Success Talks Wrap Up
Fit to Take Risks
A Conversation With WFF President and CEO, Fritzi Woods
All great leaders share one thing in common: They understand that effective, results-producing communication is equal parts speaking and listening.
Not only do effective leaders know what risks to take, they know how and when to take them. If you’re like most, you’re probably wondering, “How do they do this?” Thankfully, WFF CEO and President Fritzi Woods is ready to share her secrets.
As a successful and well-respected leader, Fritzi Woods has taken a risk or two in her career, which spans various sectors of the foodservice industry. With former WFF Interim President Linda Pharr as a moderator for this installment of “Success Talks,” Woods will discuss the risks she has taken and continues to take to ensure her career is rewarding and fulfilling. Additionally, Woods will provide her insights on how risk-taking can help you find—and define—the roles in which you can excel, while inspiring others to do the same.
Fritzi shared the importance of “leaning into risks” including:
Investing the time to think about why you contract from risk
- Write down what your fears are
- Be honest, when you have a fear/contraction, figure out what it’s about and learn from it
- Develop a written strategy to eliminate your fear and vulnerability
- Think about the pros and cons: What’s the best and worst that can happen? What are the unintended circumstances?
- Define where you want to be 3 years from now, and what competencies you will need to develop to get there
Reaching out to advisors/coaches who have had similar experiences to learn from them
- Build a network, share your vision and be clear about what you are asking them to help you with
- When building her network, Fritzi used a matrix to identify people within her job function, those within the industry, internal contacts within the company in a different division, making sure the list was diverse in terms of age, gender, race, and geography, and includes people at the same level, a level up, and two levels up.
- Fritzi used the competencies in a unique way, asking her board to share their insights as to her competencies and areas of opportunity, and using that to springboard a conversation about which competencies were most important for her to improve on.
To quote Fritzi: “Know what you know, be a learner, and have the courage to surround yourself with people that know what you don’t”. Building your confidence and competencies will give you the courage to take risk and grow.
Download the audio file here to listen at your convenience.
Read more about Fritzi Wood’s career.