Following-on from the theme of the importance of strategic/ creative/ innovative thinking..
Even during our young school years we are encouraged to “use our own initiative”…to think for ourselves. Then why is it the case that still so many adults in work environments ask their employer “how do I ?” and “what should I do ? type questions…even when the situation/ problem/ issue doesn’t really require the employer’s direct involvement ?
The simple answer is, either:
a) the employees concerned are not being encouraged to use (and/ or haven’t grown-up using) their own initiative, and/ or
b) the employees concerned are being lazy and are not willing to apply their own thinking to the issue/ problem/ required action, and/ or
c) the employer has (inadvertently or not) failed to empower their team to think for themselves and apply their own initiative in the business, and/ or
d) the employees concerned have perhaps been reprimanded by their employer on an earlier occasion when their autonomous actions resulted in an undesirable outcome, and their initiative and confidence to act autonomously was quashed as a result (and they now don’t want to be blamed for further undesirable outcomes).
An employer who genuinely embraces and practices strategic thinking tends to also promote employees in their team applying their own thinking/ approaches to resolving issues/ problems, to achieve the desired result/ outcome. In other words, such employers consciously empower their team to apply their own initiative to their work…and as a result this liberating management style tends to teach employees:
i. that by applying their strengths and thought processes to their role they can in fact be effective at resolving their own issues/ problems
ii. that they don’t always need to call upon the knowledge/ expertise of their employer in order to resolve their problems/ issues
iii. that their employer has confidence in their ability to perform the functions expected of them
iv. that their employer is wanting them to “take ownership” of their role
In the words of my wise mother…”give your employees wings so that they can fly“.