Think about the key characteristics of a marketing professional . If “proactivity” crossed your mind, you are part of a
large group that believes this quality is highly valued in the job market.
But are you actually a proactive person? Of all the times you said or heard the word, how many were truly genuine?
In this post, we will help you understand once and for all what being proactive means and why many people get
confused between seemingly similar concepts with very different meanings.
Let’s continue with the topic!
What does it mean to be proactive?
The popularization of the term has made it an poland telegram data almost unanimous characteristic of the personality
of any professional, but in practice it is very easy to find ordinary people who are proactive even if they are not
professionals.
Simply put, proactivity is the act of acting quickly to prevent future complications.
It is also about “taking situations” for oneself, learning and developing attitudes that can predict problems and act even
before they happen.
When they can’t foresee a problem, proactive people move to find any possible improvement to the situation, rather
than complaining while waiting for a solution to fall from the sky.
As an example, think of the professional who is constantly active, participating in conversations, leading groups and
situations (not necessarily in managerial positions), to keep processes flowing correctly and without complications.
Proactive people don’t sit around waiting for things to magically happen – they get up and make them happen.
In addition, the sense of responsibility is developed in a very interesting way, as there is no longer the statement: “that
problem is not mine.” Negative problems are seen as the responsibility of the team as a whole and not as a burden to be
exposed and cause demotivation.
Differences between proactivity and productivity and other concepts
The fact that proactivity has become extremely development phase popular has made it lose its meaning.
It is very common to confuse being proactive with concepts such as productivity and use them as characteristics that
encompass a series of other factors that are not related to what being proactive is.
With this in mind, let’s briefly clarify the concepts that are most often confused.
Productivity
Productivity is a characteristic of people who anhui mobile phone number list manage to complete a large volume of
work in the shortest time possible.
It can also be associated with when someone produces a greater volume of work spending less money or labor, for
example.
Productive people generally offer more than average and may have an easier time dealing with deadlines.
Initiative
Taking initiative is “taking on a task to do it” and readily and frequently accepting the demands placed on us. It also
means proposing new things, having ideas and, more than that, talking about them and encouraging decision-making.
This is a fundamental characteristic of someone who is proactive, but they are not synonymous. Being proactive is the
union of several attitudes: one of them is precisely initiative, however, it is not possible to summarize the concept in a single characteristic.
Let’s think of initiative as one of several characteristics that make up the more complex concept of proactivity.
Reactivity
Reactive people are those who respond to stimuli almost automatically.
People with reactive traits may not think as much before responding, which can be a good thing in certain situations, such as those where the professional is under pressure and needs to take quick action.
But in other cases, it becomes something relatively negative.
The reactive characteristic is easily altered by external stimuli, since there is not much time or space to put things into perspective and think things through better.
Consider this particular, hypothetical example: Upon receiving a grumpy response from the boss on a Monday morning, a reactive person ends up not thinking much about external factors and may respond to the mood with even more hostility.
In the case of the proactive person, the external factor will be taken into account, after all, we all have bad days, right?
Besides, Mondays can put anyone in a bad mood, so why not take a breath and work on empathy in such situations by trying to understand if that person really intended to annoy us with their way of speaking?
What are the main advantages of being proactive?
Now that we have talked a little about being proactive, its concept and the difference with respect to other terms, it is time to know what the main advantages of being a more proactive professional are.
Allows you to predict sensitive situations
And act better when they do happen! After all, who likes to make decisions under external pressure?
It must be very difficult to find a person who would be pleased to hear that they will have to submit an extremely complicated lawsuit the next morning.
When the proactive trait develops in a person, these situations become increasingly rare, actually only occurring in cases where the external factor is stronger.
We tell you this for the following (and very simple) reason: being interested in the situation of the team as a whole makes the professional aware of everything that happens in their work environment .
That way, if a negative environment arises, whether it be a difficult client, difficulty in completing tasks on time or lack of budget to implement projects, the proactive person will be prepared to act.