Toronto, December 3 2008, 8.30am

I’ve just spent the last two days with a group of 200 executives from the international division of one of Canada’s largest banks. As you can imagine, the focus of the entire session was the management of risk.

In the last three months, the word “risk” has assumed a whole new set of meanings. If it signalled fear and danger before, now it signals chaos and confusion. There’s a new strain of risk. It appears to emanate from the risks we already know, but it keeps morphing into something else. Just when we think we have a handle on it, we realise we haven’t got a clue. No-one knows how big the black box is or what other uncontrollables are about to fly out of it. Even the smartest pundits are being punished. We’re all being subjected to massive daily doses of humility.

But there is one risk that we absolutely can control. It’s the risk we know have to take. It requires courage and discretion. It demands that we obey our intuition and be true to ourselves. It’s a function of our self awareness and our commitment to serving others. It’s the risk involved in being the best you can be – especially in decisive moments. It’s the risk involved in saying what must be said when it must be said. It’s the risk involved in making your voice heard, asking the challenging question, pitching the new ideas, declaring your commitment, learning vital new skills, calling new prospects, venturing outside your comfort zone, holding yourself to higher standards, sustaining your optimism, building new relationships, expressing your point of view, being memorable, exposing your real self, becoming a model of what’s possible, being willing to stumble, fumble, fall and fail.

At a time when organizations are stripping away everything that’s not core to their sustainability, you have to demonstrate daily that you are. You have to broadcast with your words and actions that you are vital to the enterprise’s success. If you seek the shelter of the safe and the secure, the key decision-makers cannot see you. And if they cannot see you, they will not miss when you’re not there. In the stampede to safety, you can only be safe by taking a risk:  the risk of standing out by being  “preeminent” – that’s when you are recognised as being extraordinarily valuable to the people who are valuable to you. Let me repeat that: you can only be safe by taking a risk:  the risk of standing out by being  “preeminent” – that’s when you are recognised as being extraordinarily valuable to the people who are valuable to you.

In the past three months, I have spoken to over 20 000 people across North America, Europe and Africa. I can make you this promise with near total certainty: If you are recognised as being extraordinarily valuable to the people who are valuable to you, you will be safe. You will not only survive, you will thrive. So what’s it going to take for you to demonstrate your extraordinary value to the people who are valuable to you? What do you have to do? What do you have to say? What risks do you have to take?

Here’s my final comment: you and I cannot change the course of human history, but we can change the course of our personal history. And as we change, we inspire others to do the same. Be scared of failure. I am. But don’t let the fear of failure cause your failure be blocking the actions you need to take. Take them today. Or be swept away…