Proactive Leadership: Importance and Characteristics

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Being Proactive
Importance of Proactive Leadership
Characteristics of Proactive Leaders
Conclusion
References

Introduction

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” – Oprah Winfrey.

Proactive leadership includes developing a plan, arrangement of teamwork, predicting risks, and reducing their influence on the organization. Corporations face complex environments that need quick responses to the changing external environments in the current global economy. As a result, the success of an organization or company depends on strong individual performance at every level, including administrative, non-managerial, and staff-level workers or employees. Furthermore, peak performance within an organization requires a standard set of skills, values, and behaviors that align with the capabilities of individuals to the approach of an organization. Therefore, proactive leadership is required if the organization is to perform at its best. This paper will focus on proactive leadership, the importance of proactive leadership, and the characteristics of proactive leaders.

Being Proactive

Proactivity primarily involves individuals taking accountability for their own actions instead of blaming circumstances, parents, or conditions for their behaviors. For example, when a team leader is late on product shipment or delivery of products, they try to find ways of rectifying and preventing this issue from happening again in the future instead of blaming it on the team members. Some ways to reach this goal are by planning for a possible shipment ahead of time (Covey, 2017). A good example of this is a section supervisor is required to deliver products by a particular set date without any delays. Instead of waiting for the deadline, the supervisor ensures that the required shipment is way ahead of time by starting it earlier to make it easy to produce it when the deadline comes. This will enable the leader to increase efficiency and quality of work, thereby increasing employee and company performance.

Proactive leaders always have a determined effort to make the right decisions and achieve their desires. They possess the right mindset, take the initiative, and set their plans ahead of time, making them the highest achievers. Moreover, being proactive means taking responsibility and accountability for one’s actions and life (Covey, 2017). Therefore, proactive habit is the first characteristic of effective and successful leadership within an organization (Covey, 2017). This is because proactive individuals focus more on what they can change than what they do not control. Therefore, it is not vital to blame circumstances or others when things are not as expected.

On the other hand, a leader’s proactivity can be defined as creating and implementing self-initiated actions. Moreover, they must be continuously maintained to change the environment and focus on the future impact. This definition stresses the goal creation and striving stages of proactivity, which involve thinking and doing (Covey, 2017). Leaders should identify approaches and target goals in the goal creation stage to ensure that the appropriate actions for attaining these objectives can be effectively planned (Covey, 2017). In goal striving, managers or leaders should implement tangible or solid measures to achieve the targeted objectives or goals related to the previously created plans.

Additionally, proactive leaders must be stern and persistent when faced with tension or possible setbacks while leading the team towards attaining proactive goals. This is because leading is an energy-consuming and lengthy process for leaders or managers to assign tasks, communicate with others, resolve conflicts or disagreements, and coordinate resources (Covey, 2017). For instance, a human resource coordinator may request training resources from the organization at a specified time. Whenever the requested resource is not fulfilled, the coordinator will go to the headquarters after several requests. Furthermore, bringing about change is probably risky since it involves challenging the status quo and can induce resistance from others.

However, not all actions can be considered be of proactive behavior. For instance, passive leaders accept responsibility when missions are assigned to them or when they are required to lead by the organization. As such, both their leading behaviors and goals are initiated by others instead of themselves (Elsaied, 2019). On the other hand, proactive leaders consider ways that they can enact to improve the quo status in the leadership functions. Wolsink et al. (2019) conducted an experimental study to investigate the relationship between proactive behavior of employees and positive affect in the organization. The finding suggested that proactive behavior increases the positive affect. Therefore, their leading behaviors and goals or objectives are self-established and are aimed at leading the organization toward a better future.

Importance of Proactive Leadership

Unlike proactive leaders, reactive leaders tend to take problems as they are given and try to solve them with minimal time and resources. They often make critical decisions with not much understanding of appropriate facts or situations. As a result, they end up with more problems than previously, as they have limited control over the future (Baker, 2021). On the contrary, proactive leaders plan for development opportunities for the team and identify issues within the team before they escalate by making time to frequently meet their team members (Buil et al., 2019). A good example of this is an IT manager who escalates a design problem to product development teams to correct the cause of the problem or mistake. A good example of this is an IT manager who escalates a design problem to product development teams to correct the cause of the problem or mistake.

Additionally, proactive leaders have excellent problem-solving skills. An excellent example of a good problem solver is Elon Musk, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Tesla Company. Elon Musk revealed on his Twitter account that his Tesla Company was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the extreme stress and pain the Model 3 ramp caused to the corporation from 2017 to 2019. As the company deteriorated, Elon Musk increased the company production by mostly working for over 120 hours a week. His problem solving and resilience finally paid off, which saved his company from bankruptcy.

Elon Musk believes that every leader has to expect future changes and get involved proactively in making the changes if they are to be successful. He also believes that every leader has to take risks if they expect to be successful in their dealings. This is because risks are always accompanied by rewards if they are taken carefully and implemented at the right time. However, proactive leaders need to work in a team, because they can involve it in working on potentially useful opportunities (Buil et al., 2019). For example, a team leader in a car company may involve the team members and appreciate their contributions and suggestions to bring more ideas and solutions to the table. This saves time as it takes less time to create an idea or solution to a problem when a team works together instead of one person.

Proactive leadership is also essential because proactive leaders save more time and money since they are always ready for unexpected future problems. Additionally, one can recognize the need for change as one thinks ahead and understands that not all things or situations can be improved (Buil et al., 2019). The best example here is that a team leader can communicate to the manager or supervisor what can be easily achieved and what has been put on a lower priority que to be managed later.

Proactive leader fosters creativity and gains the ability to step out of the comfort zones to obtain results and is not afraid of trying a new experience or approach. This is because every team member is allowed to share their views and perceptions regarding a problem (Wolsink et al., 2019). As a result, the team will have diverse perceptions, thereby making employees exercise their creativity towards coming up with desired solutions (Elsaied, 2019). There is also peace of mind and flexibility in proactive leadership as one already knows what is to come (Buil et al., 2019). For instance, a sales manager may plan what to say if a customer complains about the price of the car than a competing model. Another importance of proactive leadership is that proactive leaders tend to take an optimistic approach to challenges (Buil et al., 2019). This helps inspire them to handle problems as opportunities and encourages positivity.

Moreover, proactive leadership promotes good working relationships among employees, which lowers tensions and generates a positive work environment resulting in more employee satisfaction. According to Hu et al. (2018), proactive behavior and authentic leadership have a significant correlation, and that psychological capital is very significant in facilitating the role between proactive behavior and authentic leadership. This was after they conducted a survey to determine the relationship between authentic leadership and proactive behavior (Hu et al., 2018). They concluded that at work, compassion is very significant in moderating the effect of proactive behavior on the performance of employees. Therefore, it is necessary to be active, as this increases the opportunity to get satisfactory results, improves the workplace and optimizes management.

Characteristics of Proactive Leaders

Proactive leaders portray various characteristics that can be advantageous to their organizations. They are always confident in their planning and decisions that lead to innovation and often share the confidence with employees that mirror similar assurance (Elsaied, 2019). They are also visionary thinkers because they are long-term thinkers and share their vision with other workers within the company or organization (Covey, 2017). Segarra-Ciprés et al. (2019) conducted a study that revealed that employees with proactive behavior have a significant effect on promoting innovation in an organization.

An excellent example of an effective proactive leader is Elon Musk. He is the founder of various companies such as SpaceX, Tesla, and PayPal. He acts strategically and implements long-term goals critical to the operation of the organization (Chen et al., 2021). In his commencement speech in 2012 at the California Institute of Technology, Elon Musk said that he started to think about the challenges that could most affect the future of humanity could face. To solve this dilemma, he then decided to start Space Exploration Technologies Corporation also known as SpaceX. He started the company with the objective of making humanity multi-planetary. Additionally, Elon Musk has worked over the years to ensure a cheap cost of sending rockets to space by making the rockets reusable, thereby extending their lifespan. Elon Musk is an excellent example of a calculated risk-taker as he is motivated to achieve unimaginable goals. His dream to build a greater future that is sustainable for humanity inspires today’s leaders.

Additionally, proactive leaders possess effective communication skills in both spoken and written and active listening skills as they listen carefully to gain insight and meaning from presentations and conversations. For example, a team leader can communicate early to the team members on what is to be prioritized to avoid problems later. They detect underlying ideas and thoughts from an employee by careful attention to non-verbal and verbal cues.

An example of this is a production manager may notice frustrations among employees about their work and workplace relationships and find ways to solve the frustrations before they go out of hand. These leaders are also empathetic, admit their mistakes, maintain a casual look, and are ready to learn from them if their plans do not succeed (Elsaied, 2019). Chen et al. (2021) investigated the impact of humble leaders on the performance of an employee and proactive behavior, which supported this view. The results showed that proactive leaders identify the psychological needs of employees, which promotes their ability to become proactive. Moreover, proactive leaders are always flexible as they quickly adapt to new situations since they actively anticipate events from the future. I can give a personal example of productive management from my experience working in a team. This process took place during the implementation of a training project, where I needed to take the initiative. In this way, I calculated all possible work strategies to get a good score and distributed them to achieve it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, leaders are mainly pressured with the need to go beyond their given responsibilities in the workplace and bring about changes to their organization and team. However, they are required to lead, motivate and engage employees in creating and planning proactive goals as well as getting solutions to problems. Proactive leadership has proven to be beneficial as the leaders are able to plan ahead of time and anticipate what might happen, which helps avoid problems in the future time. Also, a leader is able to effectively exercise leadership within an organization if they are more proactive. They also take responsibility for their actions or hold themselves accountable and work on ways to solve a particular problem.

References

Baker, T. (2021). Breaking the Proactive Paradox: Maximizing Performance through Empowerment. Business Expert Press.

Buil, I., Martínez, E., & Matute, J. (2019). Transformational leadership and employee performance: The role of identification, engagement and proactive personality.International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 64-75.

Covey, S. (2017). The 7 habits of highly effective people. Infographics.

Elsaied, M. (2019). Supportive leadership, proactive personality and employee voice behavior.American Journal of Business, 34(1), 2-18.

Hu, Y., Wu, X., Zong, Z., Xiao, Y., Maguire, P., Qu, F., Wei, J. & Wang, D. (2018). Authentic Leadership and Proactive Behavior: The Role of Psychological Capital and Compassion at Work. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1-10.

Chen, H., Liang, Q., Feng, C., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Why and when do employees become more proactive under humble leaders? The roles of psychological need satisfaction and Chinese traditionality. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 34(5), 1076-1095.

Segarra-Ciprés, M., Escrig-Tena, A., & García-Juan, B. (2019). Employees’ proactive behavior and innovation performance. European Journal of Innovation Management, 22(5), 866-888.

Wolsink, I., Den Hartog, D., Belschak, F., & Oosterwijk, S. (2019). Do you feel like being proactive today? Trait-proactivity moderates affective causes and consequences of proactive behavior. Plos One, 14(8), 1-12.

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