Talking about risk is no one’s love language, but we think about and even obsess over it all the time.

I’ve been in the Risk Management field for a long time, like, decades, and even now I resort to the simple definition of the term as, risk: “something bad could happen”. I’ve used this definition to manage risk with information security, regulatory compliance, data governance, privacy and even disaster recovery. It’s a simple definition but it works – it grounds a risk conversation and keeps our frame focused.

Can we apply it to leadership?

Every day, as leaders, we assess risk and do a pretty bad job at it. It’s not that we’re intentionally trying to manipulate a scenario (or maybe we are?) but we often read signals of “bad” in less than helpful ways. As leaders we assess risk to ourselves, sometimes catastrophizing a project not going well, and our personal brand taking a hit. We make up stories of how someone will react in a conversation that hasn’t happened yet, we hear something “off” during a meeting and jump in to rescue, or we might avoid taking on a new responsibility because we think it’s “too risky”.

All in all there are 2 types of risk: little “r” risk, and big “R” risk. They’re very different, and it’s important to know what you’re facing by doing some simple reflection. Most often, we face little “r” risks, and very few big “R” risks.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

1. Is my worry about this situation something that I’m making up or is it informed by someone else?
2. If the worst-case outcome that I’ve dreamt up actually occurs, will I remember it a year from now? 5 years from now?
3. Is this scenario both probable and able to produce long-term harm? (e.g. to someone else, to me, to my organization)

Wanting to react when you feel threatened is natural, and usually at the root of anything that might feel off to you as a leader. Feeling threatened = feeling like “something bad could happen”. Try to come up with your own questions related to risk you’re feeling this week, and remember, it’s OK to feel “at risk”, but perhaps more important is to know where it’s coming from.

Are they little “r” risks, or big “R” risks? If little “r”, what can you do to intervene your own thinking? I’d love to hear what you come up with – send me a note and we can chat about it over email.

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Here are a few resources worth checking out, that I’ve been sharing with clients lately:

1 // What do you tell yourself about rejection? (<20 min podcast)

2 // We wish away the risks and concerns that are inconsistent with our preferred outcomes, and that’s a “trap we set for ourselves.” (8 min read)

3 // Hello, perfectionists. “Success is sweet. But failure is so much more intimately revealing of what it means to be human.” (10 min read)