What best describes your organization’s approach to taking risks?

Our reader poll today asks: What best describes your organization’s approach to taking risks?

• We’re risk-seeking – 11%
• We’re risk-tolerant – 50%
  
• We’re risk-avoidant – 34%
• We refuse to take risks – 5%

More risk than not. Over 60% of you report your organizations are risk tolerant or risk seeking. The other 40% avoid it or refuse to take risks. What’s important to understand is risk is about uncertainty and a lack of information. As we gather new information, risk goes down. Theoretically, we can spend a lot more time gathering more and more information. Unfortunately, that takes time and with every minute we spend gathering information, new sources of uncertainty enter the equation. Know when you have enough information to take a first step or initial action. Once you’ve taken that action, reassess and take another action. You don’t always have to make a single big move. Smaller incremental steps like pilot programs, tests, and reversible changes can accelerate your decision making, provide you new information, and reduce the amount of risk you’re taking. Remember – you’ll never have perfect information so act now, learn, and act again.

– 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.