54· Risky Business
Podcast show notes
Taking risks in your career can feel like a game of high-stakes poker—do you stay in your comfort zone or bet on a bigger, bolder move?
In this episode, I explore how to figure out when to take the leap and when to hold steady. From understanding your personal risk appetite to navigating career conversations, we’ll unpack the key questions to ask yourself before making that next big decision. I also share practical ways to challenge self-doubt, avoid the trap of procrastination, and make choices that align with your values.
Whether you're considering a career pivot or eyeing a leadership role, this episode is packed with insights to help you make confident, strategic moves. Let’s get you unstuck and moving toward the opportunities you deserve!
Here are the highlights
(2:25) Unexpected Career Opportunity
(5:10) Balancing Safety and Growth
(7:01) Evaluating Career Moves
(10:22) Managing Procrastination and Decision-Making
(12:41) Seeking Support and Making Informed Decisions
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Ruth
Welcome to Frustrated and Exhausted, the podcast for women in leadership, where I help you fulfill your ambitions without sacrificing your sanity or your resilience.
Hello, hello and welcome to this episode of Frustrated and Exhausted. Today I'm going to be thinking all about risk, and particularly about risks in your career. How do you know when to gamble and take a chance on something and when to play it safe? It can be a really, really tricky one and especially when you're thinking about a career move you know, do I move company? Do I go for this promotion? Do I stay where I am? What's going to be best for me? If I take the opportunity, am I going to fail? Am I really ready for this? You know there can be a lot of self doubt that creeps in when we start thinking about should I take this opportunity or is it a stretch too far? And of course we all have different attitudes to risk. We have different risk appetite and you know that's going to influence what we decide to do when in our kind of careers.
When I was just starting out I kind of had this sense of things being mapped out, you know I would go and do this job and then I would kind of go abroad for a bit and then I would come back and I would do another job and then I might go abroad a bit for again and then you know and and there was this sort of sense of a trajectory and I think when you work in a large organization that it can often feel like that especially if you come in through a graduate program of some description. But of course, life life’s and for me certainly, my expectations have turned out to be completely false, that's because of decisions that I've made, life decisions and career decisions and the mix between the two, there's always a bit of tension there isn't there?
When we think about making career moves, sometimes something just lands in our lap. So I was partly I was a good 10 years in I guess, round about 10 years in, and I was having quite an unusual career conversation with someone in HR and it was a little bit left field, and they sort of said you know would you think about moving into kind of change and sort of more that kind of organizational development sort of thing? Now I have been in policy roles, some of it quite high profile at the time but internally anyway obviously not externally but and this was just like you know I'd be working in IT. I'd be kind of working with more the the corporate side of the organization and you know that was something that really just hadn't occurred to me.
Now, clearly there was a role to fill and they were quite finding it quite difficult to fill and I was getting a proper sales job done on me. But I did sort of, my interest was piqued shall we say and I went off and had a whole load of other conversations and I sort of thought well you know, the way things work in civil service careers often you could have moved, you can move jobs sort of every two to three years sometimes four depending on the role, but it's less usual to make that sort of move, to go from policy into kind of corporate and I was kind of hesitant because I was kind of by no means a specialist already and this obviously was going to widen that sort of generalist angle to it, but there was the opportunity to learn a lot, to learn about how the organization functioned which from a leadership or moving into leadership roles you know as I was beginning to at that point, you that was an opportunity because when you understand the way that things connect and work together in an organization you know everything touches everything else and when you start to develop that breadth of understanding it can be a real bonus further down the line as you start to sort of understand the ramifications of different decisions and it really can help you to make better decisions, which is sort of where we want to be. And I decided to go for it, and I sort of fell in love with it. I really, really did. I sort of, that was really where my journey with coaching began, it was where I started to lead much bigger teams, and it was where I really got the bug of you know wanting to understand how, you know what was making the organization tick, what the big strategic decisions were going to be and that kind of future looking sort of work that, that I began to sort of do at the time.
Sometimes when we kind of are too planned in our kind of ambitions for our career it can actually keep us stuck. You know when you, when you get attached to wanting things to go in a particular way or a particular route it can really shut down other options for us. And again, there's this question that I often ask clients you know, is this keeping you safe or is this keeping you stuck? And I think that that's is a great question for when you're thinking about actually what are the risks of doing what I'm doing? You know do I continue on this path or do I need to make a bit of a shift and sometimes it can feel easiest, simplest to stay on the path that we're on but in doing that we potentially overlook other opportunities to develop and grow and I think really considering you know is this about staying safe, and I think especially for women and especially early career, we do often feel that need to tick every single box on the list before we go for something different and if you're thinking about a move into a completely different area that's not going to be possible. So you know that sense of trusting yourself and being able to go, actually I've got the breadth of skills to be able to sort of learn, I know how to learn new things you know, I can do hard things, I know how to apply myself, I'm okay to go in as a beginner and ask a lot of questions again. It can be quite scary to do that but in doing that we can really open ourselves up to sort of lots of other opportunities.
Of course in some careers that's not going to be the case. In some careers you might not want to make that sideways jump in order to go in a different direction. In some careers you might want to sort of really stay on that path. But again, that question kind of comes back at what point do you make the, or try to make the jump, to the, to the next level? Are you going to stay where you are? Are you quite comfortable there? Does that feel right for you and where your life is because you know obviously there are times in life where you want to stretch yourself and you want to make a move forward, and there are times in life when actually there's a whole load of other stuff going on outside of work and you don't really want to be making big, dramatic changes at work as well because it can feel really overwhelming.
There's some other things that are really kind of key to think about. This might be when you're making a choice between, you know maybe similar roles but different organization or company, or it might be you know actually do I want to stay where I am? And I think something really important to think about at this point is your personal values, your professional values. You know, does this organization, you, does the organizational culture allow you to do what you want to do, to operate in the way that you are able to operate? Do the values of the organization fit with yours? And of course there are many, many organizations out there that say one thing about what their values are but actually on the inside the culture is something altogether different. So you know really we're talking about the reality, we're not talking about what's on the website, we're talking about the lived reality of working in that organization. Actually, are those, those cultural values a good match with yours, and if you're thinking about going into a new organization actually asking some questions to tease that sort of stuff out, speaking to other people who work there to understand that will help to give you a sense of actually is this the right move for me, you know when we're thinking about managing that sort of risk.
The other thing is you know sometimes like I said earlier you want to stay in your comfort zone. You're kind of it's all good, this is the right time just to stay where you are for now. But other times you know like I said that opportunity lands in your lap or somebody says you know why don't you go for that? The conversation with HR or the conversation with your boss, you know, come on you know, you, you could do that. Why don't you do that? And this is where I think it's worth thinking about sort of zones of regulation if you like. You know, are you in your comfort zone right now? Are you being stretched, you know, are you, are you learning something new? Would this new role potentially give you the opportunity to, to learn new things, to develop in a slightly different way? Or does the thought of this new role, or this move to a different organization, actually put you into panic? You know when we're thinking about our own development, being in a state of panic is not what we want. You know there's, there's being a bit scared, it's being, sort of having the butterflies in your tummy. There's not being quite sure but being prepared to take a chance on something and then there's, actually I'm really terrified of this and you kind of go into that freeze sort of state potentially, So thinking about you know when you think about this opportunity that's landed on your lap, what's your instinctive kind of reaction to that? Does it feel quite comfortable? Does it feel like a bit of a stretch or actually is it absolutely terrifying when you think about it? And just seeing where that, where you sit with that.
The other thing is really challenging yourself you know, what evidence do I have for my response? You know if I'm telling myself I can't do something or I'm not quite ready, you know you're sort of getting into the have I ticked all the boxes mode. What evidence do I have for that? What evidence is there that I'm not ready for this move? And what evidence is there that I am? And really kind of, get me a paper, write it down if that makes you feel better, or if you're someone who's quite logical you know do your pros and cons list. What are the benefits of going for this? What are the benefits of staying where I am and kind of, we often think with our logical brains but we'll also have a gut response so it's trying to marry those two things up and really think it all through in the round.
The big word of warning I guess for me with all of this is be aware, or beware, of the impact that procrastination can have. Sometimes there's a deadline and we have to meet it, and sometimes if we get a bit too panicky or overwhelmed about something we just let that deadline pass and we don't really do anything, but doing nothing is also a decision. So you know when we get into that place where we're procrastinating, you know we procrastinate over things usually because there's some kind of fear sitting underneath it. But those fears are not always justified. They're not always rational. Sometimes something's just a little bit scary so again I would go back if you feel yourself in that point where you're sort of like, oh the deadline is coming up for the application for X, Y or Z., you know when you're not really taking action to either say no I'm not going for that to make the decision, or to actually put your hat in the ring, then have a think about why that is and really challenge yourself that question again about what's the evidence? What's keeping me stuck? Is it keeping me safe or is it keeping me stuck? Which one is it? You're coming back to those again. Like I said at the beginning there's going to be different times in life when different things are appropriate for you and only you're going to have the answer to that, but, go and speak to other people. Work it through with friends, with family, with trusted colleagues. You know, do you think I'm up for this? Do you think I could do this? What do you think I might get if I made this move? What would I get from it? What would the benefit to me be, to my career, to my development, and really kind of invite some, some support, some challenge, and some other people's views as well to sort of help you kind of get to that decision point.
So just thinking about when you know it's time to gamble and take a bit of a jump, a leap in terms of a decision around your career, and when you know it's time to actually play it safe. What I've covered today is really thinking about you know am I safe or am I stuck? Which is it you know when I think about my career path and the opportunities that are there. Thinking about the role of values. This is so important because if we make a move into an organization that doesn't have the same values or at least a good few of them that we do then it can be a very uncomfortable place to be and especially if we're progressing into kind of more leadership roles that can be really tough. And thinking about what our instinctive responses are you know do we feel quite comfortable when you think about the move? Do we, are we kind of in our stretch zone or is it sending us into panic, and challenging ourselves with that question you know what's the evidence?
And finally just making sure that you speak to people about you know what your options are, get some other input. Fundamentally it's always going to be your decision what you choose to do, but it's always worth getting input from other places as well. I hope that's been helpful, you know I've, I've done this episode just now because I've spoken to a few people who at the moment are weighing things up and it kind of seemed pertinent and you know as we kind of head into the end of the year and looking towards a new year it's a time that people often start reflecting on where they are, what's next for them and you know I thought it might be quite helpful just to think about our attitudes to risk around our careers and how we can maybe become a little bit less risk averse and start looking for opportunities more actively.
I hope you get plenty coming your way. Have a great week. Speak to you soon.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Frustrated and Exhausted. Hit the follow button for future episodes. You can also follow me on Instagram at Resonate Leadership and LinkedIn at Ruth Alexandra Wood, I'd absolutely love to hear from you. Frustrated and Exhausted is brought to you by Resonate Leadership and the wonderful team at the Podcast Boutique. I'm your host Ruth Wood, take care and speak to you soon.
