Proactive vs Reactive

Proactive vs Reactive

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“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

So, the question is which is better to be proactive or reactive?

In general, it’s better to be proactive. That means that you try to consider situations before they arise to make sure your team is prepared for them. However, there are benefits and drawbacks to both styles. Future minded leaders need to be skilled at both proactive and reactive management styles. This is especially true as the world of work changes. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for agile leaders who can adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

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Pros and Cons of Proactive Leadership

Proactive leaders (and their teams) are confident in their ability to foresee and plan around potential challenges. When difficulties arise, the response time is shortened by having a strong plan in place. Proactive managers often allocate more time to resources and to skills development, training, and mentoring their teams.

Leaders who prioritize a proactive approach need to be sure to leave time for day-to-day task and urgent matters. Those who are to big picture-focused may leave their teams feeling like they are out of touch. It’s impossible to anticipate every situation. Trying to do so can lead to “analysis paralysis,” where people feel immobilized until they have all the facts.

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Pros and Cons of Reactive Leadership

Reactive can work very well under pressure. They excellent problem-solving skills that are battle tested. Reactive people are more comfortable with uncertainty and trying different approaches. Individual contributors display high levels of ownership. They don’t worry about planning everything out perfectly or running ideas by a chain of command before they act.

Always being in problem-solving mode is not good for morale. It can feel like there is “always an emergency.” When leaders are constantly putting out fires, they don’t have time to devote to long-term planning. It’s difficult to measure which methods were the most effective or predict success in the future.

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What causes a reactive mindset?

No Leader walks into work and says, “I’m here just to deal with problems.” Leaders want to be able to set a vision for their team, achieve the goals they set, and help people develop in their career. But sometimes, external factors affect leaders in a way that prevent them from being as forward-thinking as they would like. Every leader and every workplace encounter challenge. But when circumstances feel out of control, it’s easy to start feeling a bit reactive. These environments are overrun by the tyranny of urgency. There are a few factors that contribute to high stress and urgency in the workplace.

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Hyper competitiveness

Culture of presenteeism

Competition can be invigorating and motivating in the office. But when people feel that they need to fight to get ahead- or even keep their jobs- it saps energy. You can’t plan ahead if you’re always watching your back.

Everyone benefits from taking time away from work. If they don’t feel like they can take off, even when they are sick, morale suffers. This culture of “show up no matter what” is detrimental to the workplace.

Burnout

Poor priorities

Are you burned out? Proactive thinking takes a certain amount of energy and optimism. Those can be in short supply when you are burned out. The good news is that reprioritizing to less be reactive can actually help reduce burnout and boost your wellbeing.

Teams benefit from a clear set of priorities. When they fail set a target that everyone can work towards, people often scatter their energy in different directions. This can make it feel like your teams’ efforts are “all over the place” or that nothing is ever finished.

Qualities of proactive leaders

What does a proactive leader look like? For starters, they are team oriented. They know the importance of developing leaders and look for opportunities to invest time into their teams.

They encourage other people to talk through short-term and long-term scenarios to look for potential problems. They empower their teams to take action and help them become self-reliant. Even though these leaders are excellent problem solvers, they don’t spend all their time trying to fix problems. They split their time between working towards the team’s goals and trusting that they can handle unforeseen issues when they arise. Proactive people don’t try to anticipate everything. They listen to their team’s input. They are as reflective as they are forward thinking. They systematically look back on what worked and what didn’t work so they can increase their chances of success. These leaders are open to new approaches if they aligned with the values of the organization. Part of your responsibility as a leader is to handle challenges as they arise. In those cases, reactive strategies are helpful. The trick is to bring a proactive mindset even when you have to react to changing circumstances.

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Here are some ways to become proactive:

Do some strategic planning – Where is the City of McKinney going? What will I need and who will I need to be to be successful? What will I need to get there? Both the organization and the individual will benefit from strategic planning. Anticipate your growth – Imagine that you have accomplished your biggest goals. What problems would you have? Take steps to inhabit that solution in advance.

Track your time – What do you spend a lot of time doing? What do you do that could be done smoother, easier, or by someone else. Ask your team for feedback – Touch base with your team and the people you interact with directly. What questions keep coming up consistently? What do they think you need to plan for? Make it easy for them to provide feedback, information, and ideas on a regular basis. Stay focused on what matters – The most important thing is our customers. Nothing can have 100% of your attention or energy, because you always need to know what is happening around you. So, you will have to learn how to prioritize because things change all the time

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Conclusion

It’s not possible to be proactive all the time, but it is not practical to be in problem solving mode all the time either. Proactive means learning to dance between the day to day while keeping one eye on the future.

It is important to find the balance between proactive and reactive leadership in order to maintain an effective, happy, team.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

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