Building the Risk-Taking Muscle

How comfortable are you with making mistakes?  If you’re like most people, you’re probably not a big fan.  I mean, nobody really likes to get things wrong.  And yet, if you want to be an effective leader, you’ve got to be willing to risk making mistakes.  And more importantly, perhaps, you’ve got to be willing to learn from those mistakes.  When you’re unwilling to risk making mistakes, when you’re so hung up on getting things right and making things look good, inevitably you play small.  And real leaders, great leaders, the leaders who have impact do NOT play small.

What’s the big deal with mistakes?  Perhaps the better question is what’s the big deal with perfection?  So many people — including those of you who aspire to be leaders — aim for perfection.  And while perfection might be praise-worthy to some degree, getting things right, right out of the gate, denies you the opportunity to learn, stretch, grow and play your biggest game.  Leadership is all about playing as big as you possibly can, and showing up in this really big way requires you to risk getting it all wrong –and learning from that, so that as you continue to risk whatever it is you choose to risk, your learnings guide your choices.

Bottom-line:  if you want to lead, you’ve got to get comfortable with taking risks, making mistakes, getting things wrong so you can get things right.  You’ve got to expand your world — you’ve got to play a big game.  And to play the big game, you’ve got to build your risk-taking muscle.  Time to get working out!