S1, Ep6: Why Smart Risk Taking is so Critical to your Success

Too often we do not recognise the opportunities available to us for what they are.  We hold back from speaking up, are too busy to take on that extra project, avoid what is uncomfortable, or maybe don't quite believe in ourselves.  There are so many conscious and unconscious biases out there that we really could be holding ourselves back from our own future success. 
This is the first in a series of 4 pods were we are going to dig into Smart Risk Taking.  

Hold onto your hats as things are about to get very real, very practical and very exciting as we reveal your risk profile, some seriously sticky biases & some handy tools and hacks to move you forward.  
Know thy self so you can be the best of yourself!  
We are so looking forward to sharing these pods with you!

ELEVATEE CHALLENGE: 
This week a chance to learn more about yourself with a short 10 question risk profile. 

https://formfaca.de/sm/mrvQZnYLq

With this new found awareness on your risk profile, you will understand what your natural setting is and in following weeks we will provide further insights into likely biases and hacks to getting the most out of yourself whether you are a risk mitigator or the ultimate risk taker.

SHOW NOTES: 
A couple of quotes for our topic today:

• Gail Kelly - Back yourself, even if you are not quite ready
• Susan Jeffers - Feel the Fear and do it anyway 
• W.E.B Dubois - There is no force equal to a women determined to rise 

2019 KPMG Women's Leadership Study
https://info.kpmg.us/news-perspectives/people-culture/kpmg-womens-leadership-study.html
7 Reasons Why Risk Taking Leads to Success
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seven-reasons-why-risk-taking-leads-to-success_n_3749425

Deborah Perry Piscione, 38min Linked In Session
Use the below link to see this LinkedIn Learning session for free: 
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/risk-taking-for-leaders-14145630/taking-risks-to-foster-innovation?autoAdvance=true&autoSkip=false&autoplay=true&resume=true 

BOOKS DISCUSSED: 
Greenlights, Matthew McConaugh
Winging It, Emma Isaacs
The Risk Factor, Deborah Perry Piscione 
Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
Booktopia Affiliate Code - https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/elevate

OTHER MENTIONS:
Ginni Rometty, IBM
Naomi Simpson, Red Balloon
Gail Kelly, ex Westpac CEO
Knock down the Hill, Netflix

Music created by Claire's daughter Hannah

Transcript

Miranda: 0:14

Welcome to the Elevate with Grace podcast, for women who are short on time and long to take steps, to create success on their own terms. Our aim is to curate and share the best tips, insights, and knowledge from all of the content out there. Then take the brain strain out of it by giving you the so what and some immediate actionable steps for you to squeeze into your life each week. Through regular action, we will propel you forward and offer support as we all create our paths to achieving success on our own terms.

Claire: 0:41

Good morning out there to our gracious listeners. Welcome to our 6th podcast. I am your co-host Claire and of course with me is the always effervescent Miranda. It's super fab to be back again, chatting about how we can bring easy, actionable steps seamlessly into our days and weeks to help us get cracking with creating the life we want for ourselves on our own terms instead of going through the motions of the life that others are designing for us. Smart risk taking is one of the five elements of our Elevate with Grace"Success On Your Own Terms Model" and so today we are going to be exploring why taking smart risks is really important for making your goals and visions for your life a reality. Hopefully you have got an SFD forming around some audacious goals after listening in to our last few episodes. But if not, then at least a bit of a picture forming about where you want your life to be in six or 12 months from now. If you're a bit stuck, we'd love to help you if we can so please drop us an email at elevatewithgrace@gmail.com. We also really hope that you found some gems within"The One Thing" book review last week and the weekly action challenge that popped out of that podcast. Speaking of which, how are you this morning my gorgeous friend. How's your week been? And how did you get on with our"One Thing" challenge?

Miranda: 1:52

It has been a busy one. And I know we say that all the time, but for me, this is one of those weeks where you know that all the effort now is the right thing for your future self, but damn hard in the moment. Busy, also really energizing. I will say that I felt the centering benefits of"The One Thing" during this busy time, using this technique to focus both first thing in the morning. And when those crunch times happened, really being disciplined to take that dedicated pause, deep breath and check in what's the one thing that I can do now, so that everything becomes easier or unnecessary. It feels crazy occasionally. And I think it's something that I work through, but it does really does help. So Claire, how's your week been and how did you go?

Claire: 2:31

I had some good success with my"One Thing" challenge over the week too. I agree with you, the diligence that the book has inspired me and I do aspire to that at a greater level. Last Sunday I did sit down and I planned my week for a change and I spent maybe 30 minutes to an hour just writing down the one thing I wanted to do this week for some of those categories that we'd spoken about in the episode. So for my health and wellbeing, which was meet my best mate, three times a week for some running or exercise. For my family, which was to set aside devices and spend quality time with my kids on their passions. My eldest who's 10 as you know, Miranda. I was helping her foster, her cooking passion that's come about through our family's love of watching Master Chef together, so that was good. And for Elevate with Grace, it was setting aside some research and writing time because you do need to find time to think and have some quiet processing time in your days. And so I put in blocks for when I would do these things and mostly stuck with it pretty well, actually. So yeah, it was pretty good.

Miranda: 3:34

Sounds like an incredible start to this challenge. Congrats. I think one of the most important tips for our listeners is to just keep at it like a gym. It is going to get easier each week and that tips for our listeners and for ourselves, I think. How incredible that we are already at podcast six. Our episodes to date have spoken to the big picture of Elevate with Grace, smashing what's holding you back, taking actions on some big goals and the discipline of constantly defining your one thing. From here, we are going to start to take those big picture visions of how you want to show up in the world and then start deep diving into this three core pillars of cultivating your career success, unlocking your financial acumen and taking smart risks. We know you're keen to take action immediately, so in these pillars we're going to curate the best Intel out there and make it into meaningful outtakes and immediate steps. Pivotal in all elements of our life is our willingness to take smart risks. So as Claire mentioned, let's get started. We want to talk about risks today and why do we need to take smart risks? Is it something you have ever given any thought to before? We know how hard it is to get out of your comfort zone especially when life is already feeling loaded with stress and responsibility, but there's a lot of strong evidence to support that leaning into smart risks skills helps you tackle challenges and opportunities, have greater earning power, feeling more energized and satisfied with life, which why wouldn't we? Research supports that feeling that women are falling behind in the workforce. We have 55% of undergrads. And between 4.5 to 7% of leadership, depending on your metric. Traits, like following the rules, following the instructions of authority without challenge, are absolutely getting in the way. A quote from the Harvard Business Review in school being disruptive might get you sent to the principal's office, but in business, disruption is the proven path to success. Whoa. As always an incredibly layered and complex topic and one, we really want to talk about a lot. Claire, are you ready to get into it?

Claire: 5:23

Yes, I sure am. Let's do this. I love this topic of smart risk-taking, as you know, it's such a fascinating area to explore. I just want to say that I, really appreciate it the moment after the year and then some that has been for all of us Miranda with the melting pot going on of COVID hard lockdowns in Australia, particularly for Melburnians, now it can feel like we don't really have the mental stamina right now to raise our discomfort levels by taking risks. But there really is so much upside to doing it. Even if you feel like you only have the capacity to take on some little micro risks at the moment, that is what matters really. It's the small steps each day or each week done consistently over time that will build up the muscles that you need to get the success that you want for yourself on your own terms. So we just have to keep that at the back of our minds I think. The best article I have found on why you should take risks is from one of my usual faves, the Huffington Post. Huffington post has an article on seven reasons why risk taking leads to success. A quick rattle off of a few of them is that great opportunities often come from risk-taking that we wouldn't have otherwise seen come our way if we hadn't done them. We learn a lot from risks and those lessons may lead us onto a important new path. That embracing risk taking helps you overcome a fear of failure, which is a very big one in my mind. We've talked about fear of failure in past episodes. And It also talks to the fact that taking risks, isn't a dirty word, and it doesn't mean the same thing as reckless or stupid. There's opportunities to get out of your comfort zone and take smart risks that can really help you in getting on a journey to leading a life of success on your terms. To be honest, that article was probably a found a couple of similar ones, but that probably had the best content I found out there on the benefits of taking risk at the broadest of levels. Which made me puzzle a little bit as I think it's a really important concept for us all to be aware of. And I do think that there are some good books that at first blush don't directly talk about why smart risk taking is important, but it's definitely a huge part of the backbone behind the books. Over the Christmas and New Years period, I read Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. And taking into account my bias of always having had kept a slight eye out for movies and TV shows starring Matthew, I really actually enjoyed his book. McConaughey is a natural risk taker. That's clear. And so what's great about the book is that you get a delightful insight into the benefits of taking risks. Like when he decides to do acting school instead of law school. And also when quite a ways into a hugely successful acting career, he decides that he needs for his own sanity, he needs to stop doing rom com movies. And that caused him some angst as he navigated his ongoing career in Hollywood, when he got iced out for not wanting to do the rom coms anymore, I think, we can look at actors, we can look at books that have successful business people. I think the reality is that there is always going to be an underlying message of smart risk taking in there, right? Because they've got to a level of success in whatever vocation that they have. And so I feel that under that is always going to be a message on how to be brave and really lean into some risks. One of the quotes from his book that stuck with me was Life is not a popularity contest. Be brave, take the hill, but first answer the question. What is my hill? For me knowing what your hill is, your one thing, your bigger picture is really important when deciding what risks are for you and which ones are not for you and, conveniently or not so much, it ties so beautifully with the importance of knowing your why and your one thing that we've covered in episodes two to five up to now. The second book is"Winging It" by Australian author, Emma Iaasacs, the founder of Business Chicks. A lot of the backbone in her book is about getting out of your own way, mustering up some courage and doing the things that you want, even if they seem scary to you at the get-go. Have you read these books, MM?

Miranda: 9:14

Yeah,"Winging It" was another great book. And I just love that she's an Australian author too. I hadn't read GreenLights until you mentioned it. And I devoured it in a day. It was such a great book. And really fascinating how that world works and the risks that he's taken throughout his life. So I think definitely some really positive messages there. I don't think we have to go to his extremes, but there's definitely some lessons that we can learn from that. But within'Winging It" we've discussed that we really like this title by Emma Iaasac. We really want to explore this book further in future episodes, so we won't dig too much in here. But just as the title suggests, the theme of taking smart risks is winging it. Right? And Emma in her book suggest that many women are or feel like they are winging it in their careers. And like you Claire, I found there was very little information on risk-taking, but there's definitely this tendency for women that are succeeding to call it luck. So it's interesting how that shows up for us in the world. Examples in this book, buying an event business that was closing and turning it into what it is today, which is incredible. Driving a manual car when she'd never had before. so she wouldn't miss a meeting. Moving her and a family across the world really demonstrates so well, what can be achieved when you wing it or take smart risks. And also the way that she talked about it was the more you take the smart risks, the more you want to take smart risks. We can definitely see that through those examples in the book. So good one. And I look forward to talking with you more about this one in the future.

Claire: 10:35

Yes. Yes. I think she'll definitely come on in future episodes. Within the topic of why taking smart risks supercharges you in the direction of living life on your own terms, I'm keen for us to pause here for a minute and explore the hypotheses that taking risks and career enhancement, go hand in hand. KPMG did a women's leadership study in 2019. And the findings pack a punch with a bunch of interesting statistics. I'm a nerd. I like my statistics on women taking risks and the impact that it has for their career advancement. KPMG surveyed over 2000 professional women and found that when it comes to risk-taking in the workplace, seven in 10, women are open to taking small risks, but far fewer, only 43% are open to taking bigger risks that may be associated with career advancement. According to the research. Women's inclination to take risks, declines as they become more experienced in their careers, even as their self-confidence grows. So 45% of respondents with less than five years of experience said that they were open to taking bigger risks. But by the time they reached 15 years of experience that dropped to 37% of women wanting to take big risks at work. Despite the fact that many of the respondents have experienced positive outcomes from taking risks, too many still hesitated. So what's holding them back? The results indicate that it could be because of a concern with how others perceive them. And I would probably add to that a fear of failure as a reason for not taking more risks.

Miranda: 12:05

Great to see the likes of HuffPost and KPMG, really digging into that area of smart risk issues. We've come so far in the past 50 or so years since women were allowed to work past marriage. There are a few role models or those that break those perceived ceilings that give women comfort or visibility on what can be achieved when you take those smart risks, or even how to take smart risks. When I explored the stories of women who have taken those risks and succeeded, there have been some clear similarities. IBM's Gina Romney shares a personal story of sharing a job opportunity with her husband, not believing she had the skills needed yet. And he asks, do you think a man would say that? Just being asked proves that you have the skills necessary, reflecting that any time she has lent the most in a role, it has been by taking that risk and diving into something that's not necessarily in your comfort zone, but that is a stretch of your current skills. Growth and comfort do not exist in the same world. Really love that quote. Growth and comfort do not exist in the same world. This is a consistent message from the leaders that have taken both Australian and international stages. Gail Kelly, ex Westpac CEO, Naomi Simpson, Big Red Group, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook, and several others. They would not have gotten anywhere if they didn't back to themselves, reach higher demand more. And in many cases, check in with a male relative for reassurance, and to understand how to best negotiate. You and I have discussed conversations or times where we know women have thought about an opportunity, but pulled back as they didn't know how they would balance it or tick all of the boxes they felt the job required. No one is going to make you, but wow, there is some seriously untapped opportunity when you say no to a job that someone is actually trying to hand you. Interesting studies will tell us there are innate biases out there for women. Being more risk adverse is both biologically wired and what we're taught. We love to get A's love to be praised. This quote, which is another great one that resonates"in school we love to get As, but in life, the annual reviews should not be a benchmark of success" is so true. So why don't we? We tend to focus on the negative outcome of a risk situation or give little or no thought to the positive. Studies show that by reframing success from what other people think of you, to how you want to show up, is a huge leap towards smart risk taking. What is the worst that can happen? A little egg on your face,a manager who's shocked that we want their job. Someone that might judge you for a second. We all know people spend more time thinking of themselves. So even if this was in their thoughts, it's not going to stick with them. What is the best that can happen? Financially? Satisfaction in your role? More responsibility on you to prioritize what's important to you? Some good wins there. A couple of quotes to consider here, Gail Kelly, back yourself, even if you're not quite ready", Susan Jeffers, feel the fear and do it anyway". W E B Dubois, there is no force equal to a woman determined to rise". So the next time listeners that you get this feeling in your gut that there's something else out there, or there's a great opportunity that you need to take on and you're trying to quash it or hold yourself back, check out these quotes. Really think about this inspiration from these women out there that are looking to provide a roadmap of what is possible. And of course we'll put the quotes in the show notes.

Claire: 15:12

They're some really great quotes Miranda, I really like them.

Miranda: 15:16

Can build them into our affirmations or something for the day. So thinking of books on this topic, there are a few authors who have increased my awareness in this space, but it does feel like only recently these conversations have started to happen in terms of women and smart risks. These titles all tackle taking risks to create something truly great. Sheryl Sandberg's"Lean In" was the first one where I really resonated with the message that taking smart risks and leaping before you were entirely ready was a good thing. I appreciate this title was quite controversial, however, as promised we curate all of the good Intel from loads of sources. I believe her thoughts to be true in terms of women building themselves to middle management and then largely pulling back, potentially to take time for family might not always be true, but it's largely consistent with this idea that women just don't take enough risks. So maybe it's one in a number of ideas or one of a number of reasons why women are not taking those risks. Men are just foot on the gas pedal. I disagree with that sentiment that women are not ambitious enough. I believe that we get a lot of mixed messages from the world and how we are largely unaware of the biases. And I've certainly been told I'm too ambitious from men. So I think it's something that we consistently hear from a very young age in the workforce that you really tap that back, pull that back in. It's not female to be overly ambitious out there in the workforce. And there's also too few women to role model the how, and those clear, actionable steps of how to pave the way. There's a lot that we've got to work on here in terms of taking those smart risks. Looking into this further, I was excited to find it the risk factor by Debra Perry Piscione or DPP as I'll abbreviate to you, which is an eyeopening book. And one of the very few of its kind, if you prefer audio, she also has a LinkedIn learning session on risks for leaders which have recommended for the key headlines. DPP is one of the few who have identified a huge gap in knowledge and learning around risk.As we have also found when we're exploring different types of risk appetite or bias, the information available is only really focused on your financial risk. So if you think about how your super is set up, perhaps this will offer you insight into your risk appetite, or perhaps not as I am sure. There is much more to you than what you've organized, your Super to be. Thankfully a special few, including Jody Evans and MBS and DPP and now us are looking to bring attention to smart risk taking and the type of work you take on the changes you look to make in your life and the things you accept, but the cause you discomfort when you struggled to make an impact that promotion when you're not quite ready in negotiating for that big contract or trying something new.All fall under this banner of smart, risk-taking feeling disempowered in the workplace because you haven't spoken up or being consulted during those big decisions is the worst. I'm sure we have all been there. This is really what happens when we don't take some of those smart risks as mentioned above and discussed in each of the risks conversations it's all about the payoff analysis. Not just thinking what is the worst that can happen, but also what is the best. Provided you can manage through the worst and your analysis suggests it's a good decision to make more on this in future episodes. Then let's leap in and take some of those risks. With her updated LinkedIn online session, that links in the show notes, and it highlights that with COVID now is the opportunity to embrace that smart risk-taking and really create our own paths. When we were talking about risks, we're referring to smart risks, not the reckless gamble that some people kind of think about. Risk-taking the jumping out of the plane, those kind of risks. These are calculated risks that require tools, skills, and knowledge. So you don't to have to be born with the risk DNA, to propel you forward. It's another skill that you can learn and have in your toolbox to help you on your way to living a life of success on your own terms. DPP positions risk in three buckets, game changing operational and improvisational risks. The kind of risks most associated with risk behavior are those game-changing changing risks. There's big life-changing career jumping risks that are scary. And unless we're on the extreme right of the risk continuum, we barely take these on, unless we're in some serious. Improvisational of risks that was seize the moment risks and often require a little time space and gumption. So rarely when overworked and crazy busy, just not something that we would take the time for. These can be those small shifts that help make you stand out simple tasks or roles that you seek to make a little less ordinary booking a restaurant for a client meeting, and instead surprising them with a thoughtful experience. The airline attendant that turns the safety announcement into a RAP. The way you approach a customer, perhaps by sharing interests in an interesting way. There was a small risk that you could end up with egg on your face, maybe, but at a much larger benefit than he could stand out and earn that next promotion or that next role. Operational risks, these are continual incremental improvement risks that could be impacting your end results. Gamblers in many cases, actually sit within the operational risk, taking calculated risks, learning, maybe failing a little bit adapting to their opponents and the cards with every move. These are the risks where you seek to change a process, test a new technique, find a new route home, with enough incremental changes you achieve what was impossible the weeks or months before you started. These risks or the move, the needle risks. When you seek continual improvement, you question the status quo and you speak up to make positive change. They are not always a safe space, but they are speaking up for what you believe is right or better and it's great training for your risk taking muscles. I mentioned the risk continuum above this is DPPs model for explaining your risk bias or comfort zone. Imagine a static person to one end the risk mitigator and on a funnel, all the way to chaos or complete change at the other end. Most of us will sit somewhere along this. And in this week's challenge, we demonstrate the continuum further and encourage you to take a survey of where you sit in this risk continuum to understand your risk profile in lots of different areas. There is seriously, so much to unpack here. So I know we are going to spend lots and lots of times talking about risk in the future, but exciting stuff to get us started with.

Claire: 20:58

I like what you're talking about in terms of types of risk and being aware that there's different types of risks. And also that understanding our own personal risk, style and biases. Because I think for me often what stops me from making a decision that is outside my comfort zone is being clear on what I'm doing it for and the reasons why I'm doing it. And it can be quite hard to get to the bottom of that sometimes. And so I think, having a bit of an understanding of your own risk tendencies could be really, really good. I think it also ties in a little bit to what I was talking about before with the HuffPost article that we're not talking about just taking any crazy risk at any time. It needs to be considered and smart in a way that takes you out of your comfort zone and that you can be comfortably uncomfortable, if that makes sense, because that's the muscle that we need to build over time.

Miranda: 21:47

In summary, we have covered a bit today about why women tend to hold themselves back with more biological wiring to assess risk, a double standard at work and at home, risk profiling and biases and how incremental risks can also be overlooked, not just game-changing ones. And some initial thoughts on how you can start to take smart risks practices, visualization, asking for feedback, building your network and ensuring diversity in your tribe. An action for this week, head to our website of socials and click the link to complete the survey around your risk profile. With this new found awareness on your risk basis, you can head out into the world with a yes and not a yes but mindset, as you have seen in our examples during the episode. Seek out opportunities to use yes and, be it at home work or in planning for your next smart risk.

Claire: 22:30

Oh, great. I am looking forward to doing that risk profile. That'd be good. It'd be interesting to see what that comes out with. It will tie in nicely to next week's pod. Next week we are going to be going into how to make smart decisions and provide some tools that you can use to help you make smarter decisions that will in turn give you more confidence to take greater risks with the decisions that you're making for yourself and your life. It's going to be really great to go into that, we've got some really great examples and I'm really excited to be getting into that content. As Miranda mentioned all of their links to all of the content that we've spoken about today will be in the episode notes. Be sure to visit our Insta posts for more inspiration during the week between podcasts. Email us at elevatewithgrace@gmail.com if you want to let us know anything, give us any feedback or want to talk about anything we'd love to hear from you. And please check out our website, elevatewithgrace.com.au.

Miranda: 23:23

If you're interested in any of the books that we talked about this week and would like to read more. We have a Booktopia link in our show notes and on our website. Of course, please subscribe and share to this podcast. It's such an important way to share with other women and help. That's all just lift each other up.

Claire: 23:38

and so that brings us to the end of this episode. Another one, I can't believe it the times just go so fast when we're talking about this stuff. Thank you so much. Miranda. Thank you so much, listeners. What a fun conversation, we look forward to catching up with you again next week.

Miranda: 23:52

Thank you so much for listening it's been a lot of fun.