I shared this with my team. There are many valuable skills that aren’t taught in school or in life, and proactiveness is one of them. For some, it comes more naturally than for others. However, it requires practice for everyone. Proactiveness is a top skill I look for in engineers, and it’s beneficial for anyone to have.

On Proactiveness

Being proactive means taking initiative, anticipating challenges, and driving solutions without waiting for instructions or problems to arise. It’s a forward-thinking mindset where you actively seek ways to improve processes, enhance team performance, and achieve better outcomes. Instead of merely reacting to tasks or issues as they come up, or waiting for others to take action, you proactively solve problems by finding the right solutions and identifying opportunities for improvement, then act on them to complete tasks efficiently.

Key aspects of being proactive include:

  1. Leadership: Stepping up to guide and inspire others.
  2. Effective Communication: Clearly conveying ideas and feedback. Communicate early and often.
  3. Decisiveness: Making informed decisions, especially for reversible choices.
  4. Assertiveness: Confidently expressing your ideas and standing up for your decisions.
  5. Anticipation: Planning for future challenges and opportunities.
  6. Preemptive Problem-Solving: Proactively addressing issues before they escalate or before being asked. Don’t wait!
  7. Big Picture Thinking: Grasping the broader context and long-term goals.
  8. Initiative: Proposing and implementing improvements.
  9. Situational Awareness: Understanding what is happening around you.
  10. Constructive Disagreement: Learning to disagree respectfully and commit to decisions.
  11. Expectations: Clearly set expectations, manage expectations, and communicate early and often any changes to already set expectations.
  12. Support and Collaboration: Helping others through brainstorming, design discussions, pair programming, PR reviews, and mentoring.
  13. Curiosity: Continuously learning and exploring new ideas.

If we follow the above principles, as an individual, as a Team, we can and will foster a proactive culture that drives innovation and excellence within our team, and we will deliver wonderful results.