RELATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Part of leadership is taking risks.

When the clock is winding down, you gotta take the shot.  Remember, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

A couple of attitudes why people find it hard to take the risk…

1. “We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.”

Maybe it was wrong timing?  How about the wrong set of circumstances?  Or not the right team?  There may be reasons why it didn’t work it the past but that doesn’t mean it won’t work this time.

2. “We’ve never tried that before.”

How will we know if it will work or not if we don’t try?

A key thought from Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort …

“There are only two kinds of decisions in life: those that are reversible and those that aren’t.  Asking these questions has helped give me the confidence to take risks; I lean toward saying yes to risks when the decision is reversible and am more careful, exercising all due diligence, when it is not.  The reversible-irreversible test has enabled me to say yes more often than no when people make suggestions, and leaders who always say no find that their teams stop coming to them with fresh ideas.”