Reactive Vs Proactive in the Workplace

Whilst many businesses strive to be process-driven, ensuring consistent and expected outputs, the ever-changing demands from customers, clients, staff and stakeholders etc, continue to put pressure on the ‘daily grind’. It can feel like a ‘safe space’ for many workers and business owners to know their exact tasks for the day, week and months ahead, with targets and goals to work towards. On the other hand, these expectations can also lead to a stagnant and complacent workforce, unprepared for the ever-changing and sometimes immediate demands placed upon them.

The ‘people’ in any workforce are a fundamental cog to business success. With that in mind, it’s important to assess a team's ability to react to situations, whilst also analysing their willingness and drive to proactively implement change and adapt behaviour before the situation arises.

 
Reactive individuals wait for an event to occur and respond ‘on the spot’, without planning or foresight. They often work well under such pressure and thrive from the imminent challenges that arise.
 
However, on a daily basis, these individuals look at the ‘present’, believing that everything is okay as the workflows without any glaring problems. They don’t have time to think about ‘what might happen’ when they are ‘fire-fighting’ to survive the day. Considering how a process can be streamlined isn’t on their mind, as it's been working for years and it’s just how it’s done.
 
An example of this may be a Manager who misses or ‘turns a blind eye’ to the clues pointing towards a downturn in the market. Or the resistance and toxicity building within their team. Eventually leading to an unprepared, incoherent and clunky response ‘when the ‘**** hits the fan’. Instead, reactivity can sometimes be too late. This could be the difference between surviving the downturn or burying one's head in the sand, sadly leading to a less desirable outcome. Or a difference between developing the skills and behaviours of your managers to mentor the team from the start, and giving them the tools to navigate the people management minefield before your team or a valued colleague reaches the point of resignation.
 
On the other side of the spectrum, we have proactive individuals in our personal and work lives. These people plan and adapt to events and situations that may occur in life and in the workplace. They think ahead, and although the issue, the output, and the situation hasn’t yet occurred, they are preparing for the eventuality.
 
As an example, a reactive manager, as discussed above, will react to the whims of the market and their team. By the time the situation occurs, it may be too late to save a valued team member, or too late to adapt and implement changes to survive a change in market hasty and desperate decisions and sometimes errors in judgement. At this point, it all may be too late. This ‘reactive’ response has its risks, in terms of finances, reputation and workforce engagement. Rather than planning for the ups and downs of the shifting and sometimes unpredictable business landscape, they simply react in the moment, often with varying degrees of success or failure.
 

The opposite to this is your proactive manager, who will have already predicted a market downturn. Already considered how to deal with low team morale and tackle bullying for example.
 
A proactive leader may be challenged by co-workers, questioning why they are wasting time preparing for things that haven’t happened… But this is the exact point! They haven’t happened because the proactive manager has implemented effective measures to avoid the eventuality ever occurring.
 
A proactive leader demonstrates a balance between planning for what they can control, for example by identifying risks and implementing measures to minimise or eliminate them. They will monitor and forecast trends to ensure they can confidently navigate the ‘issue’ or ‘situation’, IF or WHEN it occurs. Planning and preparing for those eventualities that can be controlled, has the potential to increase the time and scope to ‘adapt’ to situations you can not control.
 
The measurement of success or positive outputs that a proactive manager delivers may not always be recognised. This is often because the planning and proactive risk management have stopped or reduced any negative outcome ever occurring. Their planning and foresight may also have been the key to many company successes. Therefore, it is vital to develop a tool to measure and recognise the successes and accomplishments of the proactive individuals in your business. They are a fundamental part of a business’s success.
 
My HR department once said to me;   “Gerry, this problem that has happened could’ve been avoided. You knew the type of person we were dealing with. You had the signs and did nothing about it”.
 
So how do we embark upon the journey to being proactive? How do we encourage our teams to plan ahead and stop the ‘fire fighting’, when the fire could have been avoided?
 
Behaviours don’t change overnight. These behaviours may be instinctual or learnt over years of experience where they have never been challenged.

Changing any negative or limiting behaviour will be difficult at first, but with the right attitude and determination, the positive consequences and outcomes will override the effort put in.

The sense of security when you wake up each day, knowing you are prepared for situations that once gave you sleepless nights. The pride you feel when you know that your work has the potential to protect the business and your team. Realising that you can spend less time ‘fire-fighting’ and more time interacting with your clients leads to increased sales.
 

Over time, leaders will reap these positive rewards, increasing proactive behaviours.
 
…And for the company, the potential to positively reshape the business through behavioural change.