What is Proactivity? What is Proactive Attitude?

Proactivity is important for success in the organization. Adopt it by your own conscious choice based on values- suggests Stephen Covey.

Proactive behaviour is one of the most important aspects responsible for success in your career as well as your personal life.
I presented this in four parts:

1. What is Proactivity (on this page)

2. What are the benefits of Proactive behaviour?

3. Proactivity Examples

4. How do you stimulate Proactive Attitude?

5. How you can be Proactive at Workplace?

What is pro-activity?

I will explain with examples from my own work-life.

Before that, here is a famous quote by Tommy Lasorda, a former American baseball player and coach:

There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.

Proactive personality is the one 'who makes it happen.'

Not only in baseball, it is equally applicable in everyday life- at your workplace, in your personal or social life.

Examples from my job life:

During the early years of my career, my boss advised me: 'You do a good job of the work given to you. But, you have drawn certain definite boundaries as far as your work is concerned. Please don't do that. Don't confine yourself just to your role in a project or what you are told to do. Expand your boundaries. Don't wait for work. Find it. Don't stop at the first hurdle. Think of how to cross it- this one, the next one. Anticipate situations and prepare for them well in advance.'

He did not say- 'Be proactive.' But it was what he meant. Until then, I didn’t realize that I was restricting my role. Even now after so many years, I thank him for making me aware of it.

I worked in one of the reputed public sector companies in India. We developed and manufactured communication equipment.

Why did I join this company?

The important point is- why did I join this company? The answer is very simple:

• It was a Government company- Job security and stress free work-life.
• Very reputed company- Likely to stay that way.
• Doing well and making huge profits- Assured of handsome bonus and perks.
• Good location- Good life.

So I joined. No other thoughts in my mind. 40 years back, an average youngster was not aware of career opportunities, self aspirations, setting goals, working to achieve them etc.. Present generation is certainly more fortunate with so many easily accessible resources like internet, expert counseling, books written by experts in every field etc..

But, 40 years back, as a fresh engineering graduate coming from a rural background, what did I want from life? (I am not complaining of my rural background or lack of resources like internet etc..)

What were the goals of my life?

Did this company or the work I was going to do, fit with the goals of my life?
What were my goals?

None. I did not have any definite goals when I joined the company. I was one among the crowd. I wanted to drift along with the crowd- taking an easy path.

Just relax man.
Take it easy.
Enjoy life.
Just do your job- what ever it is.
You need not worry about job security.
Get married. Have children....

This drifting along in life is reactive- exactly opposite to proactive.

Pro-active behaviour at Workplace

The term 'pro-active' is a popular workplace-management buzz word. It means- taking initiative and acting before you are asked to and/or offering your services in advance.

In proactivity at workplace, the focus is on the future. You think, plan and act in advance to certain future events- events that are aimed at benefiting the organization and self.

I came across three types of people related to workplace behaviour.

1. Passive (inactivity): Drift along with the flow. They are comfortable with what they have been doing and oppose any change in the work or the set up (environment).
2. Adaptive (reactivity): They too go with the crowd, but they don’t resist change. They try to adapt to the changed environment or work. Give clear instructions and they do a good job of it.
3. Proactive (Pro-activity): Self starters. They take control of a situation and initiate change. Change aimed at improving a situation or self or both. They don’t give up their efforts when faced with hurdles.

Characteristics of proactive behaviour

You can identify proactive behaviour by three characteristics:

1. Self initiated- Nobody need to tell him.
2. Anticipatory- Leading to action in advance of a future situation (problems, changes, needs etc..). Forward looking.
3. Taking control and causing change- Change aimed at improving a situation and/or self.

An example that included all the three characteristics:
As a junior executive, you were concerned about an old machine or equipment. You told your boss,
“As you are aware, this machine is very old and often breaks down, Sir. No support for spare parts. We can go for the latest version. I spoke to the dealer and downloaded the data sheet. It is faster, more efficient and not very expensive…”
Your boss looked at the data sheet and gave a green signal, “Go ahead and order it.”

Pro-active behaviour is not restricted to ‘out of the way’ roll play, which means you need not go beyond your limited role or activity. Even in their restricted roles, I had seen many employees find a better, simpler or cost/time saving way of doing a task.

However, one need not be proactive in every situation. People may take proactive approach in one situation and remain passive in another. It depends on their motivation level in that particular situation. One engineer may show proactive behaviour in infrastructure improvement (new development/testing aids) and another one may be more interested in implementing new design ideas.

Pro-activity is not confined to your workplace. It is equally applicable to your personal life, social life or any other situation you happen to be in.

Once there was garbage dumping problem in our street. We used to deposit our garbage in a corner vacant site of the street. The garbage clearance van collected it once in two days.
Even though most of us were aware of the fact that garbage was being dumped by people other than those living in that street, one of residents was more proactive. ‘If we allow this to continue, this will become a dumping yard for the whole neighborhood and our street will be stinking,’ he said. He arranged a meeting with the garbage clearance authorities and got the dumping area cleaned. The dumping spot was shifted to a distant place.

- His action was self initiated. He took control of the situation and initiated change- change aimed at improving the street for the betterment of self and the community, persisted until he succeeded.

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