We must first understand what proactive and reactive mean before we can know how to use them. Responding to problems in a reactive manner means responding to past events rather than trying to anticipate future ones.
In order to be proactive, we must act before a crisis develops. This means that managers must be “strategic proactive” so that they can carry out their daily tasks and still have time for improvement efforts.
How can you become a better, more thoughtful, and more innovative leader by being more proactive and less reactive? You can develop proactive leadership in a number of ways, which is a good thing.
Find out why you should be proactive as a leader by having a calm demeanour and a long-term outlook. You’ll also learn how to develop organisation skills, aim for 80/20, be open to new ideas, and have a calm demeanour to set yourself apart.
Why Should You Be Proactive and Not Reactive?
As opposed to reacting, why should you take the initiative?
Anyone can be a better leader by being more proactive before I go into more detail about it.
As long as you have a habit of planning ahead, developing problem-solving skills, and staying in touch with your team, it is difficult to go wrong. The need for proactive, ongoing leadership development is both expected and welcomed by all parties.
Dwight Eisenhower once said,
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Being proactive is a requirement for planning.
Great leaders are proactive, to put it simply. Only the mediocre ones can react to the situation. Why not plan strategically from the start, anticipating problems and coming up with solutions?
Being a proactive leader is the only way to advance your career in business.
6 Strategic Ways to Be More Proactive and Not Reactive
Leaders who are proactive engage in pre-planning and anticipate situations. Prove your leadership skills by experimenting with the following activities.
The following exercises will help you become a more proactive leader, rather than one who is reactive.
1. Think Long-Term
A short-term mindset is antithetical to proactive leadership because today’s short-term goals should have been yesterday’s long-term goals at some point in time.
The ability to see the big picture, which is one of the core elements of proactive leadership, is often absent from reactive leaders.
It is important for leaders to be able to see the big picture and avoid being tempted by short-term rewards. According to Swedish billionaire Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA,
“I decided that the stock market was not an option for IKEA. I knew that only a long-term perspective could secure our growth plans, and I didn’t want IKEA to become dependent on financial institutions.”
What kind of long-term thinking have you been doing lately? That’s what I’m hoping. As a result of its long-term thinking, IKEA has become a corporate giant. In this way, you can become a giant leader in no time! As a leader, you should strive to think long-term, rather than reactively, unless an immediate emergency occurs.
2. Seek to Understand Others
Understanding others is essential to being a proactive leader. As Maxwell so eloquently put it, “leadership is influence.” To effectively influence your team, you must first gain a thorough understanding of the members of your team – their likes, dislikes, challenges, aspirations, and frustrations. Because leadership is a group activity, it is impossible to lead without the ability to understand others.
You can show your team that you care about them by being compassionate, loyal, and honest. Becoming a trustworthy leader is one of your most important responsibilities as a pro-active leader.
To understand others, you must first seek to understand yourself! It will assist you in building trust with your team as a result of your actions.
Despite not being African-American, I am the chair of a department at a historically black college or university. In my work, understanding is essential. As a leader, I must have the ability to influence others in order to move the unit forward. As my long-term strategy develops, my vision to understand my team becomes a strategy for a buy-out at a later date.
3. Develop Organizational Skills
A proactive leader isn’t one who waits for the environment to change; instead, he or she takes action. Time wastage is therefore not an option for them.
Be efficient, learn to organise yourself, set high goals and think long-term.
According to a previous article, “aiming high is almost always synonymous with setting a long-range goal”. “Aiming high for the long term is impossible without organisational skills because proactive, organised leaders like you and me are constantly checking on their long-term goals and daily needs,” we’ll repeat.
Make sure your files are organised, that you have a schedule with deadlines, that you efficiently manage your appointments, that you learn to delegate tasks, and that you make reasonable decisions. They are essential if you want to be an effective leader who is proactive.
4. Be Open to Ideas
Unbeknownst to me, people are living encyclopaedias. Everyone has something to share, I realised. Ed Krok is of the same opinion as well:
We often get the best information from our own employees.
On this point, I happen to agree with him completely. A leader who is proactive takes advantage of the information that his employees are willing to share. I’ll add that I do, in fact.
According to the old saying “two heads are better than one,” this is true.
Joshua Wolf Shenk writes in his book, Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, about John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s openness to ideas.
The first person would compose and write something, while the second person would add to what was written, and vice versa, as needed. It’s clear that these musical geniuses understand the importance of being open to new ideas and perspectives. Effective leaders do just that in order to strategically plan future events.
5. Aim for 80/20
For a better understanding of the 80/20 rule, you should familiarise yourself with Eisenhower’s Box, the productivity tool of former President Eisenhower A former employee of his once said,
‘I have urgent and important problems,’ she said.
Neither the urgent nor the important are ever urgent,”
he said.
Eisenhower was clear in his belief that urgent and important were not synonymous. Very well said, I must say. Although team improvement is important (20 per cent of the time), proactive leaders understand that your regular work (80 per cent of the time) should take precedence, because we often perform our best work when we are working on important tasks rather than urgent ones.
Leaders who have more time to think and plan will execute tasks more effectively. Aim for 80×20, period.
6. Have a Calm Demeanor
Leaders who are proactive don’t yell at others because they understand the importance of making rational decisions without relying on emotion. Strategists prefer to make objective decisions that are planned in advance.
” As Miki Markovich puts it.”
“Proactive leaders are compassionate, loyal, integrity-filled, straightforward, calm, direct, fair, polite, hopeful, and thoughtful,”
according to the book’s subtitle.
As a result, screaming behaviour is predictable when a reactive leader is in charge. Do not follow their example. Dare to be different, and focus on inspiring others by remaining calm and in control of your emotions and actions. In return, your team will be grateful and your influence will grow.
Joshua Wolf Shenk writes in his book, Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, about John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s openness to ideas.
The first person would compose and write something, while the second person would add to what was written, and vice versa, as needed. It’s clear that these musical geniuses understand the importance of being open to new ideas and perspectives. Effective leaders do just that in order to strategically plan future events.