A recent Harvard Business Review article on leadership caught my attention. It was entitled Practice leadership in low-risk environments, and its premise is that one should not be afraid to exercise leadership skills (even if only in their embryonic state) in low-risk environments.
Risk Management is everything. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is knowing how to read situations and act accordingly. This includes knowing when it is safe to take risks.
As the article suggested, young leaders should flex their emotional intelligence as often as they can in safe environments, to prepare them for when such skills need to be exercised in more critical or higher risk situations.
Priority mapping is a valuable exercise in any decision making. It is where you consider competing priorities by mapping them out on an X and Y axis. The issues or demands are likely to be competing and therefore necessary to weigh the two actions and/or outcomes against each other to determine the best option. There are often more than two options so the process may have to be carried out multiple times.
In many instances, priority mapping is an intuitive process. The manager with decades of experience can conduct priority mapping in their head in a split second whereas the new manager benefits from documenting and visualizing the process.
Likewise, priority mapping can be a valuable workshopping exercise that can tick many boxes.
· It provides opportunity to consult and therefore bring staff along with the decision.
· It provides the opportunity to gather more information to enable the decision.
Some examples of decision making where the priority of one outcome over the other are:
Impact vs Effort
Risk vs Knowledge
Urgency vs Importance
Business vs User Needs
Feasibility vs User Value
Cost vs Problem
Business decisions frequently require such analysis. There were times when I had to make major property maintenance decisions that required such considerations. At the risk of adding too many topics to this article, the project management triangle of good, fast, cheap comes into play here (a topic for another day). Purchasing the best option rarely requires ordering the 24-carat gold version, but the option does have to serve the intended purpose.
Here is a simple domestic example.
You need a new suitcase for an upcoming holiday and the local supermarket has them on sale very cheap. You haven’t travelled much so figure this is the best decision.
But those who have ever travelled with a suitcase with dodgy wheels know the risks involved, so you consider what type of transport you are taking, whether you will have assistance, the likelihood of increased traveling and the longevity or warranty of the suitcase. (For the record, a good suitcase is very important to me).
Business decisions are similar, just magnified with more considerations. One of the first space shuttle astronauts famously expressed concern about travelling on a space shuttle that had been compiled by many parts sourced from the cheapest suppliers. Good decision-making weighs up the risks and considers the costs. Not just the monetary costs but the reputational costs and all aspects of safety costs.
The more experienced manager knows how to weigh up the risks and mitigate where necessary. The same manager may also realise that although they can do this intuitively, if they choose to run a workshop and consult, they can mitigate risks further by ensuring they are bringing their staff along with them.
Risk management is everything.
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