Making Behavioral Competencies Actionable: Initiative

What Initiative “is”

What it is: Think “work ethic + problem solving.” Initiative is going beyond the obvious; it is following a train of thought to a roadblock, and then changing course in anticipation of that roadblock.

Spotting Initiative in others
Three words will separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to initiative, and those three words are: “And then what?” If the person has initiative, the only time you’ll need to utter these words will be when they have paused, out of politeness, to ensure that you’re still following what they’re saying. If ever. If the person lacks initiative, you’ll be asking this question—or it’s close cousins, “…and you’re telling me this because…?” “So… what have you done about it?” and “If you ‘knew this was going to happen,’ then why didn’t you say something?”—constantly.

Developing your own Initiative
Discipline and practice, Baby… discipline and practice. Every day, do at least one thing to move you close to your goal… or, if you don’t have a goal, to improve your professional situation in some way. For people who have none, ere’s a five step plan for getting started with increasing your initiative:

Turn off the TV
Think of something that needs to be done/fixed in your home, that doesn’t need to be done today, and do it anyway.
Now that you’ve broken the ice, pick a goal that will take more than 10 minutes to accomplish. Like: do 10 push-ups every day for 3 weeks; go vegetarian for 3 weeks; read How to Self-Destruct: Making the Least of What’s Left of My Career in 3 weeks.
Do it.
Repeat! Repeat! Repeat!