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Writer's pictureJade Lee

Anticipation Trumps Reaction

Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is one of the world’s bestselling books on leadership. Guess what the very first habit is? Be proactive. It is far too easy for people to fall into the trap of reactivity. When working in that space, there is no room for strategy. If we imagine a line where proactivity is on the right and reactivity on the left, in the space between proactive and reactive is anticipation.


Using the analogy of a firefighter putting out the fires when there are spot fires everywhere, they are in reactive mode. When there is a fire alarm or another warning installed, they are anticipating the possible fire and allowing the firefighter time to get to the blaze before it gets out of control. When the Firefighter is in a completely proactive space, they spend their time back burning to stop a blaze from getting out of control.


When we can anticipate problems that lie ahead and plan for them, you have a strategy to keep business as usual. In flexible work teams, when you know the personal situation of the team members, you can show consideration for their circumstances. Anticipating problems is not about dreading and worrying about all the things that could go wrong but instead giving some forethought to issues that may arise for those in your team.

To anticipate problems that may arise, you need to have knowledge of the team. For example, if you know that Bob finishes at lunch time on Friday and he has a demanding client group who always leave things until the last minute, have a plan in place where someone can cover Bob should something arise at 4.45pm on Friday afternoon or better yet, give that client group to someone who is happy to push back on their stakeholders and influence them to be more proactive!


Working in a proactive environment also benefits the stress levels of the team and enables us to keep our nervous system regulated. Chronic stress is the biggest cause or workplace burn out. If you would like to learn more about bringing calm to your workplace, please reach out.



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