Deliberate-Proactive Leadership Style

Because of the importance of leadership in health systems, strategies and solutions, I will like to end the book by copying and pasting my thoughts on leadership from a book on leadership and management that I coauthored. All leaders operate with a known or unknown style, but extraordinary leaders use a deliberate-proactive style to deliver extraordinary results

Definition of Terms

Deliberate: This is “to think about or discuss issues and decisions carefully,” and it is “characterized by or resulting from careful and thorough consideration” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). To be deliberate is to fully aware of the consequences resulting in slow, unhurried, and steady steps in life. Deliberate leaders think, reflect, reason, or speculate, and are intentional and willing to do things voluntarily.

Leadership:  Leadership is “the deliberate act, art, process, and or science of inspiring, influencing, motivating, and galvanizing people to do assigned work without coercion, fear or prejudice.” (Oleribe, 2020)

Proactive: To be proactive is to act “in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes” (Merriam-Webster, n.d). Proactive people are farseeing, farsighted, forehanded, foreseeing, foresighted, forethoughtful, forward, forward-looking, prescient, provident, and visionary.

Style: “A distinctive manner of expression, or custom of behaving or conducting oneself.” It is also “a particular manner or technique by which something is done, created, or performed.” (Merriam-Webster, n.d).

This section will look at deliberate-proactive in a more innovate way as a 21^st century leadership style.

WHY DELIBERATE AND PROACTIVE?

People believe that one cannot be proactive without being deliberate or vice versa. But this is not true. People could be deliberate, proactive, or both. However, why majority of people are not DELIBERATE in their approach to leadership, a few are PROACTIVE.

To be deliberate means to do things “consciously and intentionally.”, “careful and unhurried” or engage in things or activities after long and careful consideration (Oxford Lexico, 2021). Deliberate is similar to intentional, calculated, conscious, planned and willfully done activities. It is also activities that are purposeful, premeditated, thought out in advance, preconceived, etc.

On the other hand, proactive means the ability of an individual to create or control a situation rather than just respond to it after it has happened (Oxford Lexico, 2021). Proactive is similar to the habit or character of being enterprising, energetic, goal driven, bold, dynamic, and motivated. Thus, while deliberate refers to the way an activity is done and or executed, proactive refers to the person engaged in the activity. Deliberate is event driven, while proactive is people oriented. One can therefore be deliberate in approach, without being proactive in orientation; or be proactive in behaviour, without being deliberate in practice.

To be deliberate and proactive is a leadership skill that all leaders should acquire for a geometric leap in results, outputs, and benefits of activities in leadership. This is all leaders operate with a known or unknown style, but extraordinary leaders use a deliberate-proactive style to deliver extraordinary results – Thus the Deliberate-Proactive Leadership Style.

Leadership is the essence of life as there is a component of leadership in everything we do. Every time there is a gathering of people (or even animals), leadership is vital. Leadership is relevant for productivity, profiting, progress, and promotions in life. Leadership is needed for world peace, prosperity, and posterity. In the absence of leadership, chaos and crisis ensue. 

There is and will always be a need for leadership. The key questions of leadership are – what kind of leadership do we have, are we exposed to, and are we beneficiaries or victims of? Many people lead, but do not know their leadership styles or models. In this section, we will be exploring a new and vital leadership concept – DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADERSHIP (DPL) STYLE.

Let us begin this with a known fact: God is a Deliberate-Proactive leader. According to the Bible, He deliberately created the world in six days, and proactively made provision for light before He created other things, such as; water before the fishes, land before the trees and animals, and food, water and other human necessities before He made man (Genesis 1:1 – 31).

In setting the Israelites free from Egypt, again He was so deliberately proactive that before setting them free, He caused the Egyptians to favour the Israelites with gifts of gold, silver and other precious things that took care of most of their needs for 40 years in the wilderness (Exodus 3:21 – 22; 12:36).

But, Moses was slightly different. He was not deliberately proactive in leadership as he allowed the people to be thirsty and murmur before he provided water, and hungry and famished before he provided food (Exodus 15:4, 16:2-3, 17:3).

Like God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Saviour came with a Deliberate-Proactive leadership style as He always knew what to do per time (John 6:6). He was deliberate and proactive in empowering His disciples with knowledge and power before leaving them on earth as He knew they could not survive without them. He was deliberate and proactive when He gave the great commission. He was deliberate and proactive when He paid the price on the cross. Jesus, is another amazing Deliberate-Proactive leader.

In modern times, we have had a number of Deliberate-Proactive leaders like Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, etc. Barack Obama (for instance) became the first Black American President not by chance, but through Deliberate-Proactive leadership. When he knew he would go into politics and the challenges that would face him as a black American, he deliberately proactively cleaned up his past and documented his few errors in his autobiography making it very difficult for any to accuse him of any wrong doings. During his eight years in the White House, he led the American people using a Deliberate-Proactive leadership style. The way he handled Obamacare, for example, is a product of his Deliberate-Proactive leadership style.

When my mother, Mercy Ure Oleribe lost her husband in 1988, she became a Deliberate-Proactive leader and was able to – with minimal income – keep the family together. She supported the training of her children, many to graduate level, and lived to enjoy her old age with minimal health challenges.

Over the past 30 years, as a medical student and later a public health leader, I have led through this Deliberate-Proactive approach. This approach has minimized financial crisis, personal and interpersonal conflicts during my stay as a staff of USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tanzanian Ministry of Health, and as the Chief Executive Officer of Excellence and Friends Management Care Center (EFMC). This strategy, also, recently gave birth to new opportunities in the United States of America. Although EFMC was privileged to manage a number of USA funded projects, Deliberate-Proactive leadership approach saved the organization from liquidation when funding ceased.

Unlike reactive leadership styles that are crisis prone, Deliberate-Proactive leadership approach requires proper and advanced planning, preparation, foresight and provision. Deliberate-Proactive style takes time and energy, but the gains are worth the efforts. It requires building today what may be needed in 20 years’ time – this was how I was able to finish my doctorate program in 24 months.

Yes, it is costly, but the benefits are amazing. Permit me to take you on a walk into Deliberate-Proactive leadership style, and let us discover the characteristics, qualities and benefits of this never discussed leadership style.

I ask that you read, reflect, and apply on daily basis as you lead others. Together, let us consciously build DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE leaders who will make positive differences in our world today, tomorrow and in the years to come. 

INTRODUCING DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADERS

My father died during my first year in medical school. Following his death, friends and family members asked that I stop schooling to allow my elder sisters to complete theirs, since there were not enough resources to fund all our training at the same time. I refused, knowing the benefits of education.

Since I knew that money was an issue, I began teaching in commercial schools to make extra income, chose my friends deliberately, and read extensively so as to help students who could afford past question papers solve the questions. I also, took textbooks of the well-to-do students early in the semester and read them cover to cover, summarized them in small notebooks which became my core revision materials after my class notebook. All these I did deliberately and proactively, and not reactively or by chance.

When I graduated, and survival became very difficult, I deliberately and proactively chose to study Public Health to make extra income to help my family, while living a relatively normal life. Deliberately, I left Lagos for Abuja on December 18, 1998; deliberately, I sought for and obtained employment with the Federal Ministry of Defence and three years down the line, left for my residency at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu.

While at UNTH, I deliberately and proactively started a Master’s in Public Health programs at the University of Benin and completed both Part 1 and MPH at about the same time. After graduation, I deliberately and proactively decided to work for US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention for three years, Tanzanian Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (TFELTP) for a year; and later started Excellence and Friends Management Care Centre (EFMC) before moving to the United States.

As the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Excellence and Friends Management Care Centre, I applied and proactively obtained admission for a study Master’s degree in Business Administration and doctorate in Public Health and completed both courses concurrently in two to three years. It is instructive that through Deliberate-Proactive leadership, I was able to complete my doctorate in 24 months.

Through Deliberate-Proactive leadership, I also commenced and completed several projects on time, concurrently managed three organizations, as well as serve as a faculty in two universities. A lot can be achieved through Deliberate-Proactive leadership style – thus the need to share this concept here

You may have heard about several leadership styles and techniques. Allow me to introduce the Deliberate-Proactive Leadership (DPL) Style. Some leaders are transformational, transactional, democratic, collaborative, autocratic, situational, etc. in practice. Through these leadership styles, they achieve various degrees of success. Their successes depend sometimes on the situation, follower-ship, and means of communication.

However, all extraordinary leaders are both Deliberate in their approach and Proactive in their mind-set. They are therefore Deliberate-Proactive leaders. Deliberate-Proactive leaders are leaders who consciously and purposely think ahead, plan ahead, prepare ahead, provide ahead, and communicate deliberately and proactively. They consciously and proactively work with and through people, make timely decisions, accurately communicate expectations, challenge others to think, are accountable to others, lead by example, and reward good behaviour and outcomes. In addition, they properly deploy talents, ask questions and seek counsel, solve problems immediately, have enthusiastic attitude, are great teachers, invest in relationships and genuinely love responsibilities.

Thus, although they are result oriented, they work with and through people with all, been and remaining happy at the end of the process. It is important to note that Deliberate-Proactive leaders tend to achieve pre-planned project’s objective(s) with pre-identified strategies for pre-documented outcomes within pre-agreed timeframes, at pre-stipulated quality standards and pre-negotiated cost with pre-engaged human resources.  This is what distinguishes leaders with these skills from the rest.

Deliberate-Proactive leadership style is used by extraordinary leaders to achieve extraordinary results all through their leadership experience consistently and continuously irrespective of the situation, followers and communication strategies. Let us begin with how proactive leaders see things.

INTRODUCING DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADERS

Leadership has been defined severally by diverse authors and personalities. For instance, leadership is seen as “A temporary, dynamic condition that can be developed and demonstrated by any person willing to adopt a certain mind-set and implement certain key skills and competencies” (Wheetman & Cameron, 2005). It is also said to be “The process of directing and influencing the task-related activities of group members” (Stoner, et al, 1995). Rosemary, et al. (1980) saw it as the “Art of influencing, guiding and managing effectively” while Shortell, and Kaluzny, (2000) saw it as “… the process through which an individual attempts to intentionally influence other individuals or a group in order to accomplish a goal.”

Although all these and many others are right in their views of who a leader or what leadership is, we understand that leaders are individuals who

• Know (or have an idea of) where they are going (VISION)
• Know (or have an idea of) how to get there (STRATEGY)
• Help others achieve set goals (PEOPLE ORIENTED).
• Direct the operation of the system (SYSTEMATIC)
• Develop and operationalize plans to achieve results (EFFECTIVE)
• Ensure timelines are achieved and products are of the right quality (PROMPT)
• Take full responsibility and are accountable for the success or failure of a system (RESPONSIBLE), and
• Work to build and develop others to do better, achieve more, and become great leaders (SUCCESSION).

If these are what leaders are and do, then there must be a deliberate and all-encompassing definition of leadership. Thus, I define leadership as the deliberate act, art, process and or science of inspiring, influencing, motivating and galvanizing people to do assigned work without coercion, fear or prejudice. It is an act as it comes by practice; art as it is a unique way of doing things; process as it is not an event, but a number of activities and events, and science as it can be taught and transferred. Finally, it is deliberately done. This also shows that there are no two identical leaders. Every true leader lead by ensuring that their presence:

• make people want to go the extra mile, do what they have never done before, and make them believe in themselves (INSPIRING).
• make people behave, talk, walk, act or even smile/frown like you (INFLUENCING).
• reawaken people from their slumber, causing them to believe in themselves, and in the prescribed or described business model and pay the price for any goal or target set (MOTIVATING).
• stimulate people, spurring and electrifying them to do the work at the right quality, time and cost (GALVANIZING).

Every true leader is Deliberate as leadership is a choice and not a chance occurrence.

The final goal of leadership is to get the work done through satisfied, empowered and engaged people. Leadership helps others achieve set goals at the right time, quality, and budget; direct the operation of the system, develop, and operationalize plans; and organize and manage resources.  So, leaders make people do their works smiling, laughing, and fully engaged without coercion, fear, or prejudice.

This definition is applicable in all areas of life. In public health, it is seen as “the deliberate act, art, process, and science of inspiring, influencing, motivating, and galvanizing healthcare workers and professionals to effectively and efficiently utilize scarce resources to achieve public health objectives that ensure sustainable health and well-being of the community across a given area of jurisdiction.”

To achieve these goals of leadership, a leader must be DELIBERATE and PROACTIVE in approach. The leaders that use this Deliberate-Proactive leadership approach are not transactional or transformational; not situational or task-oriented, or whatever. Moreover, Deliberate-Proactive leaders (DPL) are neither autocratic, democratic, Laissez- faire or bureaucratic, they are just deliberately proactive.

Before spending some time to discuss DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE Leadership Style, it is important we amplify some of the common leadership styles and strategies already in existence. These include (not comprehensive):

• Autocratic Leadership Style: As earlier explained in Chapter 7, leaders with this style are very much task oriented and are hard on their workers. This style centres all authorities and responsibilities on the head of the team. An authoritarian makes decisions on their own without consulting subordinates. After making decisions, decisions are then communicated to the various key players to implement. Here, employees are neither considered or consulted prior to a decision but are expected to obey, implement, and adhere to the decision as stipulated by the leader. With authoritarian leaders, prompt responses and implementation are expected. Questions for clarification are not entertained as there is little or no flexibility in this work environment. This leadership style is very vital in some important professions like the military, paramilitary, and police. It is also relevant when time is limited, work package is very sensitive or expensive, or team members are not knowledgeable/skilled enough to make meaningful inputs. When used among professionals, it limits value adding contributions.
• Democratic Leadership Style. Unlike autocratic style, democratic leadership style allows the leader to make decisions with relevant input from each team member. This is also sometimes referred to as participative or team leadership style. In this style of leadership, each staff member has a voice that must be heard and is heard before the leader makes the final decision. It is very useful when time is not limited, team members are equally informed, and skilled; and their contributions will enhance the quality of the decision made. It allows lower-level employees to exercise authority which helps their leadership growth, enhances their self-image and ensures maximum inputs from all well-meaning team members. It allows for active upward, sideward, and downward communication unlike the autocratic that is mostly downward. It ensures fairness, competence, creativity, courage, intelligence and honesty (Becker, 2020).
• Country-Club Leadership Style: Unlike autocratic and democratic that is highly result oriented, leaders with this style are purely people oriented. They prefer to be accepted by the people than achieve the goals of the organizations. They are welfare minded, want to save lives and ensure nobody is harmed either by their works or the clients they serve. They use predominantly reward power to maintain discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals; and are incapable of employing the more punitive, coercive and legitimate powers as they do not want to jeopardise their relationships with the other team members. This leadership style is very effective in hostage negotiation, but not in work environment where targets are critical.
• Laissez-faire Leadership Style: Also called impoverished leadership style, gives authority to employees. Leaders that guide with this style allow employees and subordinates to work as they choose with minimal or no interference as the leader totally trusts their capacity, skills and judgement to perform their job by themselves satisfactorily. Such leaders are said to use a “delegate and disappear” management style as they detach themselves from the team process while allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles. This leadership style is most productive when the team members are experts of the subject, and or consultants whose integrity are at stake. When used with the wrong group of people, productivity declines.
• Transformational Leadership Style: Transformational leaders initiate change in organizations, groups, oneself and others; empower people to do it themselves and work to make themselves jobless as people go independent. By this leadership style, people are motivated to do more than they originally intended or thought possible resulting in higher performance by each individual and the organization at large. Transformational leadership build more committed, engaged, empowered, focused, and satisfied followers.
• Transactional Leadership Style: Unlike transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style involves an exchange process, resulting in immediate, tangible rewards to followers for carrying out the leader’s orders. It focuses on exchange between leaders and followers. To ensure quality transaction, transactional leadership focuses on clarifying what is expected of followers, explaining how to meet such expectations, and allocating rewards that are contingent on meeting objectives.
• Bureaucratic Leadership Style: Those that lead by this style go by the books. Although they might listen and consider the input of employees, they reject all inputs that are in conflict with company policy or past practices. There is lack of innovation and creativity here. And although employees under this leadership style may not feel as controlled as they would under autocratic leadership, there is still a lack of freedom in how much people are able to do in their roles.
• Situational Leadership Style: This refers to leaders that regularly adjust their leadership styles to fit the development level of the followers they are trying to influence or the situation at hand. Leaders with this style regularly change their style to meet the leadership requirements of their followers. In this leadership style, followers are not mandated to change to meet the style of leaders.
• The Path-Goal Leadership Model/Style: Leaders with this style give their employees or followers a clear path they must follow to achieve expected goals. Through this, they avoid or remove pitfalls and barricades.

Other leadership styles include servant, strategic, coach, authentic, contingency styles of leadership. A leadership style could be strategic, tactical, or operational. While Strategic leadership strategy is seen primarily at the top of an organization but is not limited to those at the top, tactical is seen mid organizational, and operational is seen at the lower rump of the system. Strategic leaders create high-performance organizations by developing strategic plans, tactical leaders develop operational plans from the strategic plans, and operational leaders implement them. Strategic leadership drives the organization into the future as they create and implement change through strategic thinking. They anticipate future needs of the organization, society or community, and make decisions in the present to meet those needs.

DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADERSHIP CONSTRUCTS AND HABITS

Self-Efficacy: Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) have self-efficacy. They believe in themselves and in “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.” DPL belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation (Bandura, 2010, Cherry, 2021).

Self- Control: Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) have good self-control. They have the ability to control themselves, in particular their emotions and desires or the expression of themselves in their behaviours, especially in difficult situations (Oxford University Press, 2021). DPL are able to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviour in the face of temptations and impulses, and this builds on their believe in themselves and their capability to organize and execute a defined line of action – including controlling their emotions.

Self-Empowerment: Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) take control of their lives, set goals, and make positive choices because they naturally and by practice have good understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and have unshakable belief in themselves (Shah, 2015). To maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses, they regularly empower themselves through meditation, studying, research, mentorship and frequent on the job practice of what they learn and see.

Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) Constructs and Habits

Self-Encouragement: Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) make sure that they surround themselves with thoughts and people who will encourage them instead of finding fault. They choose their friends wisely and ensure that people around them are not threatened by their successes, and periodically focus on what they have (their strengths, skills, talents, gifts and networks) and what they have accomplished instead of what they lack or do not have (Engel, 2018).

Self-Fulfilment: Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) live and lead to fulfil their hopes and ambitions (Oxford University Press, 2021).

They apply the above constructs of sell efficacy, self-control, self-empowerment and self-encouragement to achieve Self-fulfilment which results in the realizing of one’s deepest desires and capacities. A deliberately proactive leader is a strategic leader who is able to systematically use the five Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) constructs to build a DPL Habit style which include to think ahead, plan ahead, prepare ahead, provide ahead and communicate deliberately and proactively.

• Think Ahead. Although Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) are in the present, they are futuristic in their thought process. They are regularly consumed by thoughts on what could happen, go well or go wrong; what else should be done; what vision should be pursued; what new products should be produced; what new services should be rendered; etc. They think ahead. Deliberately-Proactive leaders work with their team to conquer the future before they arrive there. They do not need market surveys of what is currently available to discover what people will want; rather, they project into the future to find out what people would want and make it available before the clients get there. Once produced, they market their invention to the people, and help them decide to upgrade their lives and standards to use the new products.
• Plan ahead. Deliberate-Proactive leaders know that failing to plan is planning to fail, and that proper planning prevents poor performance. So, they plan ahead. With their mind set at the future, they plan to ensure safe landing at all stages of life. They plan ahead to mitigate change in government policies, economic stagnation or downturn, unrest or conflicts, and other natural and manmade disasters. Because they plan ahead, they are never caught unawares, minimize crisis and firefighting. They are always ready for any and every eventuality.
• Prepare ahead. Deliberate-Proactive leaders, beyond planning for the future, prepare ahead of time. They do not abandon their plans but run with them to achieve the set goals. They, therefore, prepare physically, intellectually, financially, socially, spiritually, and emotionally to meet the future challenges. If they want to win prizes in the future, they plan and prepare. Before they decide to do anything, they prepare for it. They are always physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, socially, and financially ready for all life eventualities. They hate surprises and thus get themselves ready before anything like policy or otherwise will affect them.
• Provide ahead. Deliberate-Proactive leaders, beyond planning and preparing for the future, provide ahead. They provide the needed resources – money, materials, minutes (time), machine, and manpower needed to execute the plans developed. Deliberate-Proactive Leaders (DPL) in providing for the future goes beyond money to also provide enough time for the execution of the plans, enough equipment and machines, enough manpower and any other resources needed to execute the plan developed. DP leaders never run out of supplies as they provide enough for any program, project, assignment or deal. They focus on the 5Ms – manpower, materials, machines, minutes, and money – to ensure enough provisions are made for plan implementation.
• Communicate Deliberately and Proactively. Deliberate-Proactive leaders understand that communication is vital for effective leadership and followership. Thus, they invest in timely and strategic communication. They provide information to their team members before the need arises. They never give room for people to speculate, imagine or draw their own conclusions. Rather, they report on time, and share the future while in the present. With a Deliberate-Proactive leader, the future is here, so they run with the future while in the present.

A Deliberate-Proactive Leader can use any of the current styles and strategies such as democratic, autocratic, transactional, or transformational depending on the situation, followership, communication channel or other relevant factors. The figure depicts how Deliberate-Proactive leadership style relates with other leadership styles.

It is the deliberate utilization of the five constructs and habits that results in Deliberate-Proactive leadership style. Moreover, DPL are able to utilize any of the other leadership styles as adjuncts to the DPL constructs and habits to deliver results in real-life situations. 

HALLMARK OF DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADERS

Remember that leadership is the deliberate act, art, process, and or science of inspiring, influencing, motivating, and galvanizing people to do their assigned work without coercion, fear or prejudice. Leadership is a learned behaviour that over time becomes unconscious and automatic resulting in improved effectiveness and efficiency in the execution of given tasks and assignments. Deliberate-Proactive (DP) leaders serve as the enablers of talent, culture, and results.

Deliberate-Proactive leaders see their positions as opportunities to do good, not a command-and-control center, and value employees’ efforts in decision making and product delivery. They do not see numbers as being more important than people. They delegate, but with adequate oversight (hands off, but eyes on). They make decisions with available data and are willing to take reasonable risks to achieve organizational goals. They share the victory and accept the failures, communicate timefully avoiding guess works, speculations and wrong insinuations; pay salaries and wages as and when due, and do not use delayed salaries to blackmail or bargain for more/better work. Deliberate-Proactive leaders are polite, humble and submissive even to lower team members in order to achieve set goals.

In summary, good Deliberate-Proactive (DP) leaders:

• 1. Work with and through people: DP leaders understand that leadership is all about people – working through and with people to achieve set and future goals. They plan, prepare, and provide resources that people will use to deliver quality results. They communicate timely and accurately and make others feel safe to speak-up, make contributions and participate in the process. They deflect attention away from themselves and encourage others to voice their opinions. DPL recognize that people must be led, while things (machines and supplies) are managed.
• 2. Make timely Decisions: Leaders are known by the quality of decisions they make. Deliberate-Proactive leaders make hard and great decisions quick and timely. Although they make decisions fast, these decisions are thought through and speed is a function of using effective decision-making techniques and unusual access to quality information. From thinking and planning, they understand the trajectory of events. This is fast track decision making process. Thus, they are expert decision makers – either individually or via team activities.
• 3. Communicate Expectations Accurately: DP leaders are great communicators. They understand the role of communication in leadership and, therefore, accurately and timely communicate expectations, work packages and diverse processes to their team members timefully. Through communication, they share the vision, the product of their planning, preparation, and provision exercises.
• 4. Challenge others to Think: Thinking prevents stinking. DP leaders challenge teams and team members to think and stretch to achieve more. They keep their team always on their toes with new ideas, challenges and insights. With DP leaders, you are never allowed to get comfortable or enter a comfort zone. But you are constantly motivated and stimulated to aspire higher, acquire more knowledge and skills, and attain more. With DP leaders, you think to learn, learn to grow, and over time, grow to take over in your field, politics, and other works of life.
• 5. Are Accountable and Responsible to Others: DP leaders are not proud, stubborn or stiff necked, but are answerable and accountable to their teams within and outside their organizations. Accountability ensures their colleagues’ needs are met timely. This also makes followers to know that the leader focuses more on the success of the team members rather than on just their own.
• 6. Lead by Example: DP leaders walk the talk and not just talk the talk. They practice what they preach and work to prevent performance shortfall. They only say what they are willing to implement and vice versa. They strive to be the change they want to see either privately or publicly.
• 7. Reward Good Performances: DP leaders identify core/key output/performance indicators (KPI), measure and reward team members’ performance as often as possible. They focus on the bottom line, but with a human angle. They regularly review the results, and measure performance, and reward accordingly. They actively acknowledge hard work and support/reward consistent performers. DP leaders recognize and celebrate small as well as big wins in and with their teams.
• 8. Properly Deploy Talent: DP leaders are human resource specialists. They work to understand their people and the talent in the system, then plan to maximize them by deploying them into positions of greatest productivity. They work deliberately to activate the unique (sometimes unknown and unexploited) capabilities of their staff, supervisees and mentees. DP leaders ensure that best people are put into best positions for best outcomes.
• 9. Ask Questions, Seek Counsel: DP leaders recognize the amazing capacities in people, understand that two good brains are better than one, and thus, buy into the minds of people around them by regularly asking questions and seeking counsels, even for minor issues. They believe (and rightly too) that everyone knows something and therefore, have something to offer. Although people may think they know it all, DP leaders learn from everything and everyone around them and work daily to satisfy their deep thirst for knowledge. They are always on the look-out to learn new things because they are committed to making themselves better through the wisdom of others and things around them.
• 10. Solve Problems Now: DP leaders hate and avoid procrastinations, and thus solve not just problems, but solve them NOW. They work to solve problems as quickly as possible. They are bold, courageous, and ready to face leadership challenges to erase it. DP leaders tackle issues head-on applying good problem-solving skills and techniques. As they keep solving problems effectively and efficiently, they become incredibly proficient at problem solving. Actually, DP leaders expect problems, welcome them, and consciously learn from each problem they come across. DP leaders get ahead in life by doing the things that most people would not like doing.
• 11. Enthusiastic Attitude:1 DP leaders are passionate, always enthusiastic, full of energy and create a positive and inspiring workplace culture. They motivate, energize, and know how to set the tone of their environment. By their attitude, they motivate their colleagues to act, even when not convenient. Their positive attitudes make them easily likeable, respected and loved. With DP leaders, failures are not allowed to disrupt momentum.
• 12. Are Great Teachers: DP leaders love to teach and are apt at passing information, knowledge and skills to their followers and mentees. They always seek out opportunities to teach, impact and build, to enhance the capacity of their followers. DP leaders never cease to teach, mentor and impact others as they are self-motivated. In teaching, DP leaders keep their followers and themselves informed of recent trends, information and developments. When the need arises, DP leaders, pay the cost for the development and training of their team members as this also enhances their overall team performances.
• 13. Invest in Relationships: DP leaders invest in relationships as they spend their time, talents and treasures to build, enhance and sustain relationships. They are good at identifying destiny helpers and spending quality time with them. They build others as they build themselves, develop others as they develop themselves, train others as they train themselves, and pay for others growth as they pay for their own growth. They unite and befriend people that will broaden their sphere of influence for their own advancement and that of others.
• 14. Genuinely Enjoy Responsibilities: As leadership is all about responsibilities, DP leaders seek and genuinely enjoy responsibilities that enhance their leadership capacity and deliver good outcomes. Through responsibility, they create meaningful and purposeful impact on others and the system. They love to use their position, skills, and expertise to serve others and this they genuinely enjoy doing.

HALLMARK OF DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADERS

These are two ends of a spectrum. While Deliberate-Proactive (DP) leaders think two steps ahead with everything they do, reactive leaders focus on the present (Brandedworld, 2020). DP leaders consciously work to engage with employees and take interest in their works, while reactive leaders do not work so much with their team members as their primary goal is to solve existing problems that woke them from sleep. DP, unlike reactive leaders, share knowledge, and provide constructive feedback to followers to improve on their outcome.

To succeed and leave lasting impact on the organization, strive to be a Deliberate-Proactive leader, rather than a reactive leader (Ong, 2014). While DP leaders take responsibility for their management roles, lead by example, and ensure innovation and continuous improvement in their leadership journey; reactive leaders wait for problems to arise before addressing them, scuttle from one crisis to another crisis, and never work to improve the organization. Leaders at middle or top-level management require Deliberate-Proactive leadership with forward-thinking mentality.It is vital to know that Deliberate-Proactive leaders (Ong, 2014).

• 1) Think and plan long term
• 2) Inspire and motivate others;
• 3) Are great listeners and communicators;
• 4) Are highly organized;
• 5) Have great problem-solving and decision-making skills;
• 6) Seek advice from team members, and get their hands dirty when required;
• 7) Are compassionate and loyal; and integrity-filled attitude
• 8) Have a calm demeanor;
• 9) Know how to utilize team strengths: and
• 10) Take criticism well.

Because Deliberate-Proactive leaders are always ready to build their skill set and learn from mistakes, they take constructive criticisms – both positive and negative to improve their future leadership processes.

MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF A DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADER

While reactive leaders are often in a confused state of constant activities towards achieving organizational goals, Deliberate-Proactive leaders are deliberate, calculative, purposeful, and work with greater ease (Markovich, 2021). DP leaders anticipate and plan for events before they manifest. This practice results in positive outcomes and productive work environment.

Deliberate-Proactive leaders

• (1) Expect challenges and handle them with their teams using best problem-solving techniques and approaches;
• (2) Accept feedback – positive and negative – and learn to improve their leadership capacities from them;
• (3) Prioritize and implement activities accordingly using prior developed plans and back-up plans;
• (4) Stay focused on set objectives and company/organizational goal;
• (5) Ask and seek for helps when needed to achieve set objectives
• (6) Are self-controlled, psychologically balanced and calm in most situations;
• (7) Take deliberate steps to achieve organizational goals;
• (8) Are positive change receptive and very quick to alter strategies to achieve success;
• (9) Believe resolutely in themselves and their abilities to create positive results; and
• (10) Inspire others to achieve set goals.

STRIVE FOR DELIBERATE-PROACTIVE LEADERSHIP

Globalization and advances in technology, if not properly managed, may make one easily a reactive leader by default, as within minutes, many activities may fill your diary allowing little or no time for planned events (Brearley, 2018). It is easy to ride the wave that other people have created, but this is normally not as productive as desired. Deliberate-Proactive leadership is a choice that requires courage and self-discipline; and one need to create time to focus on and do the things that matter most. DP leaders work with plan, have error preventive rather than error corrective mentality and strategies, minimize the impact of problems and risk, focus on the very important tasks while delegating the rest. DP leaders aim for 80 / 20 especially on the “Not Urgent, but Important” tasks. Delegating gives the leader enough time for better thinking, planning, and execution.DP leaders future-proof their teams as they reduce the chance of issues occurring by:

• · addressing key risks;
• · understanding and improving organizational processes;
• · reducing manual work;
• · building functional networks; and
• · keeping in touch with the team by making out time to meet with team members frequently.

Deliberate-Proactive Leadership Style and Work-Life Balance

As Deliberate-Proactive Leaders think ahead, plan ahead, prepare ahead, provide ahead and deliberately communicate effectively, the largely operate in Quadrant 2 (Not Urgent, Important) segment of Eisenhower’s Principle (MindTools, 2016). The use of DPL five constructs of self-efficacy, self-control, self-empowerment, self-encouragement and self-fulfillment keeps them in absolute control of the events of life and leadership thereby minimizing firefighting and emergencies both within and outside the organization.Being well organized through the effective use of the DPL constructs and habits has led to effective Work-life balance among DP leaders. Although balancing professional and personal life can be challenging, it is essential (Sanfilippo, 2020). To make this possible, DPL style ensures that work does not take precedence over everything else in leaders live as a leader’s desire to succeed professionally can push him/her to set aside his/her own well-being. Creating a harmonious work-life balance or work-life integration is critical, though, to improve not only leaders’ physical, emotional and mental well-being, but it’s also important for a leader’s leadership career (Sanfilippo, 2020).

Leaders and Managers in Health Industry

To build an effective and sustainable health system globally, all leaders and managers should be trained and mentored appropriately in leadership. The scenario where people are promoted into leadership positions based on their clinical expertise, qualifications and years in service should stop immediately. Clinically skilled and experienced individuals who also want to lead should deliberately and proactively seek relevant training and mentorship before aspiring to key leadership positions other than their various clinical teams. To make leadership of clinical teams productive and less challenging to both the leader and the led, leadership and management courses should be incorporated into both undergraduate and post graduate programs to give every health worker the opportunity to be trained in leadership before becoming a leader upon graduation. Also, several in service leadership courses should be built into the curriculum of health professionals to ensure timely and sustainable leadership exposures towards better health outcomes. Finally, looking at all the various leadership styles and strategies, it is recommended that all leaders learn to use the Deliberate-Proactive Leadership Style. This will give the system a sense of order, prevent avoidable emergences and ensure that limited resources of manpower, materials, minutes, machine and money are effectively and efficiently utilized to build healthier societies, improve health outcomes and prolong life. Every health leader should maximize the DPL habits built on the five core constructs of self-efficacy, self-control, self-empowerment, self-encouragement and self-fulfillment; and periodically, ensure that he/she executes self-evaluation. Based on the outcome of self-evaluation, a review of practices may be required leading to start, stop, re-start or rework the entire process. Work therefore to be a Deliberate-Proactive Leader.

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