Leaders Must Take Risks

The act and practice of leadership is a risky undertaking. Leadership is the act of bringing about positive change. This requires leaders to initiate, to blaze new trails, to venture into the unknown and unexplored terrain. All of this entails risk. Kouzes and Posner in their bestselling book, The Leadership Challenge (JB Leadership Challenge: Kouzes/Posner) describe it this way:

“Leaders are pioneers – people who are willing to step out into the unknown. They are people who are willing to take risks, to innovate and experiment in order to find new and better ways of doing things.”

Leaders take these risk because they have a vision, they see a future and a new world that inspires action and makes the risk worthwhile. Leaders are pioneers… not settlers. Great leaders take risk. They push past the edge of their current reality. Striving to bring their vision into today. How about you?

• Are you a pioneer or a settler?
• Are you taking the necessary risks to find better ways of doing things?