Takes Initiative

Note

In this series of brief articles, we explain the basic work skills every team member must develop and practice if they want to be engaged and effective at work. If you are a manager, during the annual review process we ask you to rate your team members on these competencies. Use the following brief description...

to solidify your understanding of the skill,
to recall specific examples of your team member's behavior that either exemplify or betray the skill in focus, and
to think of concrete steps they can take to grow in this specific skill.

What is it?

A team member high in initiative proactively takes action rather than waiting and reacting.

When proactive people start a new job, they do not wait for people to tell them what their job is. They actively investigate, question, research, and experiment until they have a firm grasp of the requirements of the position.
Team members who take initiative do not wait until something is due, they get after the task as early as possible.
Reactive people rely on rules and guidelines to know the minimum requirements of their job, and often exert little energy to go above and beyond.
Proactive team members do not ignore or tolerate problems. If there is an obvious issue, they want to talk about it and do something to fix it.
If expectations for an assignment are unclear, team members who take initiative will ask the right people until they are clear on what is expected of them. Others will often wait until the last minute and say, "I wasn't sure what to do." Or, "It wasn't clear to me what you wanted."

How to rate it

Here is a guide to help you rate your team member using our standard 5-point scale.

Tip:

The general descriptions below can give you a mental picture of the variance between the different result options, but, because team members and scenarios vary so widely, you should not rigidly rely on them.

Not Met - in a word, the team member is lazy. They always have to be told exactly what to do, and if they do not have a delegated task immediately in front of them, they focus on something other than work.
Partially Met - the team member typically has to be asked to do something or told very specifically what to do. Once asked, though, they get the job done.
Met - the team member is typically proactive but occasionally struggles if expectations are not clear.
Exceeded - the team member is always thinking and working ahead.
Far Exceeded - the team member sets a great example for the team on how to be proactive in both their work and their work relationships.