Leading a team through uncharted territory, how do you balance calculated risks and practical considerations?

Leading a team through tough times involves navigating several risks. Clear, open, and frequent communication is crucial to prevent misunderstandings and maintain morale. It’s important to monitor workloads and provide support to prevent team fatigue and burnout. Addressing concerns and involving the team in decision-making can ease resistance to change. Keeping the team aligned with core goals and priorities helps avoid distractions and loss of focus. Recognizing and supporting the emotional well-being of your team members is essential. Navigating these risks with empathy and strategic planning can turn challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience.

An additional pillar of related consideration is risk appetite. While many might see risk as purely negative, it should be embraced as an expectation. With a properly defined appetite for risk, there exists a standing guidance for when it is appropriate to move forward despite the discovery of an acceptable level of risk. This, in practice, will increase productivity and minimize the level of inherent danger that unmitigated risk can often expose. Additionally, the elimination of uncertainty will reduce the fear factor of potential failure or loss and stifle paralysis, thereby clearing a path forward.

Uncharted territories are uncommon turf that are not familiar to many leaders and organizations. Leaders and organizations must master the act of progressing from familiar turfs to uncertainty. The ability to analyze potential impediments and predict proactive measures to mitigate potential risks will not only help organizations in distributing authorities and establishing a system of accountability but will help them to reimagine what they can do and how best to do it. Good leaders have a contingent plan before distributing authorities to forestall chaos and confusion. Strict policies and procedures can help to consolidate authority to stabilize chaotic situations, but setting guidelines and reporting can provide flexibility for success.

When constructing successful innovative teams, managerial trust is pivotal—“Trust is a Must”. With managerial trust, your team is more apt to contribute during brainstorming and mind mapping sessions. One of the greatest hesitation to sharing thoughts and ideas is the fear of sounding silly—that inner little boy or girl on the playground worried about what other kids would think comes to the forefront of our psyche.

In situations such as these, your team will look to you to provide leadership and convey confidence. Lead!!! Don’t let them see you sweat

Make a decision. Go! Learn from real experience. Back in the day 300+ years ago , being an explorer was the way to decisions. Im general , people didn’t know what they know now or had the tools we have now. Today, we seem to have decision paralysis because there so much information , so many options, fear of risk. I say go , explore , make a decision, learn from it and live love it.

Be open with the team. It’s very easy to try and mask ambiguity to show you’re ’in control’ and have a plan. Quite often the plan is evolving, there will be successes and failures along the way but creating a safe environment to explore, try new thing and be creative will help your team members take the often changeable path with you.

Maintain transparent and open lines of communication within the team. Regular updates, feedback sessions, and collaborative discussion are crucial for aligning efforts and addressing concerns promptly. Empower and trust the team by delegating not just tasks but also the responsibility to make decisions within their areas of expertise. Trust their judgement and courage them to take ownership of their tasks.

Brainstorming meetings with round robins (everyone has a chance to pitch ideas) and a solid research team gives everyone a chance to come up with ideas and test them out without spending too many resources. Ideas are usually big and bold. Don't shy away from them, but encourage your team to really think about everything in parts, so it is digestible, and conceivable, and measurable. Rome wasn't built in a day. Or so they say.

Listen to and care about people. Listen to and talk to people to discover their treasures their God given natural or trained acquired strengths, you’d be surprised. Listen to and love people, by understanding them first. Observe, value them and see what together can do. Ingredients for the foundation of a team.

Sometimes and many times you don’t even have resources. You’d need to create them. Sometimes resources are not available to everyone so it depends on where you stand and your circumstances.

Play to and enhance areas of strength to get the most out of your team. Help and encourage them put their strengths to good use. At the same time set up training and insights sessions that will develop skills that are going to be needed. Don’t waste their or your own time developing a skill that’s not going to add value, but include that skill development in a longer term training plan. Really focus on what’s needed, where your team can learn and develop. Some will be quick wins but start with the building blocks that other skills will add to over time.

Managing stress and anxiety while leading a team through uncharted territory is like juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle – a thrilling challenge with a side of impending doom. First, let’s be honest: everyone’s stressed. Be ready for missteps and delays – they’re part of the adventure. Next, channel your inner zen master: promote work-life balance, encourage breaks, and encourage people to stay on top of their PTO. Finally, embrace flexibility. Be ready to pivot, adapt, and laugh at what is just the reality of being in business. Burnout is real... and couldn't come at a worse time.

In my opinion, when leading a team through uncharted territory, balancing calculated risks and practical considerations is crucial for success. Some tips from my experience on how to find this balance: 1. Assess the situation: 2. Involve your team: 3. Create a risk management plan: 4. Set clear objectives: 5. Monitor and adjust: 6. Learn from mistakes By following these steps and maintaining open communication with your team, you can strike a balance between calculated risks and practical considerations while navigating uncharted territory.

Balancing speed to market is truly an art. Trailblazing and determining your minimal viable product (MVP) is key. Getting your idea/solution to market early and gathering feedback is important. I was part of a B2B Website implementation team with very little functionality in the first release. We beta-tested the system with some of our largest clients and gathered and implemented their feedback quickly. We continued that practice gaining momentum and excitement with each successive client. The website grew and was extremely successful. Starting the project with a steering committee representing all stakeholders was an important part of the success.

Stakeholder management and reporting is vital. Take your leaders on the journey with you by helping them see and understand your direction of travel. Help them see the end goal and the path you intend to take. But don’t be afraid to draw a line under something that isn’t working well no matter how much you advocated for that approach. Admitting when something doesn’t work isn’t a weakness, pivoting and learning is a strength that will lead to success.