Manage Successfully in a Risky Environment
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Five Ways to Manage Successfully in a Risky Environment
Risky Environments Affect Managers Differently
Some might contend that managing in the late 20th and early 21st century has been consistently risky, unlike no other period since the Industrial Revolution. Wildly changing economies, incredible technological developments, and vicious competition create a constant risky environment.
While this may be true, there are also new challenges that appear daily that affect many otherwise typical management days. This situation will not change in the near future, so managers need to accept this reality and react effectively. Down economies and recessions increase the intensity of this risky environment and affect managers differently.
Some appear to be frozen in inactivity. Afraid of making mistakes, they sometimes choose non-action to any forward moving plan. Others seem to become perfectionists in their attempt to make the right moves in risky economies. Still other managers dedicate hours to creating the momentous idea, believing they must hit a grand slam home run to succeed, tossing aside many smaller, yet solid and easy-to-implement, ideas.
Conversely, other managers seem to flourish in risky environments. While people often talk about outside the box thinking and action plans, successful managers actually do it. Although success is never guaranteed, these managers don’t appear to worry about making mistakes, trying to be perfect, or becoming the next Bill Gates with a revolutionary grand idea. They analyze situations and implement strategies, old and new, to achieve success.
Five Ways to Be a Great Manager in Risky Environments
Talent, education, and experience are always important. However, simple logic and thoughtful effort can often separate some managers from the crowd. Here are five tips that have generated a long track record of success.
- As legendary baseball pitcher Satchel Paige often stated, “Don’t look back. Somethin’ might be gaining on you.” Don’t overanalyze your decisions, before or after, making them. Make the best decision available in the heat of the moment based on the information you have and move on to the next challenge.
- Don’t waste valuable time worrying about future happenings. It’s okay to admit that you have little or no control over most events that may occur in the future in risky environments. Concentrating on those present events upon which you must make management decisions is a far smarter use of your time.
- Be bold and take chances. Risky environments are not the time to be a shy manager. For example, many managers often become static figures during down economies, apparently fearing making wrong decisions. Consequently they decide to make no decisions, usually the worst decision to make. Some observers believe managers have a better chance to shine during risky environments because much of their personal competition is reduced to inaction.
- Always move out of your comfort zone. The natural tendency during down economies, recessions, and other risky environments is to retreat to your comfort zone. Fight this tendency as hard as you can. Embrace action plans involving some risk. Your comfort zone may have worked in the past, but risky environments demand—and usually reward—the bold and innovative.
- Answer the age-old question, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Athletic coaches, psychologists, philosophers, clerics, motivational speakers, and investors alike advise their players, patients, followers, and the public to ask this simple question. It works for the best managers, too. Anticipating disastrous results that are much larger than reality is a common human trait. In most cases, answering this question eliminates much of the fear of failure inherent in decision making. Seldom does the "worst that could happen" involve threats to your life, your career, or of bankruptcy. In a risky environment, even a bold, creative manager’s failure may be viewed as heroic, ground breaking, and ahead of the curve thinking.
Understand that mistakes and failures can be quite valuable. While risky environments may involve smaller margins for error, mistakes typically deliver information that is just as important as that learned during success.
If you can remove the overbearing weight of the fear of failure during a risky environment, you can move into a positive mode of striving for success and overcoming formidable challenges. Using this attitude to manage in a risky environment and taking advantage of opportunity can lead you to outstanding managerial success, regardless of the industry in which you function.