The proactive leader

A leader is someone who breaks new ground, leads their team from the front, and ensures that every step has a reason and a purpose — showing those who follow that reaching the goal is possible, rewarding the effort of walking a shared path toward a common success. Therefore, a leader must be prepared, inside and out, when starting a venture.

To build a venture you need skills beyond a university degree; to be a leader who builds something, you need your energy channeled, your mind strengthened, and your daily habits aligned with what you want to teach others and what you want to achieve. Being a leader isn't only about having authority, a profession, and an idea.

There's one skill very few people take into account: proactivity. What is proactivity? It's the act of acting quickly to prevent future complications. Proactive people move forward looking for any possible improvement to a situation, instead of complaining while waiting for the solution to fall from the sky.

A leader faces problems every single day — adverse situations, complex circumstances that shake the company's mission and vision — and that's where a true leader's worth is tested. What do you do when a problem threatens your growth, your sales, and your standing as a service or product? Run away? Give up? No — in that moment you must be proactive.

Stephen Covey, a leadership guru, defined "being proactive" as the first habit in his book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" — the first one on the list for achieving effectiveness as a leader. If you want to be an entrepreneurial leader, you need to root yourself in this skill; being proactive is the first trait you must adopt as the head of a project.

Being a victim of circumstances is not an option when you're leading a project or business. You must exercise fortitude, composure, and steadiness, and stand firm to analyze what you can and can't control, focusing your energy on what you can manage with expertise.

To know whether you're a proactive leader, ask yourself these questions:

Are you searching for new opportunities?

Do you set goals aimed at change?

Do you anticipate problems?

Do you take action and take risks despite uncertainty?

Do you persevere until you see your goal achieved?

Do you achieve tangible results?

If after answering these questions you feel you're lacking in proactivity, don't feel lost — seeking specialized guidance and having a support network behind you is an important step you'll need to take to strengthen your entrepreneurial leadership. You're not alone; you can always join a network of purpose-driven leaders where you can gain learning, networking, training in business and brand development, and, most importantly, a place where you can arm yourself effectively to face problems.

Most business leaders abandon their ideas during moments of crisis, when they feel threatened by adverse circumstances, which is why I keep insisting on proactivity: I want you to be the leader who doesn't stall and derail their own success at the first problem.

Being proactive is your goal for taking your service or product to a higher level. Start today.