By Dr Pierre Casse, IEDC Professor and Elnura Irmatova, IEDC Research Assistan

"Diligence is the mother of good luck"

Benjamin Franklin

Have you noticed that you can invest good time and energy in your job, be very professional, committed to your work, and yet your results are not what you expect?

Something is not working. Maybe it is the same with your life. You have been doing all the "right" things and yet something is missing. You have been investing a lot in your career and the well-deserved promotion is not yet coming up.

Are you just simply unlucky?

Luck is a critical factor that cannot be ignored. It is Napoleon Bonaparte who always asked one simple question before promoting an officer to a senior position: "Is he lucky?".

Luck is the factor in life that seems to be unpredictable and uncontrollable. You can hope for it. You can even pray for it. You can even make promises that you will pay back if what you wish happens. And ...despite your "fingers crossed" your hopes and desires remain unfulfilled.

Basically, luck is what many people perceive as

• Connected to hazard: It cannot be planned. It just happens.
• Owned by some people and not others: It is discriminatory and unfair.
• Being a critical element of one's life: Life can be miserable without "a bit" of luck.

Profile of a lucky leader

Lucky leaders are the ones who appear to be ready to seize opportunities when they come up. Even better, they take advantage of unexpected events and do create opportunities. They think on their feet, they are always probing the environment with great curiosity, and they are prepared to make a move when others come to a standstill. They take their chances even when things are still unclear and ambiguous. They are in a way lucky because they want to be lucky!

It is tricky to draw the profile of a lucky leader because luck comes up in various forms and touches upon individuals in many shapes and forms. We must also keep in mind that what is luck for one person is not necessarily luck for another. Luck today is maybe not luck tomorrow. What seems like luck can actually be a very bad thing for an individual.

One can attempt to detect a leader who is catching the luck and keeping it by watching the following events happening around a leader. He or she is (just assess yourself on each item):

• Always in the right place at the right time,
• Invited to important meetings without any obvious reasons,
• Getting good support even when they do not ask for it,
• Solving problems by pure trials and errors,
• Making mistakes that finally turns out into success stories,
• Surprising people with great ideas out of the blue,
• Being away when trouble is around,
• Getting (unexpectedly) that promotion that quite a few people had been dreaming of,
• In good health, while everybody else got sick,
• Allying himself or herself with the unpredictable winners.

What you can see from this list is that all these events are the outcomes of a leader's previous series of wise decisions combined with the grasped moments of luck that appeared on the way to success.

Why hazard?

The concept is an invention of humankind and its purpose is to meet the need that we all have to explain the unexpected ("we cannot understand this life event.  It is just a hazard") and to be reassured ("I should not feel guilty if I fail. I was not just lucky!").

At work (at least until today) it did justify in the eyes of many people (including leaders) why some people have been successful and not others. Everybody is good but some are luckier than others are! ("She worked hard but she was also very lucky").

It can be a face-saver in some situations ("Nobody could have done better without luck").

Success and failure in business can also be justified by the intervention of that mysterious factor called luck ("The market did change in a totally unexpected way").

But don't let the hazard become an excuse for your failures because sometimes it is so tempting to blame the "bad luck"...

At the same time, it is good to point out that it has a social value in the sense that there is nothing in a book that says that it cannot happen to anybody at any time. It can almost be defined as an egalitarian factor. Next time...it will be me!

Can chance catching be managed?

A provocative answer is: Absolutely yes! We claim that we can put ourselves in situations that will give us "a better" chance to be lucky and we can learn to recognize the opportunities as luck events. Let's point out a few findings from the research:

1. It seems that optimistic people have a better chance to be lucky than those who are more sceptical.
2. People who take action are more visible to those who have power and therefore enhance their (lucky) opportunities.
3. Patience can also be a lucky factor. Not today. Not tomorrow...but it will come.
4. The ability to transform an event (even a negative one) into opportunities can also be part of the luck syndrome.
5. It appears that luck leads to luck. One good event can -if built upon with persistence-lead to another event of luck.
6. Getting associated with lucky people can also open doors to the less lucky ones.
7. The acquisition of new knowledge, skill, and experiences can lead to new "luck" opportunities.

So in essence of "chance management" there is one major point - Always be ready for the moment - because

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunities"

Seneca

Flash survey

We asked Mr. Boštjan Skalar (Business Director, IEDC-Bled School of Management) to share with us his opinion on the points discussed in the editorial:

"Let me start with a proverb that is pretty common in the Balkan region. In English, it would sound like "The luck follows the brave ones". I guess we can understand from this proverb that luck can be created up to some level and the ones who are brave and who work hard and plan the future shall be lucky or at least luckier than others.

I fully agree with the statement that the ones who are ready to seize the opportunities, take advantage of unexpected events, create the opportunities, and are prepared to be active when others are passive can be lucky because they tend to be lucky. I strongly believe that the notion of potential luck creates an environment that brings the lucky persons to the right place at the right time, gives them the support that was not expected and creative ideas will be raised out of blue. Optimistic and positive people have a better chance to be lucky because they are aware that they can receive luck and they are also willing to be patient enough to wait for the opportunity to be lucky. Those oriented to life-long learning, getting new skills, and using experiences as a good base for future actions will create new opportunities to be lucky. All mentioned above will in the case of lucky leaders allow them to transfer all the knowledge and positive energy to their subordinates and help them to also become lucky. I would agree that the hazard should not become an excuse for failures and bad luck should not be blamed.

My final thought for the conclusion would be that future is unpredictable and leaders will need to be aware of preparing their strategies in a manner that will help them to cope with challenges and allow them to be lucky leaders."

Others articles from Dr Pierre Casse

• The power game people play: A major leadership challenge

• The unlearning organisation

• The leadership challenge of managing talents

• A major issue in most organizations: The lack of trust