I was watching the Dylan Ratigan show and he was interviewing Dylan Evans who wrote a book called Risk Intelligence.  Ladies, you need to understand this concept!  We are told that we don’t exhibit enough self-confidence at work.  Well, what Mr. Evans proves is that those who have all the answers, who project that they know what to do, are…ready for this…usually wrong!

Wow, doesn’t it make you feel good to know that?!

In his book he explains, “At the heart of risk intelligence lies the ability to gauge the limits of your knowledge – to be cautious when you don’t know much, and confident when by contrast, you know a lot.”

This is a concept I was going to write about later – I call it “playing dumb”.  Risk Intelligence sounds better:

I have always had a philosophy of going into new ventures “dumb.”  I don’t go in and assume I know it all, that I have the answer.  I listen, I find out what is going on.  I then bounce this information off of my experience and what I think.  I blend what is with what I know.  I know what I know and know what I don’t know.  I don’t ignore what I don’t know.  I find the information to fill in my knowledge gaps until I feel comfortable to formulating a course of action.

This is part of what I tell you to do when you are sitting in the power seat.  When the guys are all fighting to have the answer, gauge it out.  Listen to the men who initially suggest an action but then back down – it sounds like part of their problem is that they have low risk intelligence.

I learned “playing dumb” in the Air Force.  Commanders come and go with great frequency.  A new commander does one of two things – either he comes in and announces the first day that he is in charge and he has a course of action all worked out and he is going to ram it down everyone’s throat – or – you don’t see much of him for a couple of weeks.  He attends meetings and doesn’t say much.  He doesn’t assert himself.  Then he finally holds a meeting and tells everyone what he is thinking, asks questions and discusses what he thinks are the important issues.

Guess whose organization performs better?

How contrary to the male business world – you must have the answers.  You must come in and exude confidence and give direction.  Some of my male peers love to do this.  And guess what, they are usually wrong.

I like this risk intelligence concept.  Now when our male peers rush to a decision and action, announce that they may not be adequately assessing their risk intelligence.  That sounds so professional.

I think this is a great tool for women – since we are humble we can have great risk intelligence.  Click on Risk Intelligence  to link to the book on Amazon.

Take a look at it – it will probably help you a lot.  The book is cheap.  I’m going to buy it and see what else I can learn.

Here is the link to Dylan’s wesite too  http://www.projectionpoint.com

Empowered women know they don’t know it all and raise the BS flag against men who think they do.

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