I’ve spent most of my life asking for forgiveness rather than permission–it’s dispositional and environmental. I’m described as a high DI (DominanceInfluence)/ Achiever/ Activator/ Challenger on every personality profile. Drop that disposition into the GenX experience of being grossly unmonitored throughout my youth, and you’ve got a great cocktail for initiative. And while that’s brought just as many lumps as it has rewards, the fact is I’m comfortable acting with little guidance. Not everyone feels the same, especially not our younger colleagues fresh in the workforce.
I recognize that while initiative can feel hard to come by for some, creating environments that invite initiative is crucial because, regardless of our dispositions, we need leaders and teammates (at all levels) operating at the top of their licensure. The world is too complex, too connected, and too chaotic for teammates to be sitting on their hands, waiting to be told what to do. We need folks to “find a job” within their roles that leads to mission success. I was steeped in this as a young Ranger.
One core mission set Rangers conduct is Close-Quarters Battle (CQB). CQB is essentially what people think about when they think of special operations. It’s blowing doors off hinges, entering buildings, and clearing rooms by eliminating bad guys and preserving noncombatants. It’s the sexy stuff. When operating in such a fast and dangerous environment, every Ranger needs to be tight and focused because decision-making occurs at every level–from the junior man to the most senior leader. In such controlled chaos, all eyes need to be switched, and all teammates must be ready to initiate the next move by “finding a job” at every moment.
Source: Violence of Action book on Facebook.
Waiting for the breach to blow? Find a job by pulling security. Flowing through a hallway? Find a job by pulling cross-coverage security on a doorway across the hall. Cleared a room? Find a job by posting security in the hallway. Ready to advance into the hallway and onward to the next room? Find a job by becoming the point man of the assault.
Initiative was honed in this arena and spread its tendrils to all areas of life. It's hardwired into the US Army Ranger ethos, where our motto is Sua Sponte, translated as “Of their own accord,” or in legal terms, “an act of authority taken without formal prompting from another party.” In other words, initiative.
“Initiative is the privilege of picking yourself. ”
But not everyone gets the chance to be a Ranger. Not everyone grew up in the unmonitored milieu of the 80s and 90s. Not everyone is a driver. So, while initiative comes naturally for some (like me), it's worth considering how we can enable others to work through environmental and individual means, especially when they are dispositionally prone to ask for permission or come from highly supervised environments. We can establish a culture of initiative by creating an environment that permits, rewards, and encourages initiative while being patient with others who must gather the courage, confidence, and responsibility to initiate.
Permission is the key that unlocks the doorway to initiative. We extend permission through clear vision, mission, goals, and guidance. Extending permission to execute is something that must be explicitly stated. As an 18-year-old Ranger, I was explicitly told to find a job by those who outranked me by ten or more years. Until then, I was expected to keep my mouth shut and do what I was told. We do our teammates a great service by directly permitting their initiative in service of their role in achieving our goals.
That permission becomes lip service without clearly articulating what’s in it for them. Why would a junior teammate put themselves out there without a reward? They wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have found a job as a Ranger Private without knowing I would be rewarded for it; I would have kept my mouth shut for fear of reprisal. But knowing that my team leader and squad leader would tap my shoulder, entrust me with more responsibility, and give me the chance to be their equal in the stack was reward enough for me to try, even when my initiative was a little off.
Those are the moments that really matter when we are trying to encourage a culture of initiative. We must reward initiative when we see it and reward the behavior–even when it’s small and especially when it’s a little off the mark. Off-the-mark initiatives are better than no initiative at all because it’s the effort, not the outcome, that we intend to encourage. We can encourage that behavior while also refining the outcomes. Refining while encouraging is full-contact leadership. And we have to hold that tension to allow those whose dispositions and experiences do not naturally bring about the willingness to operate with little guidance.
We can start giving those teammates a sense of confidence by tapping into their competence. They are on the team for a reason. Remind them this early and often. They brought a set of competencies to the table that we value and need. Training them in how we need them to flex that competence in service of the mission and then providing them with small ways to earn little victories will begin to grow their confidence. No Ranger Private is expected to lead a 40-man raid on their first day. They are expected to be proficient with their weapons and given small tasks like pulling security or carrying the aid litter for the team–responsibilities commensurate with their experience.
Appropriate responsibilities engender responsibility. People are smart enough to know when they’ve been given too much of the apple to bite off. If we want our teammates to feel responsible for their part of the mission, we have to right-size it for their role and tenure and then encourage its growth over time. Assign appropriate responsibilities to your teammates and then step back and give them the space to flex their courage by letting them truly own what you’ve given them.
As a young sales rep, I got a master class in this from my sales director, Joe. Whenever I would reach out for guidance, he would listen, brief back to me what I had shared with him, and then before telling me what to do, he would ask, “What do you think is the best approach at this stage?” He reminded me that my responsibility was mine and that I had the opportunity to courageously suggest the next steps.
Most of the time, I went with what I thought was the next best decision. Every time, he encouraged me and often offered some nuances to expect from his experiences. In this way, he always let the responsibility lie with me while giving me the courage to try. Most times, it worked out. Sometimes it didn’t. Every time, he was there to support me regardless.
That’s the opportunity we have. We have a great opportunity to help our teammates and leaders grow a sense of initiative, whether it's native to them or not, especially in our younger teammates just entering the workforce who have grown up in highly monitored environments. We really can help them grow their initiative and we really need their talent, creativity, and competence to get big things done in our complex and chaotic world.
Let’s help them learn how to find a job and encourage them when they flex some initiative.
