Others

Daniel Pink, in his best seller Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, shatters the long held myth that influence (and motivation) come from compensation. The real secret lies in the deeply human need to direct our own lives, learn and create, and better ourselves and our world. You will have great influence on others when you allow them to have great influence on themselves. Allow your coworkers to take risks. And take more risks yourself.

To not take risks is actual more of a risk to you, your organization, your future relevance, and your sanity.

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