Make up your mind, if you’re going to get engaged in something, do it to finish and for the hard core, gung-ho trail blazers amongst us, do it to win! You can’t do things in half measure, man, if you’re in it, then be in it to win it!
What am I talking about? I’m talking about “taking initiative”. I have noticed something that troubles me some; people who initiate a stimuli then sit and wait. I wonder, when people don’t take initiative to follow up with others on something that, if not completed, will reflect negatively on them (the initiator), is it because (a) they believe that after having initiated the communication, their burden of “taking initiative” has already been discharged, or; (b) they want to respect due process of transmission and response and so, after having submitted, they now wait, for the natural next step, that is, the recipient to respond?
I fail to understand where something that is my responsibility, has to be delayed just by virtue of it requiring other people’s input. You see, taking initiative, like leadership, inherently requires a person to always be on top of things. This means that whether or not you are currently responsible for an action, you are always and ultimately accountable for the outcome. Taking initiative requires that you not only initiate but also follow up to influence, the outcome. Taking initiative is not only throwing the ball up in the air, it is going up there to get it, should it not come back down when you need it to.
When you take initiative you’re saying “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” so even if I’m in a team and everybody has their responsibilities, I will go out of my way to make sure the project, department, business, course succeeds.
You don’t have to be the de facto leader or appointed person in charge to take initiative or to follow up on others when they drag their feet. You could be under someone else’s leadership and still go out of your way to follow up on progress so as to deliver results that are qualitative and submitted timely.
This “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” attitude makes a person very creative. You don’t wait (too long) for people to call, email, visit, you take “taking initiative” so seriously that even if what you are following up on actually helps the person you’re following up with, you do it all the same.
People who are passionate about “taking initiative” look at the common goal, they focus on fulfilling the vision. There is no room for snuggling into comfort zones or having their egos massaged with people who take initiative to drive results; they simply roll up their sleeves, agree to be inconvenienced; sacrificing time to invest in relationships that will yield intended results.
It’s that simple and yes, it is also that involving. You can spot leaders from team players who take initiative; people who go out of their way to follow up with superiors, peers and subordinates alike, always respecting and affirming their colleagues but knowing which buttons to push and how far to push them to solicit qualitative and timely collaboration.
When a colleague hasn’t responded to an e-mail, a person who takes initiative calls them or walks into their office, where possible; where an informed decision has to be made, they go as far as researching and providing their colleague the background information they’ll need to make a decision; where something has gone amiss in someone else’s department, they alert them and offer support, knowing that another department’s success is the organisation’s overall success.
Some may see people who take initiative as nosey schmoozers, I see people who take initiative as generals who are clear about what the mission is about and knows that they need every soldier in good form and performing for the success of the mission. People who take initiative are good neighbourly and passionate team players, who know that when others do well, the entire team shines. These are people who will lift others as they themselves rise up.
In all honesty, I would rather have someone who takes initiative and follows through to the end, than a person who is great at what they do yet, won’t think out of the box to get out of their silo and drive results for the greater good.
- Modesta Lilian Mahiga
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