Leadership Training: Do You Run a Proactive or Reactive Organization?
How do you run your organization and are you happy with how it’s going? When I train leaders the question frequently arises about why organizations and people get stuck doing certain things the same way over and over. I usually start a conversation with them about how leaders, employees and organizations fall into patterns that don’t always lead in the direction we want or yield the results we hope for.
As humans, we are creatures of habit who tend to get comfortable with the way things are going, regardless of their efficacy. It usually comes down to the leadership philosophy of the company and whether they are proactive or reactive. Take a moment to gauge where you are and think about how this outlook affects your organization.
Characteristics of Reactive Leadership
- Putting out fires constantly
- Go from one crisis to another.
- Continuous chaos.
- Clear plan not in place.
- Winging it.
Characteristics of Proactive Leadership
- Clear plan in place to anticipate crises.
- Work on steps based on priority and urgency.
- Rarely experiences chaos.
- Takes time to plan for contingencies.
- Systems in place to diminish crises.
As you can tell the main difference between the two approaches is that proactive organizations tend to function more smoothly and experience less disorder. The benefit of being proactive is that you avoid many of the headaches that are common to the “winging it” type of workplace.
Take care,
Guy
Leadership Training and HR Training
