We've been looking in recent blogs at the Dimensions of Leadership as identified by the ILM . Today we are looking briefly at two aspects of Vision in a leader: Risk and Readiness. 

 

Risk is all about the potential for harm, how likely scenarios are to develop, how bad they would be if they did, and how we might mitigate the risk. We have an all too familiar example just now; the risk of pandemic was well known but it seems the UK government was slow to act and so many lives have been lost. Pandemic was not even unlikely! 

 

Organisations too must factor in risk - not just our old friends Elf and Safety, important though they are, but also strategic risk - can we keep up with change? for example the very sudden need for remote working. Financial planning is a risk if our plans don't work out as we expected; there are operational risks if, for example we rely on one supplier who then goes under, and even the weather can pose significant risk these days, what with fire, flood and tempest. 

 

And in terms of our staff, we should not be so risk averse that we punish people for mistakes. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn and do it better next time, and even to prevent disaster by revealing flaws in the system. 

 

So are we ready? 

 

These days, the past does not easily predict the future and we need leaders who can think flexibly and creatively even in the midst of uncertainty and change. They need strong analytical skills and an understanding of data so they can spot trends; they certainly need to be resilient, inspirational and ready to take action.

 

A tolerance for risk and ambiguity is also very important - relating back to what I said earlier about the things we can control and the things we can't. Just one example of all this is around talent management - we have to be ready for our older and more experienced staff to retire, taking their wisdom with them! 

 

What's one thing your organisation needs to be ready for and maybe isn't?