The No B.S. Workplace Legacy Coach and trusted advisor helping individuals and organizations reach higher levels of work performance.
Leadership today requires a wide range of essential competencies (e.g., emotional intelligence, effective communication, critical thinking, adaptability, resilience) so leaders can meet the challenges of a chaotic and changing work environment. However, a leader's long-term success is also significantly determined by luck.
Luck can be defined as the random and unpredictable force that causes good or bad things to happen by chance. Luck is often viewed as being beyond a leader’s control or influence, regardless of their efforts and competencies.
I disagree with this perspective. Instead, I agree with Seneca that "Luck is where opportunity meets preparation." So while leaders cannot create luck, since luck is a combination of opportunity and preparation, when it appears, luck frequently provides leaders with the means to become lucky. But, as I coach leaders in my executive coaching program, this can occur only if leaders view the challenges that accompany luck as potential opportunities.
And, while it is difficult, leaders with this perspective can, to a significant degree, determine the outcome of each encounter they have with luck. Such a positive outcome is achieved by cultivating what I refer to as the luck skill set, comprised of three abilities:
1. To recognize an unexpected opportunity or anomaly,
2. To determine if it is the right opportunity and
3. If it is, because luck always occurs outside the leader’s comfort zone, the leader must be prepared to leave their comfort zone and take the calculated risks necessary to achieve full advantage of the opportunity luck is presenting them.
Cultivating the luck skill set requires conscious effort, learning and practice to create a mindset and environment that maximizes the potential for luck to deliver positive opportunities. This requires leaders to:
• Develop the self-confidence necessary to trust their instincts and take calculated risks.
• Have a growth mindset so they embrace new experiences, recognize anomalies and see unexpected challenges as opportunities.
• Have a growing network of industry leaders and experts. This increases the leader’s odds that, by being proactive (rather than waiting for luck to randomly appear), they will be exposed to more luck and its unexpected opportunities.
• Be well-informed about industry trends and developments. This improves the leader’s ability to identify anomalies—deviations from the established standard and practices—which, if the leader challenges the status quo, creates new opportunities.
• Prepare themselves and their teams. As Louis Pasteur opined, “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” Being prepared for the opportunities luck provides requires leaders to create a work environment committed to improvement, innovation, adaptability and diverse perspectives. This means continuously improving their own, as well as their team’s, competencies, especially critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making.
• Embrace calculated risk-taking. Cultivating the luck skill set requires leaders to accept that risk—the possibility of a negative outcome—is an integral component of every unexpected opportunity. Only by stepping outside their comfort zone and taking risks can a leader enjoy luck’s benefits. But risks are not equal. When a leader is confronted with an unexpected opportunity, they must choose between two distinct categories of risk: reckless and calculated.
Leaders engage in reckless risk-taking when they:
• Are overconfident, lack experience, are under pressure to show results and are ego-driven.
• Fail to determine if the unexpected opportunity is the right opportunity to pursue. To quote Jim Collins, “'A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' is irrelevant if it is the wrong opportunity.”
• Take a risk without careful consideration of the probability of a negative.
In stark contrast, leaders who engage in calculated risk-taking exhibit a more strategic and measured approach when confronted with an unexpected opportunity. Here's the blueprint for their success:
Alignment With Goals: They assess whether the unexpected opportunity aligns with, and will move them closer to, achieving their goals.
Assessing Good And Bad Outcomes: They dispassionately identify the potential positive benefits of pursuing the opportunity and weigh them against the potential negative impacts.
Financial Analysis: They conduct a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to gauge whether the investment of time, energy and resources required to pursue the unexpected opportunity can yield a satisfactory return on that investment.
Consultation And Collaboration: They require input—negative and positive—from trusted team members and advisors about the unexpected opportunity.
Strategic Action Plan: They develop an action plan with clear deadlines, action steps and milestones to capitalize on the unexpected opportunity.
Continuous Evaluation: They continuously monitor the progress and impact of the action plan and, if the anticipated positive results are not materializing as expected, make adjustments based on real-time feedback
Just Say No: If it becomes apparent the unexpected opportunity is not generating the anticipated return on the investment of time and energy they abandon it, saving their resources for their next encounter with luck.
While risk cannot be entirely eliminated, a leader who adopts the strategy of calculated risk-taking is better equipped to determine if an unexpected opportunity is really an opportunity.
Leaders who embrace this proactive approach by cultivating their luck skill set can become luckier as they increase their ability to pursue unexpected opportunities that others overlook or are afraid to pursue. Then they are labeled as "lucky" by their team, their leaders, their contemporaries and their competition. And as I tell the leaders in my coaching program, being perceived as being "lucky" often has a profound positive impact on a leader's career trajectory.
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