Great Leaders Need To Be Risk-Takers

The future of work is full of opportunities. But people won’t be able to take advantage of those opportunities if they don’t take risks.

It’s a philosophy Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream, has followed her entire life. Shellye looked for opportunities early in life and took risks to get them. As an African American woman with an eye on not only working in but leading the tech industry, Shellye often had to chart her own course, but she grew by taking risks and creating success on her own terms.

Shellye started her career with a job in sales at IBM after learning that many CEOs had previously worked in sales. During her 15-year career with IBM, she became the first African American woman in the company to be sent on an international assignment. Her later role as CEO of MetricStream put her in elite company as one of just a handful of female CEOs of technology companies.

I had the chance to interview Shellye for my book, The Future Leader. She shared that the one thing future leaders must know how to do is take risks.

Shellye told me this: “Those who learn and are able to take the best risks will drive the best performance. With all these things changing around you, unless you’re a risk-taker, you’re just not going to be able to capitalize on the opportunities that exist out there.”

Throughout her career, Shellye has taken risks to grow herself and her companies. She believes future leaders must also be willing to take risks to succeed. That doesn’t mean being reckless—it means being transparent and honest.

Risk-Takers Are Agile

How things have always been done simply won’t work in the future. Future organizations will move away from traditional hierarchal structure and more towards networks. Shellye says the future is less about leading from a base of power and more about leading from a base of influence. That means being agile to accept new ideas and ways of working.

Future leaders need to be agile in their thoughts and more collaborative in how they operate.

“Leaders need to become more comfortable with being flexible trying new things and trying to build and embrace more collaboration deeper within the organization,” Shellye said.

True collaboration and risk-taking comes from collaborating and including people of all tenure and experience to really get things going. A leader can’t only be agile based on their own ideas and point of view—they have to consider other perspectives and feel comfortable changing their mind, really listening to other people’s ideas, and then implementing them to evolve the company.

Risk-Takers Are People-Centric

Risk-taking leaders don’t just take risks to improve their own standing—they do it with their people in mind. Future leaders have to realize that the only way towards lasting success is to focus on people, both employees and customers. The best leaders are the ones who take risks that will provide a better experience for their people.

Shellye believes that future leaders must be empathetic. Employees want to know that leaders actually care about what they themselves care about. Instead of simply saying the right things, leaders need to back up their words with actions.

Future leaders must also be customer-centric. Shellye says that many leaders and organizations claim to be customer-centric and put the customer at the center of everything they do, but that’s not really the case.

Shellye told me this: “In the future, things are going to be so transparent and it will be so easy for customers to switch, that the person who is actually able to meet the customers’ real needs the best, wins. And it’s not just what they need now, but what they need going forward.”

To lead their organizations to success, future leaders must be truly focused on customers and take risks to position the company to best anticipate their needs. They can’t simply do things that have always been done. They will have to really connect with their customers, understand them, and then know the best path and risks to take.

Customer-focused leaders develop a culture of customer centricity within their organizations. They don’t just put words on a wall—they are clear in their expectations of how they and their employees should behave to really make the customer the star of everything. Throughout her career, Shellye has addressed leadership topics in staff meetings by sharing how she expects certain issues to be addressed or handled. She believes it’s important for people to hear and the how, not just the what. By aligning around the how, a true culture can be built.

Risk-Takers Are Self-Aware

Risk-takers don’t just jump into every unknown pool and hope they swim. They understand their own strengths and weaknesses so they can take calculated risks that play to their strengths. Leaders of the future must be self-aware and lead with understanding.

Self-awareness comes in many forms, but for future leaders it will be manifest in transparency. Employees are going to want to know what leaders actually care about and that they are comfortable walking the talk.

“I think employees are going to hold leaders much more accountable than they have in the past, for their full set of actions. We’re starting to see it now, and I think that’s just going to continue. It’s not just a blip,” Shellye said.

As a leader, Shellye aims to be accessible and approachable so that people aren’t afraid to tell her the bad news and the good news. As CEO of MetricStream, she walked around the office frequently to get a sense of how things were truly going. In order to move the company forward, leaders have to face the facts and be honest about the true state of things so they can make improvements.

The future is changing, and leaders must be willing to take risks to meet those changes. Successful, risk-taking leaders are agile, focus on their people, and are self-aware to take the best risks for long-term success.

How To Become a Risk-Taker

• Build a network of diverse people and listen to their unique ideas and perspectives.
• Practice being agile by changing your plans and approaches to problems and products.
• Build connections with employees and customers as individuals.
• Establish a customer-centric how and what for employees’ actions.
• Share your goals with employees and be accountable with your progress.

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