A Coaching Power Tool By Vernée Smith, Life & Career Coach, UNITED STATES
Concepts in Risk vs. Benefit
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.– Proverb
As an actor, I was often told by theatre teachers that I did not take enough risk; that I always played it safe. My teachers were sure that if I just took a bigger risk while playing a character, I would reap a huge reward. However, I was never certain if that was true. To do so meant risking embarrassment or messing up the line or interfering with another actor’s process. I never wanted to be so bold or intrusive. I saw my risks as inconveniences to other people.
This has been an ongoing theme in my life and as I moved through my peer coaching, I saw I needed to challenge my beliefs about risk both for myself and for my clients. I began to understand that I need to be bold to properly help my clients. I needed to be brave so that they too could be brave. But how does one do this? Be brave? Take risk?
Through my peer coaching, I noticed that often my clients struggled when making big decisions because they perceived a risk had to be taken to accomplish the goal. These risks were based on fear. Fear of the outcome, fear of the unknown, or fear of not getting what they wanted. The fear was so strong that it led to inaction. This felt familiar to me from my acting career and my life. My clients were so focused on the fear of the risk that they could not clearly see the benefit of taking that risk. As Dr. Margie Well said in her Forbes Magazine article, Take a Risk, the Odds are Better than You Think, “we overestimate the probability of something going wrong.” This made me wonder how I could help clients shift from the fear of the risk (aka fear of something going wrong) into a space of courage to reap the benefit (aka belief of something going right).
Risk vs. Benefit Power Tool
As suggested by the learning website, Masterclass, I’ve developed a system for assessing risk. Let’s first define risk and benefit.
According to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary risk is defined as:
Risk- (noun)
1: the possibility of loss or injury: PERIL
2: someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard
3a: the chance of loss or the perils to the subject matter of an insurance contract also: the degree of probability of such loss
b: a person or thing that is a specified hazard to an insurer
c: an insurance hazard from a specified cause or source
4: the chance that an investment (such as a stock or commodity) will lose value
Or
Risk – (verb)
1: to expose to hazard or danger
2: to incur the risk or danger of
Risk sounds frightening, doesn’t it? No wonder so many of us avoid it. The benefit is defined as:
Benefit –(noun)
1a: something that produces good or helpful results or effects or that promotes well-being
b: useful aid
2a: financial help in times of sickness, old age, or unemployment
b: a payment or service provided for under an annuity, pension plan, or insurance policy
c: a service (such as health insurance) or right (as to take vacation time) provided by an employer in addition to wages or salary
3: an entertainment or social event to raise funds for a person or cause
4 archaic: an act of kindness
Benefit – (verb)
: to be useful or profitable to
: to receive help or advantage: to receive the benefit
The benefit sounds much more pleasing! It sounds like something we want. So, we need to see how we can move clients from a fear-based, Risk Mindset to a courage-based, Benefit Mindset.
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Risk Mindset |
Benefit Mindset |
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Fear-focused, lacking courage, “something bad could happen”, negative outcomes |
Courage focus, action is taken, “something great could happen”, positive outcomes |
The Power Tool Risk versus Benefit is used to evaluate a client’s fear level when making a difficult decision. Once the fear of the risk is assessed, the client can then assess the benefit.
While being coached by a peer I realized that if I could quantify the risk, I could decide how scary it was. I decided to rate the risk on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the least risk and 10 being the most risk.
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10 |
If the risk was a 2, it was not so scary, but if it was a 10, it was terrifying. This is not to say that one should not take the risk, but that it might require more thought and evaluation. It is important to ask the client powerful questions about this risk. For instance:
- How would it feel to take this risk?
- What will change in your life if you take this risk?
- What value is associated with this risk?
Questions such as these can begin to shake us loose from our patterns around risk and cause us to be less avoidant. We can see that it is actually riskier to stay in the same place or behavior.
Doing things, the way they’ve always been done is the most risky thing you can probably do. – Bill Aulet
Again, we often focused on the risk and forgot to give focus on the benefit. However, if we put aside the risk and quantified the benefit, we might be surprised at how we feel and start to exhibit courage. Just as with the risk, one can rate the benefit on a scale of 1 to 10: 1 being the least beneficial and 10 being the most.
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In the case of the benefit, we would also want to ask powerful questions to engage the client in more self-awareness. Powerful questions might sound like this:
- What do you value about the benefits?
- What would a successful benefit look like?
- What steps could you take to move toward this benefit?
Once you have helped the client assess the risk vs the benefit based on the ten-point scale, compare the two numbers. This gives both the client and the coach clarity on how to move forward. If the risk number is low and the benefit number is high, it may be easier to make a decision or to see a way forward. If the risk is high and the benefit is low this can lead the client and the coach down a road of exploration around if the risk is truly worth it. Finally, if the risk number and the benefit number are similar, the coach can ask more probing questions about the importance of the benefit of the feelings around the risk. If need be, the coach can revisit the risk vs. benefit power tool with the client.
Risk vs. Benefit Experiment in a Peer Coaching Session
I tested this power tool with a peer in a coaching session and the results were favorable.
Concerning a decision to travel more and work abroad the client originally rated the risk a 7 and the benefit a 9. The client found the risk to be so high because traveling would put them outside of their comfort zone and could “rock the boat” within significant relationships.
When examining the risk, the client admitted to making some assumptions, often asking “what if…?” I asked the client what she would need to lessen her risk rating. She came up with 3 things: shorter trips, discussion with her spouse, and that her spouse could accompany her on these trips. Considering these things, the client then said the risk was a 5 on a scale of 1-10 and the benefit was still a 9.
The client left the session more curious and willing to investigate her thoughts and beliefs surrounding this risk and planned to have an open and honest conversation with her spouse.
References
Article: Forbes: Take a Risk: The Odds Are Better Than You Think Dr. Margie Warrell, 2013
Article: You Can Teach Yourself to Be a Risk Taker Vivian Giang, 2017
Website: 5 Tips for Taking Better Risks Masterclass Staff,2017
Definitions: Merriam- Webster Online Dictionary