In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world, being proactive is more important than ever. Proactivity is the ability to anticipate and prepare for future challenges and opportunities, rather than merely reacting to events as they occur (i.e., being proactive versus reactive). Being proactive isn’t merely just being prepared for the unexpected — it’s about actively shaping the future rather than merely reacting to circumstances as they unfold. Management guru Peter Drucker spoke to this when he said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
There are benefits to us and our team members when we adopt and apply the proactive mindset, including:
Increased Productivity: By planning ahead and prioritizing tasks, we can manage our time more effectively and do more in less time.
Greater Personal Fulfillment: Taking more control of our life and making conscious choices leads to a greater sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.
Better Stress Management: When we are proactive, we are less likely to experience stress because we anticipate challenges and plan ahead. By staying organized and preparing for potential problems, we minimize the risk of last-minute scrambling and panic.
Personal Growth and Development: Growth and development can occur when we and our team members proactively take classes; read books and trade journals; attend seminars, webinars, and conferences; take part in training programs; earn professional certifications; and engage in mentoring relationships. (Note: I suggest considering keeping an annual development plan for yourself and all your team members).
Greater Career Success: The growth and development activities just described will help us and our people be more successful in current roles and prepare for potential roles of interest. And showing proactivity by taking the initiative and going beyond the job description will be noticed and eventually rewarded.
Stronger Relationships: Proactive minded people tend to have stronger relationships due to addressing issues before they escalate, communicating openly, and looking for ways to help and add value to others. Also, proactively networking and leaving our comfort zones to meet new people helps us broaden our networks and sometimes leads to making life-long friendships.
How To Be More Proactive
1)Embrace a Proactive Mindset. Michael Hyatt spoke to this when he said, “You have a choice in life. You can either live on purpose, according to a plan you’ve set. Or you can live by accident, reacting to the demands of others. The first approach is proactive; the second reactive.” John Maxwell expressed similar sentiments when he said, “I believe that everyone chooses how to approach life. If you’re proactive, you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.” For example, as a long-time adjunct university professor of mostly adult learners, I greatly respect people that proactively decide to finish their undergraduate or graduate degrees. They do this even though they have full-time jobs and busy personal lives.
2)Set Clear Goals. We can start by defining our personal and team long-term and short-term goals. As Stephen Covey said, “Begin with the end in mind.”We can break goals down into actionable steps with timelines for achieving them. This helps provide direction and ensures we are actively working towards what we want, rather than passively going with the flow. And as we and our teams make progress towards reaching our goals, we can take time out to celebrate successes, which will inspire and lead to more success (i.e., “success breeds success”).
3)Plan and Look Ahead. Proactive individuals don’t wait until the last minute to tackle tasks or make decisions. Instead, we can anticipate upcoming potential obstacles, needed tasks, and decisions and plan accordingly. This could mean creating a project timeline, setting deadlines, or preparing for meetings in advance. It can also include looking at our staffing future needs, such as planning for potential retirements, and developing and training our team members to thrive with recent technology (including learning and applying relevant AI technologies).
4)Anticipate Challenges and Problems. We can think about potential obstacles and problems we may face and develop strategies to overcome before they happen (i.e., thinking upstream before the fact versus downstream after the fact). We can take to heart Ben Franklin’s advice that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This can include contingency planning for unexpected equipment downtime, severe weather, or staff absences.
5)Take Responsibility. Instead of blaming circumstances or other people for setbacks, we can take responsibility for our actions and the outcomes. Playing the “blame game” or falling into the victim mentality doesn’t make things better. Instead, we can take control of situations and become empowered to influence the outcomes. I agree with Stephen Covey when he wrote, “Proactive people are agents of change and choose not to be victims, to be reactive, or to blame others.”
6)Take Initiative and Fight Procrastination. Being proactive means taking initiative and action and not waiting for others to tell us what to do. We can look for opportunities to have influence and add value to people both at work and in our personal lives. As leadership expert John Maxwell said, “Don’t wait for something to happen, MAKE it happen!”
We can also fight procrastination (I think we all battle this at times, I know I do). Benjamin Frankin advised, “Never leave till tomorrow, which you can do today.” Here is a technique that I learned from a mentor years ago: tackle and complete a unpleasant or challenging task first, then reward yourself in some manner (e.g. take a break and walk around, have a quick snack, or peek at a favorite social media site). A simple mantra I tell myself based on this concept is “work before pleasure.”
7)Stay Positive and Solution Oriented. We need to be aware of and fight against negative thinking. I agree with Willie Nelson’s quote, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”Henry Ford wisely said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t either way you are right!” There is power when we keep a positive, solution-oriented attitude when problems arise with the mindset of overcoming them. Instead of dwelling on issues, we can fix them and move forward. When we do this consistently we build confidence in ourselves and within our teams.
8)Be Organized and Prioritize. We can find ways that work for us to be organized and prioritize how we spend our time. A practical tool that people have used to be more organized and proactive is to use to-do lists. I, and many others, have found that a weekly to-do list is a good starting place and then have a short daily to-do list prepared for the day ahead. It’s important to identify and prioritize the most important tasks so we don’t get bogged down with those tasks that can consume our time but add limited long-term value. I appreciate Stephen Covey’s Quadrant 2 emphasis to intentionally plan and make time for items that are “Important, Not Urgent.” This includes prioritizing things like building relationships; taking care of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health; and planning for the future.
Concluding thoughts: Having a proactive mindset is powerful and can lead to benefits for ourselves and our teams. We need to build upon this mindset by taking action. Let me close with these two quotes. Bruce Lee advised, “Knowing is not enough. We must apply. Willing is not enough. We must do.” Pablo Picasso said, “Action is the foundational key to all success.” Go for it! You and your teams will be glad you did.
Wes Friesen is a proven leader and developer of high performing teams and has extensive experience in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. He is also an award winning university instructor and speaker, and is the President of Solomon Training and Development, which provides leadership, management and team building training. He serves as the Industry Co-Chair of the Greater Portland PCC. His book, Your Team Can Soar! has 42 valuable lessons that will inspire you, and give you practical pointers to help you — and your team — soar to new heights of performance. Your Team Can Soar! can be ordered from Xulonpress.com/bookstore or wesfriesen.com (under Book) or an online retailer. Wes can be contacted at wesmfriesen@gmail.com or at 971-806-0812.
This article originally appeared in the July/August, 2025 issue of Mailing Systems Technology.
