Power of Proactive Thinking

What is Proactive Thinking?

Proactive Thinking involves forecasting a future situation and making a plan of action instead of waiting for events to happen or acting after seeing consequences. It is preparing in advance to take control of future problems that may be appear rather than just adjusting to a situation, waiting for something to happen or depending on someone to take control of the situation.
Being proactive means making an effort to anticipate a situation, ask questions, get into details, clarify doubts beforehand and acting in advance either to prepare for it or to prevent it.

Importance Of Proactivity?

Proactive Action is the most important quality of successful and personally effective people. It involves the predetermined efforts to change a person’s behaviour or a situation and reorienting it into something more positive. Proactive action deals with problems deliberately and helps in eliminating or addressing misunderstanding and confusion in a more effective manner. Approaching situations with proactivity will result in effective response to clients with specific and changing requirements. It results in providing a variety of choices in performing tasks and enhances decision making ability. Proactive action is highly important in understanding specific needs of customers or stakeholders and reacting accordingly by paying attention to every detail.

Proactive Action Versus Reactive Action.

Reactive Thinkers do not take initiative and let the situations decide their action. They sail with the tides of life and see themselves as victims of circumstance, unable to change their reactions and thus feeling much less empowered. They look at change in a state of surprise, shock, panic and react in an unplanned stressful way which does not yield performance of high standards.

Positive Thinkers will not only anticipate the risks they might face but also frame a plan of action to face those risks and act according to the situation. They will always be ready to face a risk or a difficulty with confidence and a plan of action at every step.

Advantages of Proactive Action

Pro activity is a special quality of people who think out of the box and outperform the crowd. They work with a positive attitude and ability to visualize and perceive their goals getting accomplished. They are able to extract the required information to solve problems, adapt to changing situations, take ownership and do not depend on others for solutions. Below mentioned are some advantages of being proactive:

• Coming up with improved procedures for the work situations.
• A Hands-on and planned experience of correcting deviations and coming back to the right track.
• Easy implementation of solutions to organizational problems.
• Ability to focus on solutions: The skill and ability to approach problems and solve them swiftly is one of the greatest traits of effective people. The way of how a person will handle problems makes him effective. The skill and experience of an individual lies in how fast he or she finds optimal solutions.