PROACTIVITY - THE SUPERPOWER YOU SHOULD DEVELOP

Compiled by: Martin Musoke

Proactive behaviours are markedly different from our normal everyday behaviours.

It’s fun to figure out our superpowers, but we also can develop and master new ones. In their work and lives, people underuse but can readily develop the best power source of all: to be more proactive. Pro-action is the path that creates better futures or at least avoids or softens the effects of bad futures.

What Is Pro-action?

Pro-action is worth viewing as a superpower because it is the “possible you” that;

• spots and prevents problems,

• identifies, pursues, and captures opportunities, and

• creates a new, personally-chosen, desired future through a strategic change of trajectory.

Behaving proactively is distinctive and vital because most of what we do is pretty passive, and dictated by past habits and routines, current circumstances and pressures, or biases that support the status quo and keep us on a familiar path. Pro-action thus differs markedly from our most common behaviours. The more significant the trajectory change that you attempt, and the more substantial and widespread the impact over time, the more proactive your actions.

People vary in the strength of their tendencies to behave proactively, but it’s not a fixed trait. Pro-action is a set of behaviours that anyone can execute, upon deciding to do so and knowing what they entail. Thus, the possibilities are endless, subject to the amounts of thought and effort people put into it.

Pro-action is what drives constructive change. It is essential to successful self-management, leadership and entrepreneurship, and even to tackling and solving society's global challenges.

Personal Payoffs of Pro-action at Work

For individuals, being proactive relates positively to job performance, team performance, career success (career satisfaction, pay, and advancement), and psychological well-being. Proactivity also predicts better results as a leader and in entrepreneurial pursuits.

Knowing Pro-action’s power to achieve results and personal well-being, you can focus it on changing yourself or changing things outside yourself. You can target your own behaviours, strengthening your leadership tactics or work habits or your job performance, overall health, or job stress.

Here are some fundamental principles to follow:

1. Think well ahead. Periodically take a long-term perspective. Use your uniquely human advantage: forethought. Predict where you are heading based on current trajectories and envision possible better outcomes.

2. Self-direct. Pro-action is a personal choice, not dictated by external factors. Make sure your decisions suit your own values and interests. Apply the mindset that you, and you along with colleagues, can change your actions to create desired outcomes.

3. Think strategically. Choose your proactive targets and behaviours thoughtfully. How will others react? How can you enlist their support?

4. Move into action. Pro-action requires not just thinking but doing. “Doers” can be action-oriented without thinking strategically, and ineffective in making their desired impact. Thinkers/dreamers/visionaries are proactive only if they take thoughtful action and make progress toward their new goals.

5. Adapt wisely. Learn and adapt rapidly through trial and error. Maintain your strategic vision while making tactical changes as circumstances suggest.

Compiled by: Martin Musoke