Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Scott Downes, founder and principal of Thomas LLC, an independent consulting venture. We hope you enjoy Scott’s wisdom and perspective.
In about 60 days, my buddy Brian and I will be clicking into our pedals for a 6-stage, 240-mile mountain bike race called the Breck Epic. Over those six days, we will be climbing approximately 40,000 vertical feet of singletrack around Breckenridge, Colorado, most of which will be above 10,000 feet in elevation.
Registering was the easy part. Training is the tough part. Whether we can actually ride it? There’s only one way to find out.
We’ve done other bike excursions – big rides in Texas Hill Country, the Rocky Mountains, and even a three-day tour in the French Alps. But the Breck Epic is the most ambitious one yet. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit terrified.
That tinge of fear is a good thing though. The uncertainty and self-doubt bubble up periodically as a motivator, not a deterrent. Harnessing the feeling that comes from taking a big risk can and should be used elsewhere too.
When I was out for a training ride the other day, lungs gasping and legs burning, my mind wandered into thinking about the importance of testing yourself, getting out of your comfort zone, and pushing past your own self-imposed limits. It’s as important in the workplace as it is anywhere else.
Yet too few of us apply this in our working lives. Survey research for a forthcoming leadership book shows half of Americans would like to change careers. An expansive, decade-old Gallup study concluded less than a third of workers are truly engaged in their jobs, a finding that has not changed in the dozen years since. And some job satisfaction surveys show nearly 50 percent of workers are not satisfied in their jobs. This rate has steadily increased over the last two decades.
There are numerous reasons for this kind of stasis, where workers in many organizations feel disengaged, unmotivated, and stuck in a spot they don’t want to be. But you can’t help but think a part of it is the lack of opportunity to take risks, to flex creative muscles, and to try out new ideas. Absent those opportunities, innovation is stifled, mistakes are repeated, and trust and commitment erode over time.
In most of the highest performing, highest growth organizations across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, you will see a culture where biting off more than you can chew is incentivized and rewarded, not deterred or denied. These organizations have clarity of and commitment to the mission; structure and efficiency to their decision-making; and space to learn, make new mistakes, and apply new lessons going forward.
Biting off more than you can chew can be done at an individual, team, or organizational level. It’s going after a promotion you might think is a long shot. It’s taking a new approach with your team to solve a sticky, nagging problem. It’s making a big bet on a strategic decision where the result for the organization might be uncertain.
Organizations that do this effectively –provide the space where people are comfortable taking a full swing – benefit in meaningful ways with employee performance, engagement, and commitment to core work.
Saying your organization is geared this way is the easy part. Practicing it is the tough part. And the potential payoff? There’s only one way to find out.
What’s The Risk?
Simply put: complacency. That’s the risk of not biting off more than you can chew every now and then. It’s the risk of not testing yourself. Professional atrophy. To think you can’t grow, learn, or evolve – thinking you’ve got it all figured out – is a recipe for disaster, for virtually any executive, employee, or organization. You’ll never know what you can do otherwise.
Good leaders, at any level of an organization, know if and when to take a risk. They know when it’s a “long run for a short slide,” as a former boss of mine used to say. They know when the juice might be worth the squeeze. And they know that, as John Steinbeck once wrote, “if the journey should prove too much, it was time to go anyways.”
This content was written and shared by guest blogger Scott Downes.
Scott Downes is the founder and principal of Thomas LLC, an independent consulting venture specializing in strategy development, project management, and strategic communications support for foundations, nonprofits, and other social change organizations. Scott has more than 15 years of experience managing complex projects and campaigns in the nonprofit, public, and political sectors. An Indiana native and graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Scott now lives in Denver, CO.
