A young professional could easily enter an industry with right technical skills and a solid educational background, but that is just the starting point of his or her long-term career. At the corporate settings, soft skills and leadership principles are proven to be so crucial to one’s professional success, which should be valued by individuals at a much earlier stage. Hence, my team and I dived into this topic, leadership, and launched a practicum project, hoping to gain some insights from localization practitioners and MIIS peers, which can be applied to a future leadership course for our program.
We designed a questionnaire for leaders from the industry, conducted a comparative analysis of university courses and online courses, and ran a survey among MIIS students. Below is a screenshot of the survey results.
According to the survey results, “Risk-taking” is one of the most popular topics among my peers, including myself. I decided to dive a bit deeper into this topic, sharing some ideas on how to embrace risk strategically and become a successful leader.
Growth Mindset – “Either win or learn”
“Playing it safe and not taking a risk is probably the most dangerous thing you could do in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive business environment.” Seth Godin noted. The fear of risk originates from being in a comfort zone for too long, and that’s not an entrepreneurial choice if you aim to grow your business and embrace career advancements. Taking risks is necessary for success. Moving into an area of discomfort allows you to grow. You will either win, or learn from any potential failure or loss.
Risk-taking should be highly strategic and aligned with your mission
Good leaders often have visionary thoughts, they look into the future under the direction of a great mission. Different from reckless experiments, risk-taking should be a rational decision with a solid foundation. Next time when you decide to step into the uncertainties, ask yourself the following questions. “What are the potential impacts of this endeavor?” “Does it fit with the long-term strategy?” “Will it help to increase the value of our company?”
Prepare for failures mentally and financially
If you decide to take some bold actions, never just sit there, crossing fingers and hoping for the best. Be ready for any consequences. Did you budget logically for those risks? Have you prepared any alternative solutions in the backlog for the potential failures? Could your cash flow afford short-term profitability hits? There is a very interesting concept in the corporate world, calculated risk, which refers to a chance that is taken after a careful estimation of the possible outcomes. It can take a very long time for risky endeavors to pay off eventually. As a mature leader, you should pinpoint the negatives, create plans to put out the fires after execution.
Act, Assess and Adjust
After implementation, a good leader will stay alert, constantly evaluate the effectiveness of the risk, and make timely adjustments according to the ever-changing environment. The “Act – Assess – Adjust” process can not only mitigate the chance of loss, but also make you more adaptable and resilient for future uncertainties.
Final Thoughts
Before participating in this research project, “leadership” is a very vague concept for me. It carries some heroic and charismatic elements, and stands afar from my day-to-day life. During the past few months, My team members and I broke it down into a series of skill sets, from where I gradually realized that leadership is something tangible and obtainable. Each individual can practice their leadership skills on the ground, through teamwork efforts, real-world scenarios, or daily rituals. Not to mention that it is so crucial to our success, professionally or even personally. In the corporate world, no matter you are working for tech giants, or startups, no matter which industry are you in, most of the professionals are contributing in a collaborative environment. If you are part of a team, leadership can set you apart from others, let you shine and make your career blossom. With a leader mindset and solid leadership skills, a prosperous future is waiting for you.
If you would like to learn more about our research project and some of the in-depth topics related to leadership, please check out the posts listed below:
Leadership Research Project by Jacobsen Miller
Leadership and Failure by Jie (Stefan) Zhao
What is followership? by Peter Chea
You can also enjoy our practicum presentation:
Kudos to my team members, Stefan Zhao, Peter Chea and Jacobsen Miller, for great collaboration and providing fruitful content.
Work Cited
