Just do it
My advice to junior sysadmins.
There is no "right way" just fucking do it.
One persons "best practice" is another persons "OMG what the fuck did you just do".
I'm not exactly a risk taker when it comes to managing systems, but I'm not paralyzed with anxiety about making a decision to take action either.
This is especially true if something is already broken - and I expect others (especially senior people) to be able to use their best judgement as well.
If you take some initiative and fuck something up, no one cares.
We all get a good laugh and the person who messed up learns something.
I've literally never seen anyone get fired for making a mistake, especially if it was a mistake that was intended to make a system or process better.
I've never seen anyone get fired or even reprimanded for making a mistake while trying to fix something that is broken.
Stop worrying about getting in trouble and just do the dang work.
You will be wrong a lot, I'm wrong all the time, no one cares, just do your job.
You will never learn anything if you don't take any initiative and never risk being wrong.
Get comfortable with being wrong, it's going to happen a lot and at least most of the time you'll probably walk away from your wrongness having learned something that'll make you less wrong the next time.
Don't seek the no.
I read a book from Colin Powell a few years ago, one of the lessons I remember from that book is "Don't seek the no."
If you ask 5 people if you are allowed to do "thing", two of those people will say no if you want to do the thing differently than they do it, and the other three will probably tell you to ask someone else.
Don't do that shit.
If you have an idea on how to do something, just fucking do it.