Risk-averse compromises are seductive. Until you end up somewhere you didn't want to be.

With courage, you'll learn to face conflicts by saying, "Bring it on," and by collaborating to find win-win-win value optimizing possibilities.

It may be scary to push to win, rather than appease or avoid conflict, especially when an investor or buyer is adamant about their requirements and demands.

Watch for these 10 risk-averse temptations. As you sharpen your diagnostic skills, you'll find ways to lift investors, board members, partners, buyers and your own team to higher ground - and achieve what's truly possible, not what's easy, obvious or politically expedient.

1. Victim thinking leaves partners stuck at blame, negativity and reasons why adversity and bad luck limit possibilities. In the Make things Happen Online Program, you'll see how to shift from a down-on-my-luck to a take-charge mindset.

2. Hierarchy deference leaves partners hesitant to take initiative rather than wait for orders and frightened to challenge those with authority or hegemony, even when their thinking is flawed. In the Mobilization Mapping online program, you'll learn to empower and delegate to Orchestrators who bring recommendations to higher-ups rather than ask, "Boss, what should we do?"

3. Groupthink leaves partners afraid to challenge what looks like a group consensus, especially when it's reinforced by victim thinking that asks rhetorically, "What can I do? This clearly is the will of the group."

4. Sandbagging can happen even when people are working hard and putting in long hours. It's the risk-averse traps that reverts to what's comfortable and routine, and only commits to AIMs that are average, adequate or achievable - rather than what's awesome, audacious or aspirational. In the SMART OKR online program, you'll learn to raise the bar to profit in a turbulent and more demanding business environment.

5. Bias against outliers who bring unfamiliar professional perspectives, idiosyncratic personalities or who are deviant because of their age, foreign accent, gender, neurodiversity or other "not one of us" backgrounds to the team. Especially when they rub you the wrong way.

6. Silo myopia - especially when there's so much science, finance or engineering focus that sales, bizdev, customer success is overlooked and it's hard to level the playing field for a cross-functional multi-partner buyer-centric perspective. So you look at problems with tunnel vision and do due diligence with a confirmation bias.

7. Win/lose rivalries that make it hard to back down and admit that someone else has a better idea or needs a high-priority triage resource allocation. In the Win-Win-Win online program , you'll learn to ALIGN interests instead.

8. Summit fever is the mountainclimbing distortion that looks at dangers and safety and financial exposures with overconfident can't-possibly-fail magical thinking like, "If we build it, a following will come" - rather than mitigating risks and correctly estimating how much time and capital it will take to succeed.

9. Chaos, noise and turbulence make it hard to focus, distinguish what's material from what's a distraction and cull through data to take informed rational decisions. With practice in simulations in Volatile Uncertain Complex Adverse (VUCA) conditions, you'll get better at cutting through information overload.

10. Loss aversion - when you've committed time, resources and reputation to a particular direction and find it hard to pivot because of how much we already invested in the road we've taken.

    
    

It's seductive to appease, compromise and maintain harmony when these risk-averse compromises appear. Or to overlook them and settle for a compromise or appeasement path forward, rather than a road to success.

Witht the Courage to Champion book, your online Quests and Courage Action Learning, you'll sharpen your diagnostic skills - so you see these compromises in real time. And you'll learn how to uplift, ennoble, challenge and Make Courage Contagious, for win-win-win value optimization.

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