Proactivity and creativity: key concepts for professional success

Taking the initiative in every-day situations during working hours, anticipating negative situations and thinking about different ways in which to act in various circumstances are essential in successful professional performance.

If we talk about professional success, proactivity and creativity are elements that cannot be left out due to their high value in the job market. These are abilities that employers search for in their workers nowadays so that they can efficiently solve different kinds of problems and, at the same time, be able to suggest ideas that enable good positioning.

The majority of employees carry out the job that is asked of them without ever going beyond that. Marcela Rojas, advisor for HK Human Capital – InterSearch partner in Chile, believes this is related to the current financial situation and states that “we are facing a difficult economy, therefore, we are on autopilot, achieving the objectives proposed by the company while also trying to fulfil our roles as parents, siblings, etc., which every one of us have in their personal life.”

Rojas mentions several tips to achieve job proactivity, such as being organized in the fulfillment of assigned objectives, paying attention to current market and worldwide trends to improve or make processes more efficient, identifying what produces satisfaction about one’s job and introduce improvements, and asking oneself if there are possible improvements that can be made when finished.

Another way of achieving success and to grow professionally is to be one step ahead of what the employer is asking, such as developing creativity to differentiate oneself from the others.

Many people only associate creativity with youth. Rojas explains that creativity can happen at any age rate and that one of the advantages of younger people over adults is that they have broader Internet access and can gather information faster, such as innovations, technologies and trends that are being used worldwide. “This generates tools to progress together with the demands of the market in relation to differentiation and new ways of doing things,” she adds.

Time is essential in the creative process, but many times companies want immediate results, which does not allow for a space for creativity. “In general, when in a crisis, all the areas in a company such as innovation, new projects, marketing -among others – are the first to be restructured without a space for development,” states the advisor for HK Human Capital (http://cl.intersearch.org).

Nowadays there are different alternatives for creativity. Rojas mentioned that another key variable has to do with physical space. “Many modern companies have developed innovation centres that are an invitation to work collaboratively and that also put technology at the service of their contributors,” asserts the expert.