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Making a Habit of...... Being Proactive
This is the first in a series of seven articles based around Steven R Covey’s excellent book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” We will be looking at each of these habits over the next seven issues of 5 Minute Insights and showing how they can be applied in the world of insight.
Ready or not?
We can respond to any situation that arises in life in two ways: by being proactive or reactive. Covey states that proactive people can actively choose their response, whereas reactive people are forced to react blindly, and can get swept away by the heat of the moment. We can take the initiative in any situation, controlling it - or we can let the situation control us.
He goes on to say that proactive skills are developed in everyday events – and that our response to minor irritations will ultimately affect our response to much more critical events. It isn’t what happens to us that is important: it’s how we respond to it that can make all the difference in terms of our effectiveness.
Proactive insight
These principles also apply to the world of insight. Some Insight Managers feel that they are always on the ‘back foot’, having to react to a constant stream of demands. The challenge is to turn this situation around and to start being more proactive – and therefore more effective.
There are four key steps to becoming more proactive:
- Understand your business’s needs – by getting close to the key people and discovering their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Become involved in their business planning needs, and think through their likely insight needs.
- Plan in advance wherever possible – by developing an annual plan for your main projects and identifying where you can ‘kill two birds with one stone’.
- Prioritise your work – through a commitment to evaluating each project from the start. Check how much information is available from existing knowledge and only undertake the most worthwhile projects.
- Learn to say, “No!”
If your resources are limited, you won’t be able to be proactive with everyone all of the time. However, if you follow the above steps, you should at least start to become more effective in your insight work.
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