Wes Kao - Derisking 12 common workplace scenarios
Derisking 12 common workplace scenariosHow to identify and address risks in situations like: giving constructive feedback, sharing a controversial idea, doing cold outreach, and more👋 Hey, it’s Wes. Welcome to my weekly newsletter on managing up, career growth, and standing out as a high-performer. We’ll cover simple ways to derisk these workplace scenarios below:
Read time: 6 minutes This is Part II of a two-part post. See Part I: How to identify and reduce risk in your daily work. When you’re worried at work, it’s often because there’s something that feels uncertain. For me, I’ve found that trying to fill in the blanks and get more understanding usually makes me feel less anxious. Marie Curie said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” I like this quote. She was probably referring to macro societal issues and being a good citizen, but this applies to anxieties at work too. Last week, I wrote about how to identify and address risks. The gist is to ask yourself:
With these two questions, you can keep it simple. It’s easy to remember and applies to a range of situations. This week, I want to share examples of what derisking looks like in a variety of common scenarios.
1. Sharing an idea your colleagues might find controversial
2. Giving constructive feedback to a direct report
3. Testing your offer
4. You made a mistake and need to tell your customer
5. Troubleshooting a technical issue
6. Giving feedback to a peer
7. Presenting to your CEO and leadership team
8. Getting a bug resolved quickly
9. Giving your manager a project update
10. Pitching and cold outreach
11. Raising the price of your product
12. Delegating to a team memberIn Part I, I wrote about the risks when delegating to a team member. A newsletter reader, Justin Lewis, shared this fantastic example:
By the way, when you ask yourself “what’s most likely to go wrong?” you can answer this question on different levels. The level I suggest for this use case: “My junior team member might spend too much time going in the wrong direction.” You don’t need to list all the specific ways they can make a mistake—to Justin’s point, it would be an overwhelming list. So in a situation like this, the act of checking in early and building in feedback loops is derisking. More news from the communityI’m not an affiliate for the below. These are simply recent launches I thought you might find interesting:
Timestamps:
Do you have an example of derisking in your work? Hit reply or share in the comments. Thanks for being here, and I’ll see you next Wednesday at 8am ET. Wes PS Here are more ways to connect:
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Older messages
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Train yourself to sense what could go wrong--while you can still shape the outcome. Ask yourself these two simple questions. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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Details aren't the problem. The problem is too many of the wrong details. Here are 5 real-life examples, so you can spot this in your own work. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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