June 9, 2020
017: Taking Risk in Your Career
By taking more risk, you improve your chance to advance your career. By only doing your daily duties, you will most likely be seen as a competent, reliable worker, but really never able to show your potential for greater responsibility. Additionally, I am encouraging you to take more risk in developing your team
In the episode, I dive into four areas / reasons about adding more risk into your career:
1) You must do more than your daily duties to advance your career,
2) Becoming comfortable means you have become complacent,
3) Develop courage to add more risk, and
4) Know what you want to accomplish so you understand why you will take risk and know which risks to take.
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You can download the show notes here.
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Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:08.000
on the podcast this week, I'm talking about taking risk.
I believe that just doing your daily required duties everyday won't significantly help your career. You must get out of your comfort zone to advance your career. You must get out of your comfort zone to develop yourself and to develop your team. I am encouraging you to assess and determine how you can take a little more risk in your career. And for your team, you may be amazed by the results. Enjoy the episode today. Welcome to the finance leader podcast where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host Stephen McLain. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. This is episode number 17. And today, I'm going to be discussing taking some risk in your career and taking some risk in your daily work routine. There are two areas of risk, I want to encourage you to start to take. That's taking risk by developing your team by empowering them more, giving them more projects and not micromanaging them through the process and just guiding them through to the results that you want them to achieve. The other risk I want you to do is taking some risk into your own career by taking on a new project, a new assignment, and even a new job that will elevate your career even taking risk by going to a lateral job, maybe good. Eleanor Roosevelt said, Do one thing every day that scares you. I believe that taking risk in the workplace can be a combination of doing something to advance your career, or how to develop your team. And when I talk about taking risk, I'm not necessarily talking about rocking the boat at work, even though rocking the boat can deliver some significant change that's required in your organization. But I still believe that you need to continue to support your boss's priorities and vision, you still need to support the company's mission. And you need to continue to be respectful and professional in the workplace. But I'm also talking about doing something different doing something a little bit out of your comfort zone and pushing the organization pushing the team to start looking at new ideas, new processes, getting everyone out of their comfort zone, trying to improve your organization a little bit more each day and starting to speak up about things that need to change and need to be adapted into the workplace, looking at maybe a new line of business, a new process, a better process processes that can improve how you do business, just anything that will get your organization out of its comfort zone out of the way that is doing business today and into a better way, taking a little bit more risk. And speaking up about things that need to change in the workplace, you can continue to have a positive change in the workplace. And I believe you can do that through strong relationships. But I do also believe that you need to continue to build your credibility by over delivering to your team and to your organization. Now through credibility, your ability to take more risk increases as people believe that you are very dedicated to the organization to the business to the team. And as they see your performance results in your potential people will begin to believe you as you start to bring in change as you start to bring in new ideas. And as you start to do a little bit more things out of your own comfort zone, build that credibility and you build your ability to take on more risk in the organization want to ask you how risk averse are you? how scared? Are you to take on a little bit more risk? how scared are you to speak up? how scared are you to start to do things a little differently? Do you have a little fear about trying to do things differently? Or to try to bring in a new process? Or to try to introduce a new idea? Does your organization have groupthink? Or is there an environment where you can't bring up new ideas because you'll be bullied or you'll be ridiculed, or you will be ostracized or picked on and is the environment built around trying to keep everyone in their comfort zones and try to keep everyone just continue to work on the things they're working on and doesn't really have a good environment of growth. And if it's really bad, then I would consider you moving on to another organization so that you can take a little bit more risk. You can speak up when you need to speak up and into starting to introduce new things, new ideas, because that would be the kind of organization that I would want to be in, I'd want to be in a place where I don't have any kind of fear of bringing new ideas, bringing change, talking about things that need to happen or processes that need to improve. Oftentimes, we go against people who have egos that prevent them even from being able to see what needs to change or go up against people who have biases and sometimes these biases can be very powerful. And when we try to take a little risk and talk about things that need to change things that need to be brought up and talk about lines of business that don't work, or markets that don't work, or ideas that won't work or processes that are too old processes and tools that don't give you a way to analyze and to build the business. And if you continue to deal in that kind of environment, then the business is going to go nowhere, as continue to be complacent, there'll be no growth, there'll be no opportunities to get better. This is why I'm asking you how risk averse Are you because potentially your risk aversion may be tied to the organization that you're in, and Maine really not be you, it just may be the environment that you are living in right now that you're not able to bring out the great ideas or to push the organization out of his comfort zone so that it can continue to grow. And also, as a leader, you may not be able to bring out the new ideas just because of either egos or because of the bias that you face. within the organization, there are four areas about taking risk that I want to dig into. Number one, you must do more than your daily duties to advance your career. Now you will get labeled as competent and as a reliable worker, but it may not get you the full recognition that you are looking for most people are risk averse. And I believe that if you take some risk, you will stand out, build your credibility and increase your chances of being able to take a little bit more risk. And to be able to use your voice to make change in the organization and change in your workplace definitely changes in the environment that you're working in again. But I do believe that you need to go beyond what you're doing every day going beyond the list of reports you need to do. And the list of tasks that are the same tasks you're doing every week, week in and week out are the same processes and same tasks you're doing every month you need to be doing and looking at something you can do a little different a way for you to get a little bit more recognition, and a little bit more exposure around the organization a little bit more exposure to those who can help you advance in your career and to help you advance within the organization. And also get some exposure so that you can continue to share the great ideas that you have, or the changes to processes that need to happen. So build your credibility, and then start to get out of that comfort zone of doing those daily duties every day, get involved, get on some kind of project team continue to look for those opportunities. And that goes into the second thing that I wanted to talk about. That goes a little bit beyond what I was saying about get out of your daily duties. Because becoming comfortable means you have become complacent and complacency equals no growth. complacency means you're going nowhere. complacency means I'm just going to do my tasks day in and day out. I'm not looking for growth, I'm not looking for opportunities, I'm just going to get in my comfort zone, I'm just gonna stay right where I'm at. Because it's safe. No one's bothering me, I'm just gonna continue to do what I do these tasks, add some value to the organization, they need to be done. But we want to get out of just doing the things that need to be done doing the things that will focus on growth and development of the organization, growth and development of the team and the department, you're in the team that you're leading in the development and growth of yourself, I would say you need to look for new opportunities to show off your abilities and look for new job opportunities that may open new doors for you continue to look for opportunities, continue to look for new ways that you can get an idea out there continue to look for new ways that you can introduce changes to processes, tools that you need, maybe even at software applications that need to be bought training that needs to happen. Anything that can continue to focus on improving your standing and improving your chances to advance your career and to develop your team. I believe that if you're a leader of a team, you're managing a team right now you need to be growing and empowering your team so that your impact is greater in the organization and the impact is greater for you continue to push people's comfort zones. And I believe that you can push your bosses comfort zones and support your boss at the same time. Don't let your boss get complacent either. Because if your boss is complacent, then your department's going to be complacent, your teams are going to be complacent. The third thing to do with all of these things we're talking about today is to develop courage, find the inner strength to move forward and to get what you want in your career. And in your life. Continue to ask what is holding you back? What is preventing you from accomplishing your goals. And we're going to talk about goals in the next episode. So I won't talk too much about goals in this episode today. But what do you want to accomplish? What is your end state? What do you want to accomplish 20 years from now 10 years from now need to continue to figure out what's holding you back develop that courage to accomplish that goal. develop that courage to speak up when you need to speak up about an idea or a process that needs to improve. Get Out of that comfort zone and do uncomfortable work, so that you can grow and develop that courage. So you can affect positive change in the workplace. And you can do that through powerful relationships, build your credibility, build powerful relationships, people will believe in you. And then therefore you can take on more risk and more opportunity will be available to you to make that positive change. And again, in the fourth thing is, again, is about knowing what you want to accomplish, knowing what your goals are having actionable goals, having written down goals, and knowing what you want to accomplish at various intervals down the road in your future, okay, for an easy win today is that I want you to think about something that can push you out of your comfort zone, and continue to find that opportunity that you can bring out something good for the organization, there's a couple things I have on this list, some things that will not require a lot of risk. But some things that are big, bold moves, first thing is maybe submit a new bold idea that can really change the organization, whether it be a line of business, or a new project, or a introduction of some way for the organization to make additional revenue, or a way to save money, something some kind of new, great idea. And just get that credibility, build out what the idea is, and practice and rehearse and pitch that idea to the right person that can get that idea moving, just go ahead and just take that risk, it's a great way to get out there and form some really strong relationships is to develop a great idea and pitch it another item is do tackle a tough project, like get on a project team getting on a project team can get you some additional exposure, it can get you in front of some very important people. And then you can start to show off your abilities and your skills and your talent and your mindset so that you can find some new opportunities. So this is a great idea to do something that you can in your present organization is to get on a very important project team or to tackle a project that you know needs to happen. And you just go ahead and pitch it and get on and get started a project team. Now if you're leading or managing a team, I would like to see you give your team members, some tough projects, some tough assignments, some tough tasks that you probably have been holding on for yourself and give them some good guidance and leave them alone and let them accomplish it. Some things that you would probably were taking on yourself, but give it to a trustworthy team member, someone who is ready to go to the next level, someone who could use a challenge. And then you let them run that task. And also let them brief the senior leaders, maybe there's something that you used to be briefing your boss or your boss's boss, and then let this person go ahead and get some development time, take some risk with your team, grow that team member and get them in front of some people. And I continue to believe that that's one of our primary responsibilities as leaders I talked about in the last episode is that the business of leaders is to grow and develop our team is to grow and develop the people that are around us. So take some risk, grow your team members, get them out in front of people and stop worrying about how they're going to do or if they're going to make a few mistakes, just take that risk, get them out there grow and develop them. Now this fourth item that I have for potential way for you to get in when and this is a bold move. And that is looking for a new job in another organization, even if it's a lateral move, and another company that may provide some opportunities for you down the road. This is a bold move is something that can be really exciting. And that can really give you some great opportunities in the future, start to do your research, start to make some connections and start to see what's out there and take a little risk and get out of that comfort zone. All right. So in this episode, I was talking about taking a little bit more risk in your career. And I believe that you need to be doing more than your just your normal duties. And I can want to continue to encourage you to not be comfortable get out of your comfort zone. I want you to develop some courage. And I want you to know what you want to do to have some clear goals and some clear action ideas of where you want to go in your life and in your career. All right, I want to close out this episode talking about a couple of couple of numbers that I found about taking risk out there. And I found an article about a KPMG survey that was conducted in 2018. And they surveyed a little over 2000 college educated women aged 18 to 64, who worked in a white collar workplace in the United States, and they found that only 43% of the respondents were open to taking bigger risks associated with career advancement. Additionally, they found that 69% of those surveyed were comfortable taking small risks now KPMG defined a bigger risk as moving across the country for a job and a defined a smaller risk like presenting To a board of investors or taking on a big assignment, these numbers are interesting that we do show that the ones who took the survey are open to taking some bigger risks. And were open to taking even some smaller risks. And I just wanted to continue to encourage you and support you in China to introduce a little bit more risk into your career. Next episode, we're going to talk about goal setting. So taking risk was a good introduction into this great topic. Goal setting is about writing down actionable goals, breaking them down and having some kind of tracking mechanism that you can analyze and figure out where you want to go where you are right now and developing a plan to accomplish those goals. Goal setting is very important for all of us as professional leaders and finance and accounting, we should have actionable goals, and we should be encouraging our team members to have actionable goals. We have written them down goals, we have our individual development plans, and we have a way to write down and see and figure out where we want to go and the training and the experience and the development that we need to accomplish those goals. It's going to be a really good episode. I hope you enjoyed the finance leader podcast, I am dedicated to helping you grow your leadership. Hope you enjoy the show today. You can get this episode wherever you find podcasts. If you are enjoying this podcast, please leave a review so that others can get introduced to this forum. I will be reading reviews in the future and it might be yours. Thank you. Until next time, you can check out more resources at Stephen McLain calm and sign up for my updates so you don't miss an episode of the show. And now go lead your teams and I'll see you next time. Thank you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:08.000
I believe that just doing your daily required duties everyday won't significantly help your career. You must get out of your comfort zone to advance your career. You must get out of your comfort zone to develop yourself and to develop your team. I am encouraging you to assess and determine how you can take a little more risk in your career. And for your team, you may be amazed by the results. Enjoy the episode today. Welcome to the finance leader podcast where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host Stephen McLain. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. This is episode number 17. And today, I'm going to be discussing taking some risk in your career and taking some risk in your daily work routine. There are two areas of risk, I want to encourage you to start to take. That's taking risk by developing your team by empowering them more, giving them more projects and not micromanaging them through the process and just guiding them through to the results that you want them to achieve. The other risk I want you to do is taking some risk into your own career by taking on a new project, a new assignment, and even a new job that will elevate your career even taking risk by going to a lateral job, maybe good. Eleanor Roosevelt said, Do one thing every day that scares you. I believe that taking risk in the workplace can be a combination of doing something to advance your career, or how to develop your team. And when I talk about taking risk, I'm not necessarily talking about rocking the boat at work, even though rocking the boat can deliver some significant change that's required in your organization. But I still believe that you need to continue to support your boss's priorities and vision, you still need to support the company's mission. And you need to continue to be respectful and professional in the workplace. But I'm also talking about doing something different doing something a little bit out of your comfort zone and pushing the organization pushing the team to start looking at new ideas, new processes, getting everyone out of their comfort zone, trying to improve your organization a little bit more each day and starting to speak up about things that need to change and need to be adapted into the workplace, looking at maybe a new line of business, a new process, a better process processes that can improve how you do business, just anything that will get your organization out of its comfort zone out of the way that is doing business today and into a better way, taking a little bit more risk. And speaking up about things that need to change in the workplace, you can continue to have a positive change in the workplace. And I believe you can do that through strong relationships. But I do also believe that you need to continue to build your credibility by over delivering to your team and to your organization. Now through credibility, your ability to take more risk increases as people believe that you are very dedicated to the organization to the business to the team. And as they see your performance results in your potential people will begin to believe you as you start to bring in change as you start to bring in new ideas. And as you start to do a little bit more things out of your own comfort zone, build that credibility and you build your ability to take on more risk in the organization want to ask you how risk averse are you? how scared? Are you to take on a little bit more risk? how scared are you to speak up? how scared are you to start to do things a little differently? Do you have a little fear about trying to do things differently? Or to try to bring in a new process? Or to try to introduce a new idea? Does your organization have groupthink? Or is there an environment where you can't bring up new ideas because you'll be bullied or you'll be ridiculed, or you will be ostracized or picked on and is the environment built around trying to keep everyone in their comfort zones and try to keep everyone just continue to work on the things they're working on and doesn't really have a good environment of growth. And if it's really bad, then I would consider you moving on to another organization so that you can take a little bit more risk. You can speak up when you need to speak up and into starting to introduce new things, new ideas, because that would be the kind of organization that I would want to be in, I'd want to be in a place where I don't have any kind of fear of bringing new ideas, bringing change, talking about things that need to happen or processes that need to improve. Oftentimes, we go against people who have egos that prevent them even from being able to see what needs to change or go up against people who have biases and sometimes these biases can be very powerful. And when we try to take a little risk and talk about things that need to change things that need to be brought up and talk about lines of business that don't work, or markets that don't work, or ideas that won't work or processes that are too old processes and tools that don't give you a way to analyze and to build the business. And if you continue to deal in that kind of environment, then the business is going to go nowhere, as continue to be complacent, there'll be no growth, there'll be no opportunities to get better. This is why I'm asking you how risk averse Are you because potentially your risk aversion may be tied to the organization that you're in, and Maine really not be you, it just may be the environment that you are living in right now that you're not able to bring out the great ideas or to push the organization out of his comfort zone so that it can continue to grow. And also, as a leader, you may not be able to bring out the new ideas just because of either egos or because of the bias that you face. within the organization, there are four areas about taking risk that I want to dig into. Number one, you must do more than your daily duties to advance your career. Now you will get labeled as competent and as a reliable worker, but it may not get you the full recognition that you are looking for most people are risk averse. And I believe that if you take some risk, you will stand out, build your credibility and increase your chances of being able to take a little bit more risk. And to be able to use your voice to make change in the organization and change in your workplace definitely changes in the environment that you're working in again. But I do believe that you need to go beyond what you're doing every day going beyond the list of reports you need to do. And the list of tasks that are the same tasks you're doing every week, week in and week out are the same processes and same tasks you're doing every month you need to be doing and looking at something you can do a little different a way for you to get a little bit more recognition, and a little bit more exposure around the organization a little bit more exposure to those who can help you advance in your career and to help you advance within the organization. And also get some exposure so that you can continue to share the great ideas that you have, or the changes to processes that need to happen. So build your credibility, and then start to get out of that comfort zone of doing those daily duties every day, get involved, get on some kind of project team continue to look for those opportunities. And that goes into the second thing that I wanted to talk about. That goes a little bit beyond what I was saying about get out of your daily duties. Because becoming comfortable means you have become complacent and complacency equals no growth. complacency means you're going nowhere. complacency means I'm just going to do my tasks day in and day out. I'm not looking for growth, I'm not looking for opportunities, I'm just going to get in my comfort zone, I'm just gonna stay right where I'm at. Because it's safe. No one's bothering me, I'm just gonna continue to do what I do these tasks, add some value to the organization, they need to be done. But we want to get out of just doing the things that need to be done doing the things that will focus on growth and development of the organization, growth and development of the team and the department, you're in the team that you're leading in the development and growth of yourself, I would say you need to look for new opportunities to show off your abilities and look for new job opportunities that may open new doors for you continue to look for opportunities, continue to look for new ways that you can get an idea out there continue to look for new ways that you can introduce changes to processes, tools that you need, maybe even at software applications that need to be bought training that needs to happen. Anything that can continue to focus on improving your standing and improving your chances to advance your career and to develop your team. I believe that if you're a leader of a team, you're managing a team right now you need to be growing and empowering your team so that your impact is greater in the organization and the impact is greater for you continue to push people's comfort zones. And I believe that you can push your bosses comfort zones and support your boss at the same time. Don't let your boss get complacent either. Because if your boss is complacent, then your department's going to be complacent, your teams are going to be complacent. The third thing to do with all of these things we're talking about today is to develop courage, find the inner strength to move forward and to get what you want in your career. And in your life. Continue to ask what is holding you back? What is preventing you from accomplishing your goals. And we're going to talk about goals in the next episode. So I won't talk too much about goals in this episode today. But what do you want to accomplish? What is your end state? What do you want to accomplish 20 years from now 10 years from now need to continue to figure out what's holding you back develop that courage to accomplish that goal. develop that courage to speak up when you need to speak up about an idea or a process that needs to improve. Get Out of that comfort zone and do uncomfortable work, so that you can grow and develop that courage. So you can affect positive change in the workplace. And you can do that through powerful relationships, build your credibility, build powerful relationships, people will believe in you. And then therefore you can take on more risk and more opportunity will be available to you to make that positive change. And again, in the fourth thing is, again, is about knowing what you want to accomplish, knowing what your goals are having actionable goals, having written down goals, and knowing what you want to accomplish at various intervals down the road in your future, okay, for an easy win today is that I want you to think about something that can push you out of your comfort zone, and continue to find that opportunity that you can bring out something good for the organization, there's a couple things I have on this list, some things that will not require a lot of risk. But some things that are big, bold moves, first thing is maybe submit a new bold idea that can really change the organization, whether it be a line of business, or a new project, or a introduction of some way for the organization to make additional revenue, or a way to save money, something some kind of new, great idea. And just get that credibility, build out what the idea is, and practice and rehearse and pitch that idea to the right person that can get that idea moving, just go ahead and just take that risk, it's a great way to get out there and form some really strong relationships is to develop a great idea and pitch it another item is do tackle a tough project, like get on a project team getting on a project team can get you some additional exposure, it can get you in front of some very important people. And then you can start to show off your abilities and your skills and your talent and your mindset so that you can find some new opportunities. So this is a great idea to do something that you can in your present organization is to get on a very important project team or to tackle a project that you know needs to happen. And you just go ahead and pitch it and get on and get started a project team. Now if you're leading or managing a team, I would like to see you give your team members, some tough projects, some tough assignments, some tough tasks that you probably have been holding on for yourself and give them some good guidance and leave them alone and let them accomplish it. Some things that you would probably were taking on yourself, but give it to a trustworthy team member, someone who is ready to go to the next level, someone who could use a challenge. And then you let them run that task. And also let them brief the senior leaders, maybe there's something that you used to be briefing your boss or your boss's boss, and then let this person go ahead and get some development time, take some risk with your team, grow that team member and get them in front of some people. And I continue to believe that that's one of our primary responsibilities as leaders I talked about in the last episode is that the business of leaders is to grow and develop our team is to grow and develop the people that are around us. So take some risk, grow your team members, get them out in front of people and stop worrying about how they're going to do or if they're going to make a few mistakes, just take that risk, get them out there grow and develop them. Now this fourth item that I have for potential way for you to get in when and this is a bold move. And that is looking for a new job in another organization, even if it's a lateral move, and another company that may provide some opportunities for you down the road. This is a bold move is something that can be really exciting. And that can really give you some great opportunities in the future, start to do your research, start to make some connections and start to see what's out there and take a little risk and get out of that comfort zone. All right. So in this episode, I was talking about taking a little bit more risk in your career. And I believe that you need to be doing more than your just your normal duties. And I can want to continue to encourage you to not be comfortable get out of your comfort zone. I want you to develop some courage. And I want you to know what you want to do to have some clear goals and some clear action ideas of where you want to go in your life and in your career. All right, I want to close out this episode talking about a couple of couple of numbers that I found about taking risk out there. And I found an article about a KPMG survey that was conducted in 2018. And they surveyed a little over 2000 college educated women aged 18 to 64, who worked in a white collar workplace in the United States, and they found that only 43% of the respondents were open to taking bigger risks associated with career advancement. Additionally, they found that 69% of those surveyed were comfortable taking small risks now KPMG defined a bigger risk as moving across the country for a job and a defined a smaller risk like presenting To a board of investors or taking on a big assignment, these numbers are interesting that we do show that the ones who took the survey are open to taking some bigger risks. And were open to taking even some smaller risks. And I just wanted to continue to encourage you and support you in China to introduce a little bit more risk into your career. Next episode, we're going to talk about goal setting. So taking risk was a good introduction into this great topic. Goal setting is about writing down actionable goals, breaking them down and having some kind of tracking mechanism that you can analyze and figure out where you want to go where you are right now and developing a plan to accomplish those goals. Goal setting is very important for all of us as professional leaders and finance and accounting, we should have actionable goals, and we should be encouraging our team members to have actionable goals. We have written them down goals, we have our individual development plans, and we have a way to write down and see and figure out where we want to go and the training and the experience and the development that we need to accomplish those goals. It's going to be a really good episode. I hope you enjoyed the finance leader podcast, I am dedicated to helping you grow your leadership. Hope you enjoy the show today. You can get this episode wherever you find podcasts. If you are enjoying this podcast, please leave a review so that others can get introduced to this forum. I will be reading reviews in the future and it might be yours. Thank you. Until next time, you can check out more resources at Stephen McLain calm and sign up for my updates so you don't miss an episode of the show. And now go lead your teams and I'll see you next time. Thank you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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