The Principles of the Proactive Leader
As with any leadership style there are certain traits, that make up the core values of that role. We call those core values our principles. Here is a list of the traits that we have seen in ourselves and others proactive leaders from a multitude of industries. The list is in no order of priority or importance. This is because all of them must receive an equal amount of consistency and commitment.
These are the principles of the type of leader that a company requires to have sustainable growth:
1. Sees challenges as opportunities
Far too often an individual sees a challenge or a difficult situation and wants to simply move past it. And, very often leaders will look to a resolution to an issue without solving the problem.
Therefore, it is encountered repeatedly but reacted to differently on each occasion. The proactive leader will identify the problem, then begin working backwards through the process and spent time refining the process, acting on data along the way. This helps them identify the true root cause and establish a refined and repeatable process to mitigate the issue and enhance the customer experience. This type of leader is willing to take the extra time to find a true cause because they know it will save a substantial amount of time in the future.
2. Be consistent in your schedule planning
The planning of your upcoming week and day is critical to the short-term milestones and successes that build toward the company mission. The level of self-discipline to maintain the schedule and the consistency to hold yourself accountable to that schedule is more difficult than most anticipate. The true key to being successful with your scheduling and planning is to realize that it requires maintenance and management itself. The schedule you create for yourself on Sunday may have quite a few changes usually buy mid-day on Monday.
This is another portion of the consistency is to constantly monitor the time blocks and adjusts as higher priority items come up or as other items simply cancel out. The schedule is not set in stone. It is simply a roadmap to your day and week and sometimes as items shift so does the terrain, therefore you must realign your map so that you can be the most productive and successful as you can be.
An extra tip: Set realistic timelines to accomplish task. So many people overestimate their productivity and underestimate the time it takes to truly handle the task. This then creates urgency that cause mistakes and places undue stress on the individual. Not everything that you must do, must be done today. Organizing and planning before the action then refining that schedule throughout the week will help you grow as an individual, team member and leader.