Reactive or Proactive Style of Leadership:
Which Is Your Most Prominent?
Is there a lot of urgency in your workplace? Are you a Reactive Leader - reacting quickly to problems and finding solutions? Or are you a Proactive Leader - having the luxury of time to contemplate at leisure all the issues to a problem - working on both the short and long-term - focused on the big picture?
A Proactive Leader tends to be much more focused on achieving performance objectives rather than focused on finding and fixing problems; that is the forte of the Reactive Leader. Unfortunately the seeming urgency of the problems that come up day-in and day-out perpetuate the fire-fighting mode of the Reactive Leader.
Reactive vs Proactive: The Mindset Difference
| Reactive Leader | Proactive Leader | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs to have and use own answers | → | Understands the power of and uses team in solving problems |
| Is tell oriented | → | Is coaching oriented |
| Makes decisions by self | → | Requests that team members make decisions |
| Pushes for Results | → | Shares a vision so compelling the team wants to move towards it |
| Reacts to change | → | Foresees and influences change |
| Teaches team to expect direction | → | Teaches team to be self-reliant |
| Is concerned about self first | → | Models team work and concern for greater good |
| Produces reports first | → | Creates and communicates values first |
| Is afraid of losing control | → | Knows giving up control yields the best outcomes |
| Focuses on finding and fixing problems | → | Focuses on achieving performance outcomes |
| Quick to punish for mistakes | → | Helps team to learn from errors |
| Uses rules to make decisions | → | Uses principles to make decisions |
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Take Action: Complete this Reactive-Proactive exercise:
- Using the scale at the bottom decide where you lay on the continuum
- You can then judge if you need/want to undertake some self-improvement to move your style of leadership
- Decide which, if any, of these attributes you chose to focus on and improve your capability in would have the greatest impact on your team achieving its performance outcomes
- In what ways could you make improvements in these areas?
- What specific action could you take TODAY that would make a difference?
As I noted on the Leadership Skills Analysis page do not expect to have expertise at everything But do be aware of those areas that may be your undoing and manage around them. However, should you decide to make some shifts remember ...
There are no quick fixes and it is your persistence that ensures on-going success. Should you decide to make a change in your style of leadership, do not do it for a short-time and then decide it doesn't work. It takes a long time to turn the Titanic around - don't give up because you could be just about to get the results you want.
There are no right or wrong answers for any of this.
There is certainly a time and place for a Reactive Leadership style just as there is a time and place for a Proactive Leadership style. If the plane is about to crash, the last thing any of us would want the captain to do, is to gather his/her team around him/her and ask them what they think we should do in this situation!
However, be wary of being so comfortable with the Reactive style of leadership that you get caught up in saving the plane every day. That you do not (or cannot) flex your style of leadership to the situational demands.
Flexible Leaders are sensitive to the needs of the people around them.
Being sensitive means the leader is able to flex his/her style according to the situation at hand.
They easily move up and down the 0-10 continuum as is appropriate. It does, however, take conscious effort. You need to be aware of what is going on around you and make conscious choices as to how you respond.
You become consciously response-able for your actions rather than re-active.
Maybe you could use the 80/20 rule and work toward spending 80% of your time using a Proactive style and 20% in Reactive.
When I was working at Colgate-Palmolive, one of our Production Team Members volunteered to take on the organization and management of the casual labour pool. This meant she arranged for the casual staff to come in, as and when they were needed and supervised their work. (All this over and above her 'normal' duties of running a filling line.
After a year or so, she came to me and said "I'm not happy with the quality of people the agency are sending us. Their customer service has dropped. Also, I think we could get a better rate elsewhere. Can you do something about it?"
Now in the early stages of my career, with my Reactive (and Importance) Style of Leadership hat on, I would've immediately got on to the agency, negotiated prices and demanded they improve the quality of casual labour they were sending to us and improve their customer service. At the end of the process I'd have figuratively rubbed my hands at a job well done (by me) and subconsciously thought how very important I was ... with all these problems to fix and I did indeed fix them! (Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing - you can so laugh at how much you've grown and changed)
Yet, because of the wonderful mentoring I had received from some terrific leaders over the years I was able to put my Proactive Style of Leadership hat on. I now wanted to develop her skill set, and capability to resolve issues such as this. So, my response was "What do you think we should do" and then "How do you want to go about it?". Instead of providing her with solutions, the project in its entirety was turned over to her (obviously with as much support as she felt she needed).
At the time she struggled with the whole concept of providing feedback to the agency about their lack of customer service, and negotiating with a number of alternative suppliers. (She has a whole new skill-set, she never dreamt she would develop - which has come in handy in negotiating her home loan!).
The silent message that was sent to her, was: You ARE GOOD ENOUGH, I have absolute faith in your capability to make a good decision, and to handle these people well.
At the end of the process she was saved the company about $20,000 per annum. She took over the management and control of the entire Casual Budget. She created a training schedule for casuals and monitors their performance, ensuring they are working productively and safely at all times. A budget that had previously been somewhat out of control, consistently came in under-budget and the quality of the workmanship of casuals significantly improved. She certainly takes a lot of pride in this part of her job, and it has helped improve her self-esteem for the long-term.
For the business and the leadership team, it meant that it freed up about 20 minutes a day spent on managing casuals. We had a team member who was very focused on getting the best value from the casual staff (something the team leaders really didn't have the time to do). And finally, significant cost savings to the bottom line.
A simple shift in a style of leadership, with dramatically effective results.
- In what ways have you been frustrated, in the past by people coming to you for even simple decisions?
- Considering the above example, what might you do differently next time to better wean your team members from running to you for every decision?
- What would be the benefits to your organization? For your team? For you?
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