‘Step change, improvement required' is the mantra chanted by most organisations when it comes to recruiting their CEO.

To create step change, organisations need to exhibit many positive traits, and chief executives have to possess many qualities. 

The ability to be both entrepreneurial and not risk-averse forms an important part of any successful chief executive's make-up. However, I believe this is challenged by the increasing focus on risk management. 

Don't get me wrong. I am not advocating downgrading the importance of health and safety. Nor am I seeking a rejection of risk assessments. It's just that it seems to me, corporate culpability and personal liability, together with a culture which does not tolerate failure, makes it increasingly tempting for leaders to become too risk-averse. Left unchecked, this tendency can lead towards inherent conservativism and, far from step change, we will see the continuation of the status quo.

Some years ago, I worked in a large housing department which was spearheading the council's neighbourhood-management policy. Part of our initiative was to put together a technology platform to support this. Having examined what was available on the market, and looked at the cost implications, the housing director was the first in the UK to purchase Apple Mac computers. On hearing this, the chief executive was apoplectic. We sought to reason with him, but his only comment was, ‘I would much rather be second wave than cutting edge'. What he meant was – better to run with the pack and behave in an average way than to strive for excellence by being first in the field. 

When I look around at the top-performing local authorities, I am struck by how often they are headed by dynamic chief executives who are able to strike the balance between pushing back the boundaries of innovation to make step change yet, at the same time, cognisant of ‘risk'. 

I also find that in those top-performing councils, elected members have, by and large, a sense of maturity and perspective, and can live with the occasional failure.

To do otherwise introduces a blame culture, where innovation is unlikely to flourish. An Wang, one of the founding fathers of computing, put it this way, ‘You have to risk failure to succeed. The important thing is not to make one single mistake that can jeopardise the future'.

In short, therefore, it is all about getting the balance right. If you are too risk-averse, little progress will be made, and if you are too ‘gung ho', you risk bringing the organisation down like a house of cards. Some people would say it is difficult to get the balance right…. I guess that's what they pay successful chief executives for!

Bill Taylor is chief executive of West Lancashire DC