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The ability to be proactive is often hailed as a virtue without really ever explaining what it is or how to go about it. Merriam-Webster defines proactive as “acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes.” So, more or less, it means that you’re able to plan ahead.
Reactive, on the other hand, is defined as “of, relating to, or marked by reaction.” The definitions of adjectives can sometimes be confusing, but to react is “to change in response to stimulus.” That means that to be reactive is to respond to stimuli – or to act based on what’s happening right now.
People who are proactive look to the future. They try to foresee potential problems, pitfalls, and side effects of actions and correct them. Proactiveness is important when making decisions with long-term effects. It can be vital in government, business, and even in life planning.
Reactive people, on the other hand, act on things as they come. This isn’t to say that all reactive behavior is bad – there are times when being able to react is vital. Some jobs and situations require being able to react to a situation as it unfolds, such as EMTs, police, soldiers, and firefighters.
Key Takeaways:
| Proactive Behavior | Reactive Behavior |
|---|---|
| Being proactive requires looking ahead and planning for the potential mishaps, shortages, or consequences stemming from what you do. | Being reactive is responding to events and problems as they occur. |
| Proactiveness is seen as a sign of good leadership. | Reactiveness is often considered a sign of poor leadership. |
| Proactive behavior has a positive connotation, implying diligence and competence. | Reactive behavior has a negative connotation, implying shortsightedness and a lack of consideration of your actions. |
| Proactive is a relatively new word, only coming into use in the 20th century. | Reactive is an older word, coming into usage at the beginning of the 18th century. |
What Is Proactive Behavior?
Proactive behavior is looking ahead to see what potential problems you may face and coming up with solutions to them. It’s a way to look ahead, knowing that there will be changes and problems you have to address in the future and anticipating what needs to be done to ameliorate – or at least mitigate – them.
Most synonyms of proactive have to do with looking to the future, such as prescient, foresighted, and forward-looking. Being able to act proactively is an important skill for any sort of leader, be it a manager, military officer, or lawmaker.
Being proactive has many benefits both in terms of an organization and in terms of your personal life. Proactiveness leads to less stress, more stability, and more control over a situation. It allows you to see potential problems before they come to fruition and therefore be able to either prevent them or have a solution to them when they occur.
How can you be more proactive? You can think of it in terms of a goal. Setting a goal and drawing up the steps together is a good start, but thinking proactively is more focused on finding potential pitfalls.
So, once your plan for your goal is complete, stop and look at it again. Ask yourself a few questions. What will happen if you don’t hit your milestones? What might prevent you from hitting them? Are there potential materials or supplies you may not be able to get? Is there a way to make substitutions?
Thinking about a situation proactively is letting out your inner pessimist. What can go wrong, how can it go wrong, and the potential consequences of that? You don’t need to come up with every scenario right away, as that can be overwhelming.
The main key is to then take each problem and see if there’s a way that you can prevent it from happening or minimize its disruptiveness.
Of course, it’s impossible to foresee every issue that could arise. However, if you work with a group, you’re likely to uncover the most likely ones and be prepared for them. The best type of proactiveness is to prevent an issue from occurring at all, but barring that, you can have plans in place for how to react to a situation should it come to pass.
The term proactive is a relatively new word, with its first recorded usage in 1933. That’s likely part of the reason it can sound like a buzzword, along with its popularity in business jargon. It was formed as an opposite of reactive, dropping the re- prefix and replacing it with pro-.
What Is Reactive Behavior?
Reactive behavior is responding to events as they occur. While reactiveness isn’t inherently bad – and can be absolutely necessary – it’s not the most efficient or effective way to deal with most problems.
Being reactive can lead to not having the required resources, personnel, or organization to deal with an issue. Even if you do have the resources and staff, if they don’t know what they’re supposed to do in the circumstance, it can lead to confusion and nothing getting done.
Most of the synonyms of reactive have a negative connotation, as does reactive itself. There’s an implication of a lack of thought – a sort of reflex. The synonyms listed on Merriam-Webster confirm this, including words like knee-jerk, spontaneous, and reflex.
It’s possible, in a sense, to be proactive about your reactive behavior. As it’s impossible to prevent every problem before it happens, it’s important to train people how to react in certain situations. Or, at the very least, have a general plan of action.
Emergency situations do require the ability to be reactive. This includes fires, medical emergencies, and natural disasters. Firefighters, police, medical professionals, and coast guardsmen have to be able to react appropriately to a situation as it unfolds.
Now, most of these professions have a proactive side in the sense that they’ve been trained on how to respond to such a situation.
The word reactive is quite a bit older than proactive, having its first recorded usage in 1717. It had the same basic definition then as it does now, though it has acquired some different meanings over the centuries.
Proactive vs. Reactive FAQ
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Is it bad to be proactive all the time?
It isn’t bad to try to always be proactive, but it’s impossible to achieve it entirely. Proactiveness is a good thing; however, there are always going to be unforeseen circumstances. And there are circumstances where you have to react quickly, where stopping to plan would be detrimental.
It’s important to be able to accept that no one can plan for everything or foresee every potential pitfall. A balance of proactiveness and reactiveness is required for almost every situation.
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What’s the difference between a proactive and a reactive strategy?
The difference between a proactive strategy and a reactive strategy is that one will involve planning ahead and looking for potential problems to avoid, and the other won’t.
A “reactive strategy” is an oxymoron because having a strategy implies planning and forward-thinking, while being reactive implies exactly the opposite. It is possible to describe a continued tendency to wait to react to circumstances as “a reactive strategy,” but that’s a matter of some debate.
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Is it better to be proactive or reactive?
As a rule, it is better to be proactive than reactive. However, it’s impossible to always be proactive. There will always be unforeseen consequences of your actions, meaning that you can’t prepare for every eventuality.
When that happens, being able to be reactive is an important skill. A balance of the two is going to be the best strategy for the majority of circumstances.
Author
Di has been a writer for more than half her life. Most of her writing so far has been fiction, and she’s gotten short stories published in online magazines Kzine and Silver Blade, as well as a flash fiction piece in the Bookends review. Di graduated from Mary Baldwin College (now University) with a degree in Psychology and Sociology.
