Being Proactive

Business owners and managers need proactive people. You must be able to make decisions and take responsibility for the impact of those decisionswhether positive or negative. Many employees seem to work on an "I will act only when directed" mentality. They do so with the assumption that management will frown upon independent ideas and action.

To be honest, if you work within an organization that does not foster independent and proactive ideas and actions, you need to consider other employment options. Unless you know of some convincing reasons to remain in place (pay, training, and so on), such organizations are unlikely to provide true growth opportunity.

If you have not been proactive in the pastalways waiting for specific directives to move on a project or specific tasksmake a change now. If you have an idea for a technology or process that would improve operations or create a level of automation or efficiency within your job or on a current project, act on this idea.

Demonstrate your idea's benefit to management. Let your manager know of other ideas to improve process or information flow.