Top performers take initiatives

Take initiatives. It is a key indicator of the value an employee brings to an organisation and plays a vital role in evaluating performance Sophia Lorena Benjamin When confronted with a situation where you begin to wonder should you just stick to the brief given to you at work or take initiatives in decision making and other important stuff, It is advisable to go with the latter. Take initiatives. Why? It is one of the top work values employers look for. It is a key indicator of the value an employee brings to an organisation and plays a vital role in evaluating performance. Showing initiative is about going beyond simply "doing your job". As you become experienced and more knowledgeable you will be expected to show initiative. That is, expected to take more interest in the work, become more adaptable, be able to anticipate what needs to be done and get on with it, and begin making suggestions on how to do things better. The following checklist will help you assess how well you demonstrate initiative, as well as giving you suggestions for improvement.

Do you:

• Begin new tasks before you are told?
• Look for work to fill any spare time?
• Make yourself available for extra work or overtime?
• Keep communication with superiors open?
• Make suggestions?
• Try to correct mistakes or problems?
• Work without supervision?
• Volunteer for committee work?
• Demonstrate a commitment to learning?

Wise employers understand the goodness of having an open-door policy, but seldom allow it to become a revolving door because once it feels like a revolving door, you may never get to your own work. The secret to getting the best work output is by understanding when and how to delegate.

Listed below are a few ways to achieve organisational as well as individual success: 1. Employers prefer to hire team members, not order-takers. When today's businesses hire people, they look for those who are willing to take initiative and work independently. They don't want someone who expects the same level of training available in a large corporation. They ask probing questions to help ferret out their capabilities, such as: "Give me an example of a time when you had a project to accomplish and didn't know where to start � what did you do first?" 2. Smart companies delegate in stages. Even an employee with initiative can be overwhelmed if dumped with a load of duties without their expectation. The secret is to have new employees shadow experienced workers who can then demonstrate how to handle various aspects of the job. It is important to start small and increase responsibilities as the employee shows the ability to handle it. 3. Delegate responsibilities, not just tasks. Rather than assigning work to someone, give them the responsibility of heading up an area. For example, instead of giving your employee a list of customers to bill, have him or her to manage billing. With your employee developing systems that work and troubleshooting problems, you will have more free time to focus on your own concerns � and they'll feel empowered. 4. Initiate initiatives. One way to do this is by letting your employers know that you are ready to take important decisions, even those which move you out of your comfort zone if the situation demands. Demonstrate success in handling one given task, and then demonstrate that you will need help, less and less as you gain experience. If your employers are not confident in your ability to make decisions on your own, they'll feel they've achieved a wrong hire. 5. Understand that mistakes might occur. No matter how good you are at taking on new initiatives, there are occasions when you may not have the knowledge and expertise that is expected to conduct that task flawlessly. 6. Avoid blame shifting. The magic words here are, "I don't care about whose fault it is, I care about solving the problem." Once your organisation realizes that your focus and attention is on solutions instead of who "caused" the problem, the pressure to shift the blame on you will diminish and real responsibilities will be shared for you to accomplish. 7. Offer unexpected surprises. When you're hired and given autonomy, you must devise and find out better ways to do things than what was outlined or planned originally. It's a real time opportunity for you to gift success as a surprise to your business. (The writer is an image consultant)