Women must take on risk to climb the career ladder

Many women rely on hard work alone to climb their company’s career ladder but they would be wrong to play it safe. Although studies show that there are no gender differences when it comes to an appetite for risk, women perceive certain risks to be greater in some areas, such as finance, than men. But being courageous and taking considered risks is the secret to enjoying a supercharged career.

Banker turned entrepreneur Lyndsey Simpson says that it was her calculated risk-taking that fast-tracked her corporate career at Barclays. Now co-owner of an HR company in London, she advises against following the herd and going for positions in less popular departments or locations. It was a strategy that worked for her when she took several posts in geographic regions that Barclays found difficult to fill. She moved to Africa to run a Barclays division just as the bank was flying staff out of Zimbabwe after its Africa CEO had been carjacked. She also moved to Spain for eight months to run the bank’s operations but without being able to speak a word of Spanish.