Posted initially on LinkedIn: Claudia Craia
This was the advice that my first boss gave me. He was a senior businessman, educated in the US and UK. I was 20 and I was wearing a way too big hat. At 20, I was the post-sales consultant implementing accounting and manufacturing ERP systems.
I don’t think I fully understood the value of the advice he gave me back then. But I never forgot it and I see its value everyday around me.
➡ I see it in, what seems stubborn, CEOs that take a decision and they don’t stop until they achieve the objective they set to achieve. I love these individuals. Those that can’t accept a failure.
➡ Then I see it in people that have the courage and wiseness to recognise the decision was wrong and change their minds. I love these too. They are adaptable, them and the business they work for will be resilient.
➡ And I see it also in people who never have the courage to make a change. Because they don’t have the personality, knowledge or skill to make decisions. And they never tried.
I once told to this latter type of person about my first boss’ advice. He almost had a heart attack 😊.
➡ Not agonising on a simple decision for weeks?
➡ Not requesting his team for tens of additional reports to be able to take a decision?
➡ Making a (small) change? Take a risk? Never!
💡 Risk management is about taking decisions. It is also about educating yourself in taking decisions.
I am grateful to have met the people I have met in my life. But I will for sure always remember my first boss and his advice.
💡 I think he wanted to teach me to take decisions and take actions fast. To be courageous. To educate my decision-making skill. To adapt. To change my mind.
Many years later, after a career in ERP consultancy, compliance, finance, internal audit and risk management, I think I understand more about his advice.
I am, therefore, not surprised that some decades later, I work in risk management.
