Do you play it safe or do you take calculated risks?
If you always play it safe then you have made the choice of not being a leader. When you take all the time necessary to explore all the options and know the end result to guarantee practically zero risk then you are not a leader.
Leaders take risks, however, most of the time, they take calculated risks. Time is usually the essence and you take a snapshot, make some presumptions and calculate the worse case/best case scenarios. Make a decision to proceed or not to proceed.
The key here is to make the decision. Leaders know the pendulum is always swinging. If it stops (you know when you get comfortable) or if it swings backwards, in both cases you are going in the wrong direction. The pendulum must at all times be swinging forward. Calculated risk decisions will keep the pendulum moving in the right direction.
Leaders are vulnerable. By taking on the risk, they know the decision to move forward may result in not achieving the desired result. Accept the facts, learn from it, add it to your knowledge base to avoid making the same error and keep it moving forward.
Don’t forget to stay focused even when those around you may fall into the “nay-sayers” category. OK sometimes they may be right and your instinct and experience will train you to be aware when to listen to them.
Do you always play it safe or do you take calculated risks?