Riding down a country road with my 15-year-old daughter at the helm, it’s easy to think about risk. I understand why she doesn’t want to pass the truck pulling a boat ahead of us. She doesn’t have the appetite for that risk — yet. My ongoing job as parent is to help her see and assess risk enough of the various dynamics of the situation to decide with confidence when she takes that risk.
Risk Appetite Changes When Risk Intelligence Grows
Business leaders today are faced with new challenges and uncertainties. Changing market conditions, opportunities, and competition create the opportunity to re-evaluate the business plan.
In that review, think about your risk appetite. Is it a conscious decision or a perspective created years ago in different market conditions?
Expanding your risk intelligence takes time, resources, and a willingness to learn. Often, we stick to our comfort zone. That can work fine to get through changing times — for some and up to a point. But, then what?
Analyzing New Ideas and Market Options
To take advantage of the opportunities as they change, it’s important and valuable to analyze the factors of new ideas and market options. Having trusted co-workers and advisors can help you gather other perspectives based on their experience, knowledge, and insight. Then, decisions made feel more informed and thoughtful. Having an eye towards the long-term goal can also help make the short-term decisions easier.
There will be endless obstacles that show up in our lanes. With a willingness to change and the feedback from experts, better decisions can be made.
And, as you adjust your risk appetite appropriately and grow your risk intelligence, you can be more confident in your risk management skills, and your journey will take you farther down the road to reaching your goals and success.
If you’re stuck in your comfort zone right now, but feel it’s time to ask for help out of it and to grow your risk intelligence, don’t ever hesitate to reach out to our risk management experts at either Holmes Murphy or CSDZ. We are here to help and can walk you through every step of the way!
