Women at the Water Cooler - Tip #36 - Do you run from or toward?

How much does fear drive your actions at work? If you think about your current workload and the meetings you have had in the last month, how many are to set up to support or enroll others in an exciting risky, forward thinking strategy? How many are designed to cover your bum or make sure you don’t leave yourself exposed to risk by not getting approval, buy in or just more people on your side.

It’s a valuable question for a leader to consider as we often espouse to our teams to take risks; we tell them ‘don’t be afraid to fail or step out of the box’. However, often times our culture and environment doesn’t truly support that courageous behavior.

How do you know if that’s true? Assess how many people on your team do those proactive, risk related activities vs. make sure they can’t be blamed or aren’t seen as the one who led an initiative to failure?

I’m certainly not supporting failing or being reckless in our thinking or with our companies’ resources. In my experience, most companies err so far to the side of not challenging the way we’ve always done it that it grows harder to truly create innovation. And employees grow bored without outlets for innovation and creativity within their work environments. Do you as their leader seek ways for your team to explore new ideas? Regroup? Address old ways to understand if better, new ones exist? And do you as a leader model taking risks or being okay with making decisions that are 80% vs. 100% supported in evidence? Your actions around risk taking model to your organization and team how much they should.

Look at the recent chip innovation. To not lay a chip flat but tilted upward at an angle allows it to conduct so much more quickly. How long have those who make them made them flat? Are your people laying flat or are they encouraged to move about and seek new territory even in stable, mature processes?

A key question is how you as a leader really feel about risk-taking and change. If you’re uncomfortable with it, others know that about you. It might not be conscious, but your behavior can send messages.

If you want to know how risk embracing or adverse you are, consider these questions.

* Do you know how to nurture creativity within your team or does that scare or intimidate you? This can trickle all the way to how you support the growth of your reports.
* Do people who work for you get counsel about their career moves? You can do this or connect them with other mentors in the organization.
* Do you set them up with challenging, growth type assignments?
* Do your peers know who they are? Growing the exposure of those who work for you is a key tip to getting them ready for succession.
* How often do they see your boss or bosses’ boss?
These can feel like risky moves to your stable work environment and you likely depend upon these performers to keep the wheels on the bus. However, your team may soon pick up on the fact that here is where you want them to stay and here is where they’ll eventually feel trapped.

Bear in mind, people watch your feet not your words. You may say all the right things to encourage them to risk but if your tolerance doesn’t support that, then others know where you stand and what you value. I’ve had more than one manager say to me that an employee is great, fantastic - the perfect model for his or her team and how could they possibly stand to lose them? That’s a great indicator of what kind of support this manager will give to their team’s development.

You’ve got to want people to outgrow you and your environment, that’s how you got to where you are. That’s how organizations thrive. You want to encourage people to thrive around you. How much more fulfilling could work be than witnessing other’s growth? Wow.