I’ve never met a leader who doesn’t want their team to be more proactive. Sometimes, it might seem like proactive team members are a rare commodity. I’ve worked with and led many teams in my career, and in my experience, proactive team members are heavily shaped by the environment in which they work.
Toxic workplaces have a tendency to stifle proactivity and reduce motivation. However, even relatively functional workplaces can see a lack of proactive team members.
To read more about toxic workplaces, go here: Putting a Stop to the Toxic Workplace.
The Key Signs of a Team That is Not Proactive
Let’s start from the beginning – seeing whether you have a problem in your team! Here are some of the key signs that I notice when dealing with this particular problem.
1. Helplessness
When team members are more reactive than proactive, they tend to show signs of helplessness. When problems occur, you may notice a shrug of the shoulders and “Oh well, that’s just the way it is.”
Then listen out for “That will never work” or “We tried that before and it didn’t work”.
Do you hear it? That’s the sound of a team that feels helpless.
2. Victim Mindset and the Blame Game
Another key sign that your team members could be suffering from a lack of proactivity is a victim mindset. This is characterised by team members who feel like bad things are being done to them, with no ability to change the situation.
Then, comes the blame.
“They always stuff it up.”
“They never tell us when things have changed.”
“We always have to deal with their mistakes.”
This mindset is closely related to “Everyone else is stupid, except our team.”
You can read more about fixing that mindset in this post: Everyone is stupid, except for my team!
3. Lack of Open Communication
When your team members aren’t being proactive, you’ll notice that communication gets worse. Instead of telling you about the problems they are facing, they might just keep quiet about it.
Unfortunately, when you don’t know about a problem, you can’t solve it. When communication shuts down, it makes it very difficult to support your team.
So why does your team do this? Well, as we’ve already covered in the first point …they feel helpless.
To learn about creating open communication, read more here: 5 Powerful Ways to Create Open Communication in Your Team.
How to Encourage Your Team to Be More Proactive
It’s easy for leaders to blame team members for this problem. However, being proactive is a learned behaviour, and something that is shaped by the team and organisational environment.
You can help them to change their ways!
1. Encourage Your Team to Be More Proactive by Showing Them That Improvement Is Possible
One of the biggest things that stifles proactivity is helplessness, and teams feel helpless when they feel they can’t improve their situation.
Choose something small that is bothering the team or causing extra work. It might be something to do with a system you use, or a process you follow. Whatever it is, start small and let your team know that you’re working to improve it and that you’ll need their help.
Follow through on your promise and do what you need to do to fix the problem. If you can’t, for whatever reason, choose something else and improve that. You won’t solve every problem, but you certainly can solve some of them.
The idea is that you show your team that positive change can happen.
2. Encourage Your Team to Be More Proactive by Asking For and Acting On Suggestions
Now that you have shown that positive change can happen, it’s time to ask your team for suggestions to improve the team. Make sure the ideas come from the team, not just from you.
When your team sees that you are interested in what they have to say, and you start to take action, the mindset starts to change.
Before, people felt helpless. Now, team members start to see that they have some control over their environment and what happens in the team.
You may notice that your team becomes more vocal about ideas they have and wants to start working on potential solutions. Embrace it…this is what you want!
Some ideas they bring to you won’t be great. Discuss the suggestions with them, and if you say “No”, explain your reasons clearly and directly.
3. Encourage Your Team to Be More Proactive by Aligning Your Stakeholders
Most teams don’t work in isolation. Almost all teams need to interact with other teams to get their jobs done. As such, you can’t expect to improve what happens in your team without engaging with other people.
For changes within your team that require help from others, you’ll need to collaborate. Meet other teams in person and facilitate sessions to solve joint problems. This will start to break down the blame game and the victim mindset, as team members begin to see the other side of the story.
Before long, your team will proactively start engaging with other teams, without needing you to set it up for them.
Gain support for changes in your team from your own manager. Perhaps ask them to be an ambassador, so you have some support from more senior people in your organisation.
4. Encourage Your Team to Be More Proactive by Becoming More Solution Oriented
When you hear your team members griping about a problem, don’t just ignore it. Ask them what they think could be done to help the situation.
This is where the age-old saying comes from… “Bring me solutions, not problems.”
Challenging your team members in this way will help to train them that you want them to think of solutions, rather than just complaining. While venting can be good for letting off steam, venting that also results in a solution to a problem is golden!
To read more about venting frustration productively, go here: Venting frustration at work? Remember these 5 things.
5. Encourage Your Team to Be More Proactive by Rewarding Proactive Behaviour
Many organisations like to reward or acknowledge team members who work hard by reacting to overcome an unexpected issue.
“He worked all weekend to fix the problem…what a fantastic employee!”
While this is worthy of acknowledgement, you shouldn’t overlook team members who avoid unnecessary work by proactively fixing issues, before they become a huge problem.
Look for proactive behaviour and openly acknowledge and encourage it. Don’t just be the boss who rewards the reactive fire-fighters in the team.
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How have you helped to encourage your team members to be more proactive? Let me know in the comments below!
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