Day #673 - Risk

And Shelter

Our role, as leaders, is not specifically to shield people from risk, but rather to be clear and mindful of how we hold our safety. An understanding of how risk is a fuel of change is, after all, part of our leadership practice.

But risk can be contextual, held within systems, within reputation, finance, or our own wellbeing. And being contextual, we therefore cannot generalise from our individual perception to a general truth.

Use your sixty seconds today to consider a risk that shines upon you right now, and how clearly it is held.

I may think of the following example: writing this post, and sharing it, exposes me to a reputation based risk (if I say something daft, or of no value). This risk is held within the arms of my community. But it’s partly mitigated by an existing relationship (people read this work through some lens of expectation and understanding of how I work. I may have an anticipation of higher potential for forgiveness because of this. So - here - we tend not to be explicit about reputation, even though it’s clearly a risk in how we are in dialogue.

Risk itself is not bad: imposing it on people, as a cost they did not wish to bear or, worse, do not know they bear, is what we should seek to avoid

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I’m afraid i’m still coughing away today, so no videos this week!