Strategies to unlock a team’s initiative
Leaders crave teams to show initiative it because it drives growth, innovation, and results. People want to show initiative because it stretches their capabilities, helps them stand out and accelerate their careers.
In fact, taking initiative has twice the impact on promotion decisions as simply doing a good job.
But here’s the catch: teams need leaders to make it safe to take initiative before they show it.
If we don’t feel safe, we stay quiet and avoid stepping out of line. We aim for compliance, not innovation.
Here are five signs your team might be struggling with taking initiative:
Approval-seeking: Where it seems every decision needs validation.
Minimal risk-taking: Where defending the status quo is the go to action.
Lack of ideas: Where calls for ideas meet blank faces and shrugs.
Avoiding responsibility: Where no one volunteers to lead or take action to solve a difficult challenge.
Reactive behaviour: Where problems are given, not pursued, found and solved.
How to unlock a team’s initiative if they are stuck? Start by making it safe to take small risks.
Celebrate attempts, not just outcomes: Praise effort and learning, even when the result isn’t perfect.
Start with low-stakes experiments: Encourage small, reversible actions that let people test ideas without fear of failure.
Ask for suggestions, not permission: Frame questions like, “What do you think we could do?”
Model vulnerability: Share your own experiments, mistakes, and what you learned from them.
Celebrate “Little Wins”: Taking risks requires courage. Focusing on little wins, not just the big ones, fuels motivation for longer.
By creating a culture where small risks are expected, supported, and valued, people gradually gain confidence and take more initiative.