These Five Simple Words Can Get You Promoted

Nothing – well very few things – make me happier when one of my team comes up to me and says:

 “I took care of it”

Worry escapes me, blood pressure drops ever so slightly, and a big smile comes across my face as I genuinely say in return “Thank you!” The twinkle in my eyes get even bigger when I realize I never actually asked them to do it.

Let’s Talk Initiative

In my most recent newsletter I wrote about Alexander Hamilton (if you haven’t yet, watch the musical) and I remarked on A.Ham’s ability to seize initiative at every turn, to both help win the war for American Independence and establishing the bedrock of our country’s financial system. This man was tenacious and, not just grasped them, but CREATED opportunity. I don’t have his work ethic, I can’t stay up all night and write the way he did, nor do I have his brilliant mind, but I think we can all show more initiative at times.

As Gen (ret) James Mattis wrote in his book, “Callsign CHAOS: Learn to Lead”, recruit those with initiative - you can train skills and techniques later. I’ll state it again for emphasis:

Recruit those with Initiative – you can train the skills later.

My close frentor, Tom (known to those around me as “my buddy Tom”) and I talk about this frequently. In the Navy, those that show initiative are rewarded and given more/better responsibility significantly more often than their sit-and-wait-for-tasking peers. …. Ooo.. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it (unless that’s the COVID, day two over here - fun stuff). I can almost guarantee that whatever sector you work in has the same makeup - Self Starters - those that show initiative simply get further, faster.

So where are you on the spectrum?

• Do you ooze with initiative or are you the type that waits for the boss to come and task you with something?
• Have you recently gone to your supervisor and asked for tasking? – spoiler – this is your chance to ask for something you’d LIKE to do versus whatever they come up with.  BONUS POINTS! What if you just did it?!
• On the leadership side – do you cultivate initiative? Rewarding it helps – but you can’t just pile on all your big rocks to one great worker – their back will get sore (so-to-speak).
• When your team says to you “we took care of it” do you get the same small rush that I do?

Questions for reflection:

• What do you think would happen if you took more initiative around work and at home? 
• How does your boss (or spouse, team, etc..) feel when you “handle it” without being tasked, or without circling back and asking for help? (you can ask for help, but give it your best effort first)
• Who on YOUR team is showing initiative? Have you thanked them recently?

As always, thank you for your time, and have a great day today!

Cheers,

Joe

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