Why Don't My Employees Take Initiative?

Bob is a service technician. He drives a company truck. He drove it for several days after he noticed the check engine light blinking. Finally, the engine seized up. A repair bill that might have been a few hundred dollars became several thousand dollars due to Bob's lack of initiative. Bob had no good answer for why he didn't report the blinking light when he first noticed it.

These are the kinds of things that drive small business owners batty. My employees can see the piece of paper on the floor just like I can, why don't they pick it up?

Initiative or proactivity is an interesting topic. Turns out there are two possible explanations for why Bob let the truck blow up.

First, proactivity is a personality or behavioral trait similar to extraversion or conscientiousness. Some people score high in proactivity and others low. In Bob's case, if he scored low on an assessment that measures proactivity, he might be as likely to let his personal vehicle blow up as he did his company vehicle. If this is the case, no amount of yelling or disciplinary action is going to make Bob more proactive. He might notify someone the next time the check engine light is blinking, but he's just as likely to miss a new opportunity to proactively contribute as he was the last.

Second, organizations might be inadvertently managing initiative right out of individuals. How can this happen? 

Jane is on the phone with an angry client. There is no specific policy to address this particular client's complaint. Jane proactively offers the client a solution that is "outside-the-box." The customer is happy with the outcome but Jane's manager is furious. Jane gets reprimanded. 

Joe is in the field and encounters a situation he's never run into before. Rather than call his supervisor, he attempts to solve the problem himself. Turns out his effort to solve the problem actually made it a little worse and cost the company a modest amount to correct. Joe gets an earful from his supervisor for not getting permission before attempting the non-traditional fix.

In both of these cases, Jane and Joe were proactive and showed initiative. In both cases, their initiative was met with punishment. If this happens often enough, both Jane and Joe will eventually decide that it's not worth taking initiative. 

So, the very managers who are asking me why their employees aren't proactive might be the very managers who tend to question every decision their employees make and create a culture where it's safer for employees to do nothing than to do something before they've been told to. In other words, they become passive because they've been trained to be passive. 

If hiring proactive individuals is truly an important predictor of success for certain roles in your organization, then you should measure for this during the interview and selection process. If proactivity or initiative is not a significant success factor for your organization, and what you really want are people who are compliant and do only what they're told, then you'll need to accept some mistakes of omission because you're not likely to get many mistakes of commission.