If you want big rewards, you need to have the confidence to take big risks. As a leader, how can you empower your team to embody that philosophy? A new study shows a big part of the answer is showing your team that they can count on you.
Researchers asked pre-teens (10–13 years old) a bunch of questions, like “When my parent makes a promise, do they follow through on it?” and “Do I typically know how my parents are going to react to different kinds of situations?” Then the kids played video games in which you could take a strategy of playing it safe for a decent score, or play riskier with higher potential scores.
Researchers found that the likelihood kids would take risks in the video games was correlated with how reliable they thought their parents were. The parents weren’t even there for the game, but their influence was still felt. Reliable parents had kids who were risk-takers.
This lesson is perfectly suited to the business world. (I have this crazy idea that kids and grown-ups are cut from the same cloth.) If you want to build a team that takes (appropriate) risks, make sure they know exactly what to expect from you. This doesn’t mean failure is without consequences, it just means failure should have predictable consequences – that coming in for a meeting shouldn’t feel like a roll of the dice.
