Sometimes people can be so worried about not taking risks that they take the wrong ones, but to learn, grow and advance in your career, you’re going to have to take some risks. You just need to be sure they’re the right ones, learning to take carefully measured risks on purpose and being OK with failure allows you to learn and grow. As you plan your next career move, consider these other risks you should never take.
Risk rejection: flout conformity
While no one wants to be disliked, criticized or rejected, only when you risk all of those can you add the unique value you have to bring and set yourself apart from the masses. When all you do is conform, then all you have to offer is conformity. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “You can’t lead from the crowd.” When all you do is try to fit in, you negate the difference our difference makes. So own what makes you unique, forge your own path, express your own opinion and make a stand for what’s true for you.
Risk disapproval: promote yourself
Too often, a misguided sense of humility keeps us from letting people who can help us advance know who we are, what we’ve done and what we want to do in the future. There’s a distinct difference between promoting yourself to stroke an insecure ego and sharing your value so that those who can help you add more of it know who you are and what you’re capable of doing. In today’s competitive workplace, unless you are willing to toot your own horn from time to time, you run the risk of being left behind as the opportunities you thought would be laid at your humble feet are given to the horn blowers around you. So get over yourself, put caution to the wind… toot toot!
Risk ignorance: challenge assumptions
Being willing to ‘Learn, unlearn and relearn’ is crucial to adapting and seizing opportunity in today’s accelerated world and continually evolving workplace. Only when you have the courage say “I don’t know” and risk appearing ignorant, can you find more creative approaches, and create new and better maps that will allow you to navigate forward more efficiently and tackle your challenges more innovatively.
Risk imperfect decisions: be decisive despite uncertainty
Sure, making a decision, despite the ambiguity and uncertainty opens the possibility of messing up or making a mistake. In an age where we have so much information available to us, waiting until you have all the information you want (and have analyzed it fully) can prove costly and inhibiting. But in a world where change is happening fast and the windows of opportunity are limited, choosing to do nothing can exact a far steeper toll on your career, your business, and your life
“Nothing Is Riskier than not Taking Risks” -lohiConsult
