Risk Tolerance

What’s your tolerance for risk? 

One of the principles I teach, is that to progress in your career, especially if you’re managing other humans, you need to increase your tolerance for risk. 

If you don’t, you won’t be able to prioritise your time, or make decisions, in ways that are required as you step into leadership roles. 

The thing is… I’m not sure people actually hear what I’m saying when I talk about risk. 

So let me be clearer…

Risk tolerance (in this context) means a tolerance of MISTAKES. 

If you aren’t willing for mistakes to happen, you have NO tolerance for risk. 

I see this show up in people: 

• Triple-checking their own work;
• Always running work or decisions past other people;
• Micro-managing the work product of other people.

We do that, so that we can be SURE our work has no mistakes. 

Because we have no tolerance for risk. 

By the way, this isn’t your fault. You’ve probably been taught a million times, in a million different (and probably painful) ways, that mistakes are “unacceptable”. 

If that’s a message you’ve internalised. It’s no wonder you try to avoid mistakes. 

They feel dangerous. And your brain’s main job is to avoid danger. 

But just because your brain thinks it, doesn’t make it true. 

Remember, your brain tends to have a very short-term view of things. It will prioritise trying to control other people’s (temporary) opinions of you, over your long-term career success. It is totally confused about the ‘dangers’ of modern life. 

Increasing your risk tolerance doesn’t mean eliminating mistakes. 

It means managing your brain so that you don’t think they are SO dangerous. 

In the meantime, go make some mistakes… and notice how you don’t die. ☺