Risk Takers Get Ahead at Work. Are You Taking Risks?

At some point in your career you will have to answer tough questions. One question might be whether you take responsibility to lead a new project. At another time you might get offered a promotion with a lot more responsibility. Should you take it or pass and wait for the next opportunity? These tough questions often involve taking risks. Risk taking is a part of business and some women manage risks better than others. Here are some ideas to consider for those of you who find that risk taking isn’t your strong suit.

As people get more experienced, I find that risk taking in business often goes down. Why? You either have too much to lose or you have too little energy to expend. That’s a dangerous place to be. It’s when you stop taking risks that your career will come to a halt. I see this lack of risk taking when I hear business people say, "I wouldn’t do that" when earlier in their career they would be hungry to do just that.

I work with salespeople and the one question I often ask is "What are you doing differently this year?" I find that people who never try new things are the ones who stagnate. In my business I have a budget each year to try new ideas. I can promise you that they all don’t work either. Was it money wasted? Nope. I don’t think so.

I learned something from all my risk-taking decisions. I learned especially from the ideas that didn’t work. Each one of the decisions I made, from creating strategic alliances to investments in advertising, was a risk. Would I do them all again? Of course not. Were they worth taking the risk? Yes.

People who pass on opportunities to take risks miss out on what they learn. First, and what’s pretty important, is that when you choose to take a risk, you learn that you can make a decision. In business today, having the ability to make a decision is a gift. The most unsuccessful business people I’ve known are those who are paralyzed when it comes to decision making. I think it’s worse to be paralyzed in decision making than to make a bad decision. That’s how important it is to know that you can decide.

Hopefully you learn something if your decision turns out badly.  That means you’ll only make that mistake once. Nothing is worse in business than repeating bad mistakes! If you’re making different mistakes you will know that you’re a risk taker. Keep on going down that path!
 
If you don’t feel comfortable taking big risks, practice with small decisions. I recently received an invitation to attend a business event. I thought the topic was interesting and wanted to go. Then I thought that I wouldn’t know many people there, I might feel uncomfortable, and why bother going.  Then I caught myself. I was thinking about not attending because it was risky. I immediately decided to go just because of my risk averse thinking.

The meeting was a resounding success. A former customer was there and I was able to reconnect with him and possibly do business in the future. I met other contacts who expressed interest in my sales training work. All this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t make that very small risky decision.

Risk taking is part of business. Do you still take risks? If you realize that you don’t, this is your first step to make a change and do something about it. If you don’t do anything, that’s even more risky for your career success.

Maura Schreier-Fleming is a sales strategist and founder of Best@Selling, a sales training and consulting company. She wrote Monday Morning Sales Tips and works with sales professionals who want to sell more and get more business.