One of the best ways to impress in the workplace is to be proactive. Make things happen in your surroundings and get things done. Make life easier for your Line Management, as this could be extremely beneficial to you in the long run. You can open up opportunities for yourself by proactively showcasing your skills to your employer.

How can I be proactive?

To be successful, you need to set goals for yourself. Set your goals around the work that you are doing in your current employment.

An easy example would be a team target. Instead of thinking about your individual target, aim for the team target. How much influence can you have on the team target? It might be a big ask, but it is exactly what employers look for in stand-out and proactive employees. Really look into what contract or work your company may be doing at the moment and find out what you could bring to the table to help the team as a whole achieve this.

Challenge yourself. Persevere through any setbacks and push yourself. Be persistent. Set smaller goals if the large aim seems mountainous. Expect from yourself - Excellence should be the expected minimum.

Be flexible. As much as you can try, you're not going to be able to plan for everything. If (and when) a setback occurs, try to be ready to adapt to a situation to prove your flexibility and worth. 

Go above and beyond for your Employer/Line Manager. 

If you can be a go-to person for your Line Manager, then that will show trust, dependency, and responsibility from your end.

What this could open up for you in terms of your career could be life-changing; and we don't exaggerate when we say that - a good example would be a potential promotion, moving up the ladder because of your work. 

Some benefits of being proactive would be having control over your future, being relaxed and prepared and seeming organized at all times. 

This goes for your employment as well. Much of what you will gain from being proactive is natural working ability. What that means is a change in your mindset. You will instinctively make decisions in your work that will benefit you and your employer. You will naturally prepare yourself for even small things, but will excel at them. You will drive plans through to the end. Things that might have seemed difficult to you previously will become easier because you are now using a different approach, a more proactive approach.

Changing your mindset is one of the hardest things to do, but training yourself to become more proactive can combat the difficulties involved with that change.

You will gain the knowledge to recognize a potential problem in your workplace and can quickly come up with a solution. When your mindset changes to a proactive one, these are the advantages it can have.

You will work in advance of facing any potential issues and be ready if they happen. It means you'll have all your bases covered and you won't need to shout RED ALERT if something goes wrong; because let's face it, things go wrong! When they do, don't shy away from your responsibilities. The purpose of being proactive is that you can face these problems head on and minimise the pressures of things going wrong, moving forward quickly to bring things back to the normal chaos of the business.

Being proactive gives you the tools to look at the bigger picture and take everything into account when making decisions. If the company moves the goalposts in terms of targets or KPIs, then you will be able to adapt to each new challenge. You will give yourself peace of mind in your surroundings and you will no longer worry about the demands of the work-force, as you are now ready for anything that the job might throw at you.

Being proactive enables you to meet Compliance, SLAs and any KPIs. Mistakes will become decrease and your job will become easier. 

All roads lead upwards when you approach employment from a proactive perspective. Prepare yourself for that promotion because your value is being recognized and they will soon seek you out.

Why not check out How to Ask for a Promotion, which deals with moving up through the ranks at work? Good luck!