What kind of challenge do you find the most interesting or exciting?

Our reader poll today asks: What kind of challenge do you find the most interesting or exciting?

• Taking something that’s been successful and building on that success 9.10%
• Taking something that’s failing and turning it around 49.67% 
• Building something new that no one has ever built before 41.23%

Give me a challenge! 90% of respondents want to take on big challenges – either fixing something that’s broken or building something entirely new. Obviously these approaches carry significant risk with them, but the rewards and satisfaction that come with success are clearly attractive. Be sure to go into these situations fully aware that your chances of failure are high. You might not achieve the impact you want to have. Manage expectations with your stakeholders accordingly. There’s no upside to an aggressive forecast of success. You’ll simply be putting undue pressure upon yourself and set people up for disappointment if you don’t achieve your lofty expectations. These situations are ones where you’re best off underpromising and overdelivering.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.