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The pressure to excel and the fear of failure loom large in our culture. We’ve traded hobbies for side hustles. Social media bombards us with a hack for everything, from laundry to productivity to parenthood. In our society, everyone’s an expert, and mediocrity is hardly tolerated. Overnight success or bust!
As a result, we’ve filtered ourselves into a risk-averse mold; better to do what’s proven to work than try something new and dare to feel vulnerable, or, worse, be bad at something. Yet stepping out of this comfort zone is what unlocks innovation and growth. It’s true in our personal lives and in our professional ones. In business, could embracing risk be the thing that propels leaders to the next level of success? Experts say it plays a role, but there’s a balance: Cultivating the right mindset around risk-taking is essential to using it to your advantage in business. Let’s dive into its complexities and how business leaders can master the art of intelligent risk-taking.
The Perfectionism Trap: How to Embrace Imperfection in a Culture of Excellence
In a society driven by the pursuit of perfection, it's easy to fall into the trap of fearing failure. Potential failure is perhaps the greatest mental roadblock in our willingness to take a risk. Thomas Curran, author of The Perfectionism Trap, highlights this phenomenon in his book. "That’s the thing about high standards: they don’t have to come with insecurity. Only perfectionism grafts the two together," he writes.
Business leaders, burdened by many outside voices, from the entrepreneurial community to investors, to their teams, often perceive anything less than excellence as a failure. Yet, studies show that people who don’t intimately know us or our lives seldom dwell on our failures as much as we fear they do. That’s right: No one is worried about you as much as you are worried about you. To overcome the perfectionism trap, we must embrace imperfection and recognize failure as a stepping stone to growth.
Understanding the Psychology of Risk-Taking and Getting Comfortable with Failure
Our brains are wonderfully complex, yet still hold onto early evolutionary traits that can sometimes get in the way of our modern day successes. We are wired to avoid uncertainty and potential danger, making risk-taking a daunting prospect. The brain’s amygdala, responsible for processing emotions, reacts strongly to uncertain situations. In short, we’re built with an aversion to the unknown.
However, risk is neither inherently bad nor always avoidable. Taking risks is a behavior, and behaviors can be cultivated. By understanding how the brain processes risk and challenging our psychological traps, we can embrace uncertainty with confidence. Doing so makes us more flexible, better equipped to recognize unconscious biases, and more likely to develop resilience to bounce back from failure.
In short, by understanding how our brains work, we can widen the scope of our understanding of risk to the whole picture. Not just the potential cons of a risk, but the pros, too.
How to Be an Intelligent Risk-Taker—and Foster a Culture of Good Risks
Now that you’re willing to consider more than just the potential failures of a situation, you’re ready to take intelligent risks. There’s no need to be reckless! It’s about stretching your and your team’s comfort zone with new ideas. There are three ways business leaders can help their teams become intelligent risk-takers and better navigate uncertainty strategically.
- Define clear parameters: If we can understand our limits, it can take some of the sting out of uncertainty. Leaders should clearly establish what makes a risk worth taking, for themselves and for their team.
- Foster curiosity: Research shows that when our curiosity is triggered, we’re more likely to seek out new information, come up with out-of-the-box ideas, and adapt to uncertain circumstances. A curious team is a psychologically safe team, meaning all feel safe to share without fear of judgment.
- Take action: There’s only one thing left to do: Take the risk. Start small, and show that the successes you defined in step 1 are possible. Then, push on! With the bump of confidence from a small win, your team will feel more confident in their ability to push the boundaries of their comfort zones.
Conclusion
By challenging the perfectionism trap, understanding the psychology of risk-taking, and fostering a culture of intelligent decision-making, business leaders can navigate uncertainty with confidence. As Curran aptly puts it, "Socially-prescribed perfectionism makes for a hugely pressured life, spent at the whim of everyone else's opinions, trying desperately to be somebody else, somebody perfect." Count us out. Instead, embrace imperfection, cultivate resilience, and dare to venture into the unknown; therein lies the path to growth.
Sources
American Psychological Association
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