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All you really need to know about courage and risk in your career

Sam Walton was fired as a J.C. Penny store manager before starting WalMart. Countless world champion coaches were fired before reaching the ultimate prize.

So many individuals want to do more, push harder, say what’s on their mind, and take some risks. But something’s stopping them. But it’s the courage and risk-taking that leads to breakthrough ideas, to fantastic gains, and to overall greatness.

Recently in a short interview in the October 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review, Francis Ford Coppola said, “the things you get fired for when you’re young are the same things you win lifetime achievement awards for when you’re older.”

Sometimes you need to keep on the pursuit and the recognition only comes after a while. While I was at DTE Energy, I brought in a mentor mine for a case study discussion with the executive team. While driving him back to the airport, he recommended that I quit. He didn’t believe the leadership team had the commitment to make it work, and that I would therefore be wasting my time and talents. The easy thing to do would be to stop pushing. The right and hard thing to do was push. DTE Energy is now 13 years into their lean journey, and continuing to pursue grand challenges.

Why aren’t we more willing to take these risks? Out of a fear, whether it is emotional or professional. The emotional risk is under-appreciated, but very real. There is a great book on the subject called The Heart Aroused by poet David Whyte. An example from the book is an executive sitting at the table with the senior management team listening to the CEO’s plan. He doesn’t like the plan. When the CEO asks for everyone’s degree of support on a scale of 1-10, he listens as it goes around the room with everyone declaring a “10” in support. He’s ready and committed to saying “1” because he believes it is wrong. But when it comes to his turn, a quiet “10” squeaks from his mouth. He lost his courage at the key moment.

Professional risk, and the fear of being fired, is equally real. It is very rare that I’ve seen people fired for doing the right, but unpopular, work, such as pushing lean when no one seems ready for it. Don’t get me wrong; I have seen it happen. But it is so infrequent that I still remember each cases’ name. You must do what you can to protect against this risk, and that will prepare you to live your career with more courage. It might be living frugally so that you have a cash cushion, or maintaining your network so that you know who to call if you do lose your job. The more proactively you protect against this risk, the more you can speak your mind when the moment requires the courage.

Much of this can be explored in what I’ve written and spoken about as my 1-Minute Leadership Lesson. It’s just 3 questions that don’t give you the answer, but help you get past just exploring ideas by exploring the contributors to your actions, including the required courage. The 3 questions are:

1. What is the vision of what you think needs to happen in the organization?
2. What are you willing to do, sacrifice, or risk to make that happen?
3. What stands in the way of doing that today?

This is probably not a way to start each day, but when you’re feeling stuck, or frustrated, they might help you reflect on what you need to be doing?

How do you manage the balance in your risk and reward in leadership?