Proactive Leadership: Respond and Communicate

I’ll say it again, we don’t necessarily need to have every answer but we do need to respond! If we’re not willing to at least acknowledge the questions, issues, or even outreach of the folks on our teams, should we really expect them to consider us as their leaders? This is where I believe proactive leadership makes all the difference! In searching the phrase, I found an interesting article on Forbes.com called How to Practice Proactive Leadership that opened with this:

Being proactive as a leader is one of the best things you can do for your team. The more leaders can stay current with their team, their business, and their competitors, the better they can help their employees plan and implement new strategies. Passive leadership does not generate the productivity and development your company needs to grow and thrive.

The article went on to break down several different things that leaders should be proactive with in their roles, both inside their organizations and with the community they serve as a whole. The three main points listed for being proactive internally were building trust, showing respect, and providing feedback on performance - all of which hinge on being responsive!

Think about it… How much trust will we really ever have in someone, especially if they’re in a role we’re expected to follow or interact with in the slightest positive way, if they’re not willing to respond to our outreach within a reasonable amount of time? Let’s tie that back to the doctors and lawyers I used as scapegoats before; how much has trust eroded in those professions as a whole over the years? Remember the statistic my friend shared with me, “98% of all attorneys make the other 2% look bad”? And he’s an attorney! I won’t speak for you, but I can certainly say that I struggle trusting someone who won’t reply when I contact them - especially if it’s someone I’m supposed to be able to count on for leadership!

Now let’s connect that to respect… Regardless of their role, will we really have a ton of respect for someone who isn’t responsive? While a position may carry leadership responsibility, if the individual who holds that position isn’t willing to respond to their team members in a timely manner (or at all in some cases), who are they really leading?

The author of the article referenced periodic evaluations with regards to performance feedback. I’ll take it step farther by emphasizing that one of the most meaningful things we can do as a leader to show we’re responsive, earning trust and respect in the process, is to be proactive in recognizing performance on a routine basis - both good and bad! If the only time our team gets feedback on how they’re doing is during a formal review, can we really expect continuous improvement. To that end, should we even be surprised when performance continually slips if we’re not proactive about recognizing the behaviors involved in that performance on a regular basis?

Before you tune me out altogether on this, please know I have a clear understanding of all the tasks a leader is expected to do. When that’s the case, how can we possibly be expected to maintain such a proactive approach? If you’ll hang with me, that’s exactly what we’ll work through soon!