Initiative & Bias for Action

being proactive and persistent; being ready to act on opportunity 

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People with this competence: 

• Are ready to seize opportunities -- or create them -- rather than simply wait;

• Pursue goals beyond what’s required or expected of them;

• Cut through red tape and bend the rules when necessary to get the job done;

• Mobilize others through unusual, enterprising efforts;

• Act before being forced to by external circumstances;

• Want more from their job than a paycheck, and more from life as well; and

• Consistently strive to do more, be more, and experience new heights. 

 

People lacking this competency:

• Procrastinate and fall behind;

• Need direction to get things done;

• Tend to resist work outside their immediate areas of responsibility – have a “that’s not my job” mentality;

• React to events rather than be proactive, and as a result, often find themselves operating in crisis mode;

• Give up easily;

• Do not plan ahead;

• Postpone decisions, miss opportunities and tend to be overly cautious, tentative and unwilling to take risks. 

 

Development tips: 

• Overcome procrastination – whatever you need to do, “chunk it down” into manageable pieces to mobilize and get started;

• Focus on how you can do something rather than on why or how you can’t -- move from victim to victor – seize the opportunity, carpe diem!; 

• Examine what’s holding you back – frenzied work hours? Stress? Overwhelm? Resentment? A drive for perfection? Identify it and deal with the root cause;

• Try “timeboxing” – allocate a set period of time to a task and see how far you get (“I will declutter my desk for 10 minutes” or “I will outline this report and write for one hour” or “I will answer email for 30 minutes”); and

•  Do the worst part of a job first and get it out of the way – the rest will be a breeze.

 

Quotes

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.” - George Bernard Shaw 

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” - Henry Ford 

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” – Unknown 

“Well done is better than well said.” - Ben Franklin 

 

Great resource: 

• Getting Things Done, by David Allen