5 sure-fire ways to motivate your employees to be more proactive Viewpoint careers advice blog

5 sure-fire ways to motivate your employees to be more proactive An employee can be proactive if they are willing and able to think ahead and take actions to make positive changes to improve their work environment. They can be proactive in many aspects, for example, they can generate and apply new ideas when detecting potential industry trends, make suggestions when identifying problems that could undermine the performance of work units, or actively share helpful information with customers when serving them. Although encouraging employees to be more proactive can bring many benefits to an organisation, not all employees are willing or able to take the initiative at work. Why? What prevents employees from being proactive? Extra-effort and time: Employees need to invest more time and effort if they want to make changes, compared to simply focusing on the tasks they have been told to do. After all, they may not be rewarded for putting extra time and effort to do something outside their work duties.   Uncertainty of the consequences: Taking the initiative or making changes may not always be appreciated by supervisors, colleagues, or organisations. This can bring negative consequences such as resistance and work conflict.   Loss of face if it fails: Not all proactive actions are successful. When one’s proactive attempt has failed to meet the expected goal, the employee can lose face, and this can undermine their credibility to influence others, whilst also losing respect from them. Three motivational drives of proactivity Because of the potential cost, an employee is more likely to show her or his proactivity when they are: Capable: People are more likely to try new things when they feel they have capabilities and confidence in doing so the same goes for proactivity. An employee is likely to suggest and implement new ideas when they feel they have capabilities and confidence to get things done. If not, they will face a higher chance of failure and have negative consequences.   Intrinsically motivated: As being proactive is demanding both in terms of time and effort, it is unlikely that an individual will push through with an activity outside of their usual work duties, if they do not have a strong reason to do so. Reasons, such as a felt responsibility to change and wanting to benefit others inside or outside the organisation, are powerful in driving and motivating one’s investment in time and effort to proactively get things done and change the status quo. Energised: It takes time and energy to proactively make things happen, as there are often obstacles that need to be overcome in order to move forward this can be even more true when an employee wants to bring about changes in the workplace. So, feeling energised along the proactive journey is an important factor. How can a manager motivate their employees’ proactivity? There are various ways to promote an employees’ proactivity: Granting job autonomy if possible: Having a chance to take ownership for one’s work (what, how and when) is a key factor to making an individual be more proactive. This is for two reasons firstly, it provides a sense of mastery as they can see how their decisions and actions can make an impact at work. Secondly, it promotes felt responsibility, motivating an employee to think about better ways to improve their work. Be a transformational leader for employees: Transformational leaders are those who create a vision to guide employees to see a different future. They motivate their employees using inspirational communication and challenging employees’ work assumptions, whilst at the same time expressing their consideration to each employee individually. These leaders are likely to promote employees’ proactivity because they explicitly encourage employees to think differently and try alternatives to do their work, while offering individualised support when employees need it. Establishing a high-quality leader-employee relationship: Employees are more likely to be proactive when there is mutual trust and a highquality relationship between supervisors and employees. This helps employees to better assess resources and get support from their supervisors in challenging the status quo. Offering secure-base support: Kids are likely to explore when they feel secure the same principle applies to employee proactivity. When employees feel a sense of security by receiving encouragement from their supervisors, and when they know support is available when needed without unnecessary interference, they will be more motivated to explore and try out new things at work. Creating an initiative work climate: If personal initiative is expected, supported, and rewarded at work, employees in the team will be inspired to be proactive.   There are two types of proactivity Pro-team proactivity: When employees can be proactive for the good of the business, such as contributing to a common goal and improving the effectiveness of the work unit, this is called pro-team proactivity. Pro-self proactivity: They can also be proactive for themselves, for example, seeking opportunities for career advancement, skills development and receiving recognition. This is called pro-self-proactivity. Pro-self proactivity can facilitate the employees’ learning, growth, and development, all the time strengthening the human capital of the organisations they work for. Managers should understand the difference between these two types of proactivity and find ways to promote each of them where appropriate. For example, in professions that emphasise independent work and personal development, such as contractors, pro-self proactivity is important to seek out new work, development opportunities and stay up-to-date on environmental changes. In contrast, in professions that emphasise interdependent work and collective outcomes, such as mining, engineering, or healthcare in intensive care units, proactivity for work teams is more desirable to get things done. However, it is not uncommon that employees need to be proactive towards both their work team and themselves, as they are expected to contribute to the work unit or organisation broadly while advancing their learning and development. As such, managers need to be flexible in the way they promote different directions of proactivity, as both pro-team and pro-self motivation can be intertwined in the work activities of each employee. It is thus a good idea to lead employees so that they can clearly see how their work benefits the team, but also how their pro-team proactivity is beneficial to their long-term development, therefore promoting both types of proactivity at the same time. The importance of values in driving the direction of an employee’s proactivity My research has shown that the direction of employees’ proactivity is determined by whether an employee values their own beliefs, goals and ambitions or their role of being a member of the work unit or the organisation. Pro-self proactivity is likely to be triggered when one’s personal belief, goals, and ambitions are emphasised, whereas pro-team proactivity is likely to be evoked when one’s social role in the team or organisation is emphasised. Managers can guide employees to promote different types of proactivity in different situations. For example, to promote pro-self proactivity, managers can help employees to understand their aspiration and potential, and set up goals for personal development. To promote pro-team proactivity, managers can enhance employees’ identification to their teams or organisations in order to help them value their roles as being a member of a team or organisation. They can also help their employees to better understand how their work fits a bigger picture involving others’ work and communicate the value of the team and their collective work. When employees are proactive, this challenges the status quo of your business, by improving how work can be done. All employees can be proactive if they are motivated. So, instead of waiting for them to show their initiative, managers can be proactive in establishing an environment that can boost and sustain employees’ capacity and willingness to bring constructive change to their work or to develop themselves. 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