{"id":92351,"date":"2023-02-23T11:20:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=92351"},"modified":"2023-02-23T11:20:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:20:23","slug":"proactive-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/proactive-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Proactive Employees Are Important for Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are the characteristics of proactive employees? Why are they important to a company?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to business experts Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, proactive employees take more initiative, which ultimately leads to solving more problems and greater success in a company. However, along with proactiveness comes the possibility of risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on to learn why Hamel and Zanini say proactive employees take companies from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/key-takeaways-from-good-to-great\/\">good to great<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-proactive-employees-making-great-companies\">Proactive Employees: Making Great Companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Like Maslow\u2019s famous hierarchy of needs, Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini describe the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/business-hierarchy-of-needs\/\">pyramid of business needs<\/a> in their book, <em>Humanocracy<\/em>, as one in which each tier supports the tiers above it; in other words, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. <strong>They say that the most successful companies are those that build all six tiers\u2014including the top, human-focused tiers\u2014into their business practices.&nbsp;<\/strong>In this article, we&#8217;ll describe the fourth tier, which explains the benefits of proactiveness in a company and how proactive employees contribute to an organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Six Tiers of Business Needs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The six tiers are, in descending order of importance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Tier 6: Courage<\/li><li>Tier 5: Ingenuity<\/li><li>Tier 4: Proactiveness<\/li><li>Tier 3: Proficiency<\/li><li>Tier 2: Conscientiousness<\/li><li>Tier 1: Compliance<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Here we&#8217;ll describe the <strong><em>proactiveness<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> <strong>tier of the authors\u2019 pyramid and why proactive employees are crucial to an organization.<\/strong> Breaking out of rigid, bureaucratic habits requires employees who are willing to take the initiative: to go beyond their basic job responsibilities to solve problems and improve the company. It also requires a company that will allow them to do so.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Proactive employees and new initiatives won\u2019t always lead to the desired outcomes\u2014in fact, your company might go through many failed attempts before finding an idea that works, solving a problem, or improving the organization. However, bear in mind that even a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-good-ideas-fail\/\">failed idea<\/a> can be valuable: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/theyec\/2021\/12\/14\/taking-initiative-its-not-just-for-employees\/?sh=69d8904e78ef#:~:text=You%20may%20discover,can%20be%20implemented.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Each failure is a chance to learn<\/a> and is therefore a step toward achieving your ultimate goal of running a company that\u2019s both profitable and fulfilling for its workers. In other words, don\u2019t give up on building a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/human-centered-organization\/\">human-focused company<\/a> just because some of your employees\u2019 initiatives don\u2019t pan out as you (or they) had hoped.)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Proactiveness is closely related to the next level,<strong> <\/strong><em>ingenuity:<\/em><strong> having the creativity and intelligence to not just take the initiative, but also to do so effectively.<\/strong> An employee who\u2019s proactive but not creative might take it upon himself to fix a problem and accidentally make it worse, or he might spend an unreasonable amount of time and energy fixing the issue when a more efficient solution is possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: How can you tell whether an employee\u2019s idea will be effective and efficient? <a href=\"https:\/\/bettermarketing.pub\/how-to-tell-if-your-idea-is-any-good-8ba5a7008830\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">One possibility is to use the \u201cThree S\u2019s\u201d<\/a>: Is the idea a <em>solution<\/em><strong> <\/strong>to a real problem? Is it the <em>simplest<\/em><strong> <\/strong>solution available? And has this idea been <em>shared<\/em><strong> <\/strong>with peers to refine it and look for possible weaknesses? If an idea meets all three S\u2019s, then it\u2019s likely to be worth pursuing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the highest level of the pyramid of business needs is <strong><em>courage:<\/em><\/strong><strong> being prepared to formulate and implement risky ideas and solutions.<\/strong> Courage is what allows employees to truly innovate; to put themselves on the line, try new things, and accept the results whether they\u2019re good or bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>The Barbell Model of Risk Management<\/strong><br><br>A great deal of <em>Humanocracy <\/em>is about the importance of taking risks, but Hamel and Zanini don\u2019t offer much advice about how to do so safely or effectively, which is important to know for proactive employees who are willing to take risks and innovate to find a solution. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/antifragile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Antifragile<\/em><\/a>, risk analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/nassim-nicholas-taleb\/\">Nassim Nicholas Taleb<\/a> describes what he calls the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/antifragile\/chapters-8-11#the-barbell-model\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cbarbell model\u201d of risk-taking<\/a>: implementing a combination of extremely safe, conservative measures and extremely high-risk, high-reward decisions.&nbsp;<br><br>To use the barbell model, begin by figuring out exactly how much you can afford to lose (in terms of money, employees, property, and so on). Then, gamble those losable resources on risky propositions that have the chance for enormous payoffs. The rest\u2014the resources you <em>can\u2019t <\/em>afford to lose\u2014you must invest someplace safe, without worrying about payoffs or dividends. Taleb pictures this as like putting weights on either end of a barbell\u2014investing in two extremes with significant distance between them (although real barbells should be balanced, and this model doesn\u2019t necessarily suggest splitting your resources 50\/50).&nbsp;<br><br>For example, an individual following the barbell model might put 90% of his money into a safe but low-interest savings account. He could then use the remaining 10% to play highly volatile stocks. If one of his stocks pays off, he could make enormous profits\u2014if they all fail, he\u2019s only lost the money he\u2019s already decided he can afford to lose.&nbsp;<br><br><strong>When using this model, avoid middle-of-the-road compromises at all costs. <\/strong>Just like you wouldn\u2019t put weights in the middle of a barbell, don\u2019t put your resources into schemes that only offer moderate payouts while still running the risk of losing what you\u2019ve invested.&nbsp;<br><br>Something like a 401k would be the middle-of-the-road option that Taleb suggests you avoid: Your savings won\u2019t increase by much in a 401k, and you still run the risk of losing a lot of money to a market downturn.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the characteristics of proactive employees? Why are they important to a company? According to business experts Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, proactive employees take more initiative, which ultimately leads to solving more problems and greater success in a company. However, along with proactiveness comes the possibility of risks. Read on to learn why Hamel and Zanini say proactive employees take companies from good to great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":82154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,14],"tags":[905],"class_list":["post-92351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-management","tag-humanocracy","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Proactive Employees Are Important for Companies - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why are proactive employees important? 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