Step 8: Take Risks

Essentially, what it means to take risks is that you must embrace the passages rather than escape them. From the passages perspective, taking risks as a leader requires purposefully inviting adversity and diversity into your life. Some people attempt to control their careers to minimize risk: turning down uncomfortable assignments, not moving their families because of the upheaval it creates, refusing to challenge the conventional wisdom of their team or organization, or not engaging their boss with any authentic feedback. This play-it-safe behavior helps people avoid the new experiences and adverse circumstances that come with each passage, thus curtailing their development.

In Action Learning leadership development programs, we intentionally force executives to move outside their comfort zone by engaging in such diverse experiences as climbing mountains, interviewing citizens in a developing country, meeting government leaders, or volunteering in a homeless shelter. An athlete improves performance by pushing his personal performance edge, and the analogy holds true for leaders. You cannot expect to evolve as a leader without placing yourself in unfamiliar situations or experiencing pain. Risks provide you with both. This doesn’t mean engaging in needlessly hazardous behaviors such as confronting others with no reason or data, or signing up for outcomes or projects for which success is not only difficult but probably impossible. But it does mean making a habit of exposing yourself to situations where you feel uncomfortable and confronting your feelings and flaws. In our experience, the good leaders have taken personal risks repeatedly throughout their careers, especially in their passages, and they work to minimize the creeping conservatism that sometimes accompanies success.