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Am I taking an enormous risk
by the fact that I am standing up here in front of all of you, where there
could be an expectation that I will have something interesting, inspiring or
even life-changing to say?
OR
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Am I taking up a wonderful
opportunity to communicate with intelligent wonderful women who will
appreciate that I am sharing my experience as both a woman and a professional?
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What is the right answer?
- I am taking a risk
- I am taking up an
opportunity
- Potentially both
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How does this relate to the
panel of “Successfully Managing Personal and Professional risk”?
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Context:
- It all starts with our own
personal perception/life experience of what risk is and the ongoing connection
with how this plays out in terms of whether we can/cant, do/don’t take risks?
- Where does that come from?
- Is the thought, decision or
preparation process different when considering taking a “risk” in your
personal or professional life?
- Are there key elements to
both?
- Can you change the way you
respond to risk?
- Is there a formula that I
have used over my professional life to make decisions that have a risk
element?
- Is there any truth to the
fact that as woman we need to be even bigger risk takers to achieve the
success that we may desire?
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I am an Australian, living in
New York who spent 8 years living in London. I have supported this personal
risk journey with a number of equally “risky” career moves so I hope my
remarks reflect that journey and offer at least one “new” point for you to
consider in reference to your personal and professional lives.
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My Simple Formula – After
looking at my experience with risk taking in more detail I realized that there
was in fact a number of key and consistent elements that needed to be
considered together when making a decision with a perceived element of risk
involved.
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There are always 2 elements:
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1. Personal Risk: Individual
comfort level + Perceived risk level in the situation = risk ranking
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2. Business Risk:
Individual comfort level + Industry/business Risk level = risk ranking
- What contributes to an
individual’s level of comfort or perception of risk? Why do I have it first
in both cases?
- What do I mean when I refer
to Industry/Business risk?
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No wonder it can
seem hard?
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1. Definition of Risk
(Princeton word-net): Hazard or a source of danger; a possibility of incurring
loss or misfortune; Venture undertaken without regard to possible loss or
injury; Exposure to a chance of loss or damage
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2. Definition of Managing
(Princeton word-net): To exert control over; To direct the affairs or
interests of; To succeed in accomplishing or achieving, especially with
difficulty
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Key is to manage risk and not
let the risk manage you. So how?
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1. How do you decide what
measure of risk is manageable?
- Look at both the best and
worse possible outcomes of a decision and ensure you can “manage” both
outcomes
- Educate yourself on the
topic so that you are in control
- Compare the potential gain
to the potential loss of the opportunity
- Know what you what to gain,
achieve, and learn from taking this decision. What is your success currency?
- History repeats it so what
do you want to do the same or differently from previous experiences
- Ensure it reflects your
belief and value system
- Trust your intuition and gut
feeling
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Helpful Checklist:
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Time
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Money
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Resources
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Personal fulfillment for you and others affected
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Match your personal and professional strengths and
weaknesses
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2. What steps can you take
to turn risks into opportunities?
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Educate yourself on the
opportunity to minimize the risk.
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Manage you mental approach.
How are you thinking about this?
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Take it in bite size chunks.
Build your confidence as you build the vision of the opportunity
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Decide that you want to take
more opportunities and set goals related to this-Change your map
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Take the word risk out of
your vocabulary
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Utilize a coach or mentor
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3. What advice would I
give to participants who are risk adverse?
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Answer this question: Do you really
believe that you need/want to be more of a risk taker to achieve you personal
and professional goals?
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Identify your motivation and
objectives
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Give it a new name
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Set yourself a goal of 1-3
things that you are going to tackle that you would have previously considered
a risk? Confirm by when? Line- up what or who else you need to achieve this?
Action often removes fear.
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Ensure you identify in any
given situation that it is risk aversion and not a lack of skill, competence
or fear of failure.
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“Is taking no risks in life
actually the biggest risk you can take”
