Want to supercharge your career? It all boils down to taking initiative in your job. By owning your role like it’s your own business, you’ll unlock productivity and open doors to promotions.
When you take initiative in your job, it’s not about working harder—it’s about working smarter to drive your company’s success. Imagine being the employee your boss can’t ignore, the one who sparks progress and boosts profits.
In this post, I’ll share five proven ways to stand out from showing up ready to shine, to innovating boldly, to leading with purpose.
We’ll cover these five ways to take initiative in your job:
- If You Want to Get Ahead, the First Thing that You Absolutely Have to Do Is Show Up.
- Do more than what’s expected so you can create opportunities for career advancement.
- Foster innovation to take initiative in your job.
- Develop leadership skills to effectively support others.
- Position yourself for opportunity by taking on additional responsibilities.
Each tip will help you increase your visibility in a positive way and become the team member that the boss (and your team) can rely on.
1. If You Want to Get Ahead, the First Thing that You Absolutely Have to Do Is Show Up.
It’s really sad that I have to say this, but if you want to get ahead, you have to show up. I know what you are thinking… “Amy is saying that I need to mentally be there in the moment.”
No, I’m actually saying that you need to physically show up. Come into the office. Be there when the boss comes in. Be visible and available.
In my career, I have been an employee, a manager, a senior manager, and a business owner. But in each of these roles, I treated the company I was working for as if it were my own. I added value to the company. As a result, my income increased throughout my career.
If you think about it, your boss can only pay you a percentage of the value that you bring to your company. It’s simple math. Let’s say a company has three employees. All three employees together generate a total of $30,000 in profit for the business owner. Once the business owner sets aside some funds for a rainy day, there won’t be much profit left for promotions or raises.
However, if those same three employees generate $300,000 in profit, there is more to go around. It’s much easier now for the business owner to give out raises or bonuses. The same type of thing happens in every company in the world — every day. (Just on a different scale.)
The easiest way to get a $100,000 income is to add $200,000 of value to your company. That’s a “no-brainer.” Every business owner and manager would make that trade.
So, step one in taking initiative is to show up, in the office, and add value to your company.
2. Do More Than What’s Expected So You Can Create Opportunities for Career Advancement.
Another way to take initiative in your job id to do more than what is in your job description. It also signals to leadership that you’re ready for greater responsibilities. This proactive approach showcases your commitment to your organization. It also builds trust and visibility, paving the way for promotions and career growth.
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” — Jimmy Johnson
When You Volunteer for Leadership Roles, Your Team Will Begin to See You as a Leader.
The pandemic had a brutal impact on the training industry. Meetings were canceled. Events were shelved. As a result, we were running with just a skeleton crew.
By late 2021, though, everything shifted. Our clients began scheduling years of postponed meetings all at once. We went from famine to feast, racing across the map to meet demand.
One of our largest projects was a university event in North Carolina for their entire incoming freshman class. The meeting was so big that it required nearly our whole instruction team.
Then, the second Covid variant hit. And a couple of days before the event, the project manager for the event tested positive. To make matters worse, he had also been in our office the day before. So, other team members had also been exposed. Almost half of our facilitators were suddenly unavailable.
Luckily, I had been teaching in another state and was out of the office that entire week. Since I didn’t need to be quarantined, I volunteered to take over the project. But I had to figure out a way to lead the huge event with half my crew.
After some fast collaboration, I convinced the client to divide their large group into two smaller back-to-back meetings. This minor change, out of necessity, dramatically cut the client’s cost. It also allowed us to use the instructors’ time more efficiently. Interestingly, even with the lower cost, the project’s profit actually increased.
Keep in mind, while all this was going on, I was also juggling the roles of my sick team members. Granted, my impromptu leadership wasn’t perfect. I made a lot of mistakes. But the entire team saw that, in a pinch, they could rely on me.
When you do more than what is expected, your team will see your potential, too!
3. Take the Initiative to Foster Innovation.
Innovation often comes when people are trusted to step outside their normal roles. When we restructured that massive event, the solution didn’t come from following the original plan. It came from stepping back, reimagining the approach, and trying something new. That same principle has fueled some of the most important breakthroughs in business history.
For example, when Google was still a young company, its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin asked themselves a bold question,
“What if innovation didn’t only come from the top?”
They had seen how other companies, like 3M, gave employees freedom to chase side projects, and they believed that same freedom could unlock the creativity of their engineers.
So, they introduced what became known as the “20% work week.” The idea was simple. One day out of every five, employees could set aside their assigned tasks and work on something they were personally passionate about.
There were no strict rules, time sheets, or clocks to punch. It was more of a cultural promise to its people. Google trusts you to explore and rewards initiative.
That trust paid off in remarkable ways. One engineer, Paul Buchheit, began tinkering with a new kind of email service during his 20% time. What started as a side project soon became Gmail, which revolutionized online communication.
Another employee, Krishna Bharat, created Google News after 9/11, frustrated by how difficult it was to track breaking stories across multiple outlets.
These successes proved the value of creating space for innovation. By giving people room to follow their curiosity, Google fostered an environment where employees didn’t just imagine bold ideas—they brought them to life.
You don’t have to wait for your boss to give you permission to innovate, though. Take the initiative in your job and bring new ideas to your team!
4. Develop Leadership Skills to Effectively Support Others.
Olympic and World Cup star, Mia Hamm, credits her athletic success to two main factors. In her early years, she “played up” — meaning, she competed with and against superior athletes. Growing up with five siblings, she faced tougher competition from a young age. By practicing with and playing against athletes who were further along the learning curve, she developed her skills faster.
By the time she was recruited to play soccer for the University of North Carolina (UNC), she was considered a prodigy. She was a scoring machine, tallying 21 goals in her freshman season. But as impressive as her early success was, it led to a second — and arguably more critical — breakthrough in her development.
Early in her freshman season, the UNC team faced challenges with team cohesion. The mix of veterans and new players struggled to gel. Mid-season, Coach Anson Dorrance implemented strategies to improve team dynamics. Known for his innovative coaching, Dorrance emphasized leadership and trust-building, likely through discussions and exercises that encouraged better communication and mutual support among players.
In one of these sessions, Hamm shared that she felt immense pressure to live up to her prodigy status. This pressure led her to take unnecessary risks on the field, sometimes to the detriment of the team. Through these discussions, she realized the importance of playing more collaboratively. This shift transformed her from a “solo scorer” to a “team connector.”
While she continued to score, she also focused on creating opportunities for teammates. She finished her freshman year with 11 assists. That same season, her Tar Heels won the NCAA Championship.
In fact, UNC won four consecutive NCAA Championships from 1989 to 1992. By her senior year, Hamm recorded an impressive 33 assists, cementing her legacy as one of soccer’s greatest team connectors.
Leadership Development Is a Lifelong Learning Process.
General Electric (GE) is renowned for their leadership development program. First created over 50 years ago, the Crotonville Leadership Development Institute, has built a system that cultivates leaders from within its ranks.
Graduates of this program include a long list of corporate CEOs including Larry Bossidy (Honeywell), Robert Nardelli (Chrysler), Scott Donnelly (Textron), James McNerney (3M) and Frank Blake (Home Depot).
Interestingly, though, one of the major reasons this program has excelled is because of the levels of leadership development. They have an entry level program for new hires. And for mid-career professionals, they offer an “Experienced Leadership Program.” And finally, they also created an executive level leadership program.
The point is that a great company needs leaders at all levels in the organization. And it’s never too early or too late to start developing those leadership skills! So, whether your company encourages leadership growth or not, take the initiative and learn to lead people.
5. Position Yourself for Opportunity by Taking On Additional Responsibilities.
When you consistently take initiative in your job, you’re more likely to be considered for promotions or special projects. Managers and leaders often look for employees who show they are capable of taking on additional responsibilities.
I will always accredit my personal growth and success to one single bold move. It was a giant leap of faith that I took years ago at age twenty-two. At the time, I had been Store Manager for a telecommunications company in Arlington, TX, for about two years.
There were five stores total in Dallas/Fort Worth, and interestingly enough, our area manager was not even located in the state. In fact, he lived in California. I rarely spoke to John and had only seen him in person twice (which was oddly sufficient).
I had pretty much taken over most of the day-to-day operations of most of the stores. After all, their store managers were previous assistant managers of mine, so I was the one each of them came to for advice.
Each month, I reported the numbers and stats of all the stores to John. I made John look so good, that a competitor hired him away. I was excited for him, but I was even more excited with the opportunity to finally move up in the company.
For the next couple of weeks, I ran the region in his absence (just like normal). Until word came down from corporate that a new area manager would be taking John’s place. I had been passed over.
It was like a gut punch.
The Time That I Took a Giant Leap of Faith…
A month later, I booked a flight to our corporate office in Virginia Beach. My CEO was shocked when I walked into his office (with no appointment) and asked for a few moments of his time. My opening salvo was to tell him that he had made a mistake.
Granted, at the time I was still a young hothead. I hadn’t yet developed the leadership skills that I mentioned early. But I did have confidence in myself and a track record of success.
I showed him reports of how my store was the top revenue generating store in the area. In addition, I also showed him how the second and third best stores were run by managers that I hired and trained.
He listened intently with a look in his eye and a smile on his face that I’ll never forget. Now, I didn’t get the promotion, just yet.
Three weeks later, though, on a conference call with all 300 store managers, the company announced that it was shutting down all the stores. They had decided to create a third-party dealer model instead.
That meant that every store manager, every assistant manager, and every employee would be out of a job. All but one of us, anyway. They needed a National Dealer Sales Manager to manage the third-party dealers.
There was a long line of people based at the corporate office applying for the position. Instead, they took a chance on the one who was confident and daring enough to fly 1,500 miles away on her own dime to declare to the CEO, face-to-face, why she had earned her piece of the pie.
I had two weeks to shut down the store chain in DFW and relocate to Virginia Beach, where I immediately started training.
Take Initiative in Your Job, And You’ll Create Opportunities for Career Advancement.
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why ships are built.” -William GT Shedd
Taking initiative in your job means approaching your tasks with a sense of responsibility and commitment. It also means combining this mindset with proactivity, innovation, productivity, leadership development, and strategic positioning. This all leads to personal and professional growth, as well as contributes to the overall success of your organization. It reflects your dedication to making a positive impact and seizing opportunities for career advancement. These qualities are highly valued in the workplace. All in all, they help you stand out as an engaged employee who helped lay the foundation for a culture of recognition, continuous improvement and good employee morale.