7 Ways to Inspire Initiative and Eliminate Toxic Indifference
You’ve been asking permission all your life. In school you raised your hand for permission to speak. When I was in first grade, we raised our hands to ask Mrs. Goodwin for permission to use the restroom.
One finger meant you had one thing to do. Two fingers meant …, well you get the point.
Authority figures give and take permission.
Mommies take permission when they say, “Don’t touch!” Years later, we ask for permission to use the car.
Permission-giving cultures:
The person who gives permission holds the power.
In permission-giving cultures, people wait for permission before they act. Power is distributed in drips and drizzles.
You might feel powerful because you’re always giving permission. In reality, you’re a bottle neck.
Initiative is permission to act without permission.
7 ways to honor initiative:
#1. Monitor and minimize permission-seeking.
Persistent permission-seeking points to inept leaders and top-down structures. What systems might you put in place that take you out of permission-giving?
Systems and processes are institutionalized expressions of permission.
#2. Your response to those who act without permission affirms initiative.
Errors of initiative are better than errors of indifference.
Affirm initiative, even when setting boundaries.
#3. Celebrate learning when initiative results in mistakes.
- What did you learn?
- What would you do differently?
- What will you do differently next time?
#4. Identify no trespass zones.
Explore the limits of initiative with your team. You can’t give people permission to do whatever they want.
Understanding limits is essential to initiative.
Once limits are set, everything else is permission.
#5. Give permission before people ask permission.
Walk around honoring initiative.
The approval you express establishes direction.
#6. Reporting makes initiative safe.
Ask people to give reports but don’t quickly intervene in their work.
- Share the big picture.
- Explain how they fit in.
- Point out areas of concern, but don’t fix them.
#7. Highly regulated industries require more permission-giving.
How can leaders create environments where people take initiative?
What are the limits of acting without permission?
Leaders can enhance initiative by dreaming with their team. I’m wonder if… encourages others to think in broader terms and exercise initiative. Initiative expresses an individual’s heart and passion and that should be encouraged.
Limits? Usually budgetary and bandwidth are the most obvious challenges.
Thanks Steve. You make me think about wearing different hats at different times. Put on your dreaming hat with the team. But there are times when you have to put on your fiscal responsibility hat too.
I hadn’t thought about dreaming and initiative. I was more into day-to-day. Your comment opened a door I hadn’t considered.
How can leaders create environments where people take initiative? Tell them up front, this is your job to run followed by the parameters required from client, be clear on concise, leaving them with a pure picture of what needs done.
What are the limits of acting without permission? As McSteve stated “Budgetary cost over runs”.
The workers needs to know the limits, which falls back on the parameters.
The other aspect is the workers may have a better way that is less costly, so encourage that discussion on site, or simply say “give me a call to discuss if you have issues? Not to mention to them “that’s a great idea run with it”!
Thanks Tim. The hear the voice of experience in your insights. When we are new or inexperienced it’s hard to anticipate what limits to set. But, as time passes, you learn.
Seeing the value of others – who might have a better idea – is a powerful motivation to make room for the initiative of others. We never see the best in others when we give permission to their every move.
Dan,
Yes, Mostly the “School of Hard knocks” as my father labeled it! OJT was my greatest development, paying attention to senior, you quickly learn does and don’ts! Or you Fail!
Sometimes better “to ask Forgiveness”!
“Delegation” is a great tool, and “free reign” can put you out of business!
For this; What are the limits of acting without permission?; You really need to know the boundaries of the business, the relationship with customers or stakeholders and what historically can be done w/o strict permission. Once you know those parameters you can freely move forward and develop solutions. But again you need to have some history and understanding.
Thanks Roger. Perhaps one thing to do is reflect on others in the organization who have taken initiative. We’re they rewarded or punished. You might also gain insight into what types of initiative are acceptable.
Almost 20 years ago, as a new hire, I was given a permission card: a laminated card with some questions (I think there were four). If I could answer “Yes” to all of the questions, I was free to act without checking in with my supervisor first. I believe I still have it somewhere, but it may take me a couple of days to track it down.
Thanks Jennifer. I look forward to seeing the questions, if you can find them.
I am interested in seeing those questions as well. Please share if you are able to find them.
Employee Permission Card
Key questions to ask yourself:
1: Is it good for my customers?
2: Is it legal and ethical?
3: Is it something I am willing to be accountable for?
4: Is it within my sphere of responsibility?
5: Is is consistent with my agency’s mission?
6: Am I using my time wisely?
If the answer is yes to all of these questions, don’t ask for permission — you already have it!!
Just do it!
Signed: Deputy Comptroller Bob Attmore
Employee Permission Card
Key questions to ask yourself:
1: Is it good for my customers?
2: Is it legal and ethical?
3: Is it something I am willing to be accountable for?
4: Is it within my sphere of responsibility?
5: Is it consistent with my agency’s mission?
6: Am I using my time wisely?
If the answer is yes to all of these questions, don’t ask for permission – you already have it!!
Just Do it!
Deputy Comptroller Bob Attmore
Please share if you find. Very interesting!
in highly regulated industries, initiative, creativity and innovation are considered dangerous, uncontrolled processes that should be discouraged by stringent punishment. Except when you need to schmooze a customer with how creative, innovative and proactive you are…
Thanks Mitch. I suppose creativity in one situation is stagnation in another.
Hmm very helpful. I have a team leader that takes a lot of “initiative”. Often its outside of the limits (permissions) I set. The response is always the same “do you want me to run my program or not”. I try not to be a micro-manager but I think sometimes when trying avoider that failure I am allowing some personality types to take advantage of the situation.
Thanks Walt. Great addition to the conversation. You remind me that frequent conversations are essential when you want people to take initiative.
Sometimes people don’t realize they are undermining their leader when they unnecessarily violate norms. This is especially true in cultures that initiative is frowned on.
Initiative isn’t the cure for all problems. Sometimes it creates unnecessary problems. I wonder if the idea that creativity is best utilized within limitations would help these types of situations.
Thanks again.
This is a great set of guidelines. I have a number of employees who are great at taking initiative, but sometimes color outside the lines. I recently took over leadership of an organization with rather diffuse boundaries. I don’t want to crush people’s enthusiasm, but also need to set and hold boundaries. This article provided some good advice on how to respond when initiative crosses boundaries – and to reinforce the “no trespass zones.” Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Janet. We don’t want the idea of taking initiative to seem like an easy or simple thing. There are always boundaries.
It seems like establishing boundaries is best done in conversation with everyone involved.
You are so right on. Servant leadership is all about the employee and the team and never about the leader other then their success is the level of measurement for the how well the leader is doing.
Initiative is great when the leader is committed to support and success of the individual. It fails when the leader is driven by hierarchy and attention. I applaud all those leaders who stand in the background while their team rocks worlds and makes positive things happen. If it tweaks you to be in the background…today is a good day to check yourself
Thanks Wilson. When we wonder why people don’t take initiative, one of the places we should look is at ourselves. What are we doing to prevent initiative? How might we be the problem?
Turn Your Ship Around is a great book that fully emphasizes this concept. Great book.
Dan, this subject resonates with me on both the personal and business level. In today’s fast evolving world of cross cultural and experiential interactions the topic is relevant and important. As a seventh decade explorer and inventor nearing the end of my first year as a resident in Morelia, Mexico (influenced by the habitats of Washington DC, Dallas TX, Nashville TN and other travels) I spent my life between the two extremes of asking either forgiveness or permission. I hope you will continue to do the deep dive on this important thread of leadership. Kudos to your focus and works! David
Thanks for sharing! I was in an organization that it’s leader encouraged taking initiative to go seek out problems and implement solutions. They understood at the highest level that having to go and ask and seek approval was slowing down innovation and new ideas. I also agree that we should celebrate those that take calculated risks to achieve better results that are through initiative. I understand there needs to be a balance to avoid insubordination but you don’t want to stunt innovation by creating layers of authority to sign off on new projects/ideas.
Good Day!
We were built on a culture of permission giving. Thank you, this was an enlightening blog. Makes you think of how we got where we are now as far as business and many other industries. I believe many places and organization that I been encouraged initiative by rewarding and grooming me to be prepared for whatever task will come next. Traditionally a dental technician, we would have to anticipate what instrument the dentist would need. We would use this in other practical areas of our job to get ahead of our leaders. It made work that much easier already having what they asked for. The limits of acting without permission would be an organization with unclear guidance or direction. Working in an environment like that you could not confidently anticipate is needed and act without permission. Many proactive and outstanding employees would get “why try” mentality?
Sterling
Excellent insights. Permission-giving is the foundation for most organization structures, starting with the military from thousands of years back and continuing today in our organizations.