Transcript
First of all we differentiate smart and calculated risk taking from stupid risk taking, which is just “yeah, let’s do it and let’s risk it without a basis without having reflected on it”. I think we have a brain. It’s an amazing organ we have, we should use it. That’s, first of all, important. I’d like to think money-wise again, I think women and money is quite an important thing. So I’d like to talk about money to you when answering this question. And I’d like to show two perspectives. One where women usually prefer much better than men. And one way we usually also perform much worse than men. It’s really this combination of knowing how to use risk-taking in our favour that we need to take. So I’d like to talk to you about negotiation and I’d like to talk to you about investing.
I’ll start with the one where we usually perform weaker, which is negotiation. When we negotiate for ourselves on our own personal behalf, our attitude towards risk-taking is what often hinders us in being really good negotiators. So, if we’re negotiating something for our team we’ll be amazing, we’ll usually perform much better than men. But men outperform us when it’s about negotiating our own salary and that has to do with the fear of not being liked, with the fear of not being accepted socially. That’s one area where we, women, could really grow with regards to our risk-taking attitude, which often there’s much less to lose than we think it is if we are tough negotiators.
That’s one perspective, but let’s look at the others as well, because we are more reflected, lots and lots of studies have shown that when it comes to investing because we are smarter risk-takers, we usually outperform, let’s say funds and portfolios, we develop and we manage compared to men. So according to several studies, we think broader and consider more factors. And that makes investments made by women, usually outperform others.
How to start smarter risks taking, how can we practice that? Well, um, like many things like our mindset, this is also a muscle we can train, which is the good news. Of course, it takes us a bit of courage, but let’s take the example of negotiation. How can you overcome that feeling that it is actually risky at all to, for example, say no, this is quite an important one for women. So, often, because we’re not so good at saying no to things in business, we get overrun with things.
Everyone thinks he can ask us to do something. And at the end of the day, we’re like “oh my God, my to-do list is so full and I haven’t done what’s important to me”. And still, we’re kind of scared, you know, we’re thinking “well, how can I say no?” “How can I stand up to my boss?”. ‘How can I say no to my colleagues?”. “They will hate me”. “They will not want to work with me”. And, you know, dissect it, either you start practising in another arena, let’s say, start saying no at home with your partner, you know, start saying “look, I cannot do this”.
The other thing is also [to] think in cooperation and alternatives. This is one of the recipes that always has helped me when I had too much on the table. I wouldn’t go to my boss and tell him “look, I have too much”, but I would say “look, we have three things, pick any two”. So, it helps us prioritize and you now say “okay, I can do this within this timeframe. If you want me to do everything can I get more time somewhere?” “Can I get help from someone else?”. “Can I outsource something?”. So it’s really about thinking also in alternatives and in this case, I’m talking about the risk of saying no, right. That we feel “oh my God, people will hate me”.
There[s] are different areas of risk-taking. And what’s important always dissect it into smaller pieces that will take a lot of tension and fear.
