There was this one time I was working on a project in which no one was rising up to take the lead and move it forward. At first I took the easy way out: "It's not technically my job, so I'll let someone else do it." Bad idea. I paid the consequences for NOT taking initiative. Then I (re)learned my lesson and decided to rise up and take initiative, myself. Results: project moved forward and I was thanked for going above and beyond to help get it "there."
Now there's different possible results that will come from taking initiative:
1) You move things forward successfully and reap the rewards. Could be things like praise from supervisors/teammates, feeling of satisfaction, raise, promotion, whatever.
2) You move things, but in the wrong direction, and have to pay the consequences for poor judgement. I, personally, don't think it's ever poor judgement to take initiative. But the poor judgement may be bad decisions about how, when, why, where to move things forward. So yes, they're moved...but in the wrong direction, and to the wrong place. The consequence you have to face in that situation is "course-correction" which almost always involves extra time and effort to get back on-track. Ideally, in this situation, your supervisor recognizes that you were trying valiantly but your inexperience or lack of knowledge about this project kept you from taking it in the right direction. Hopefully he/she will praise your effort, and help educate you so you make the right directional decisions next time.
So what's my conclusion? Personally, if I see something that needs to get done, I get up out of my seat and make it happen. If I don't know how to make it happen, I raise my hand and say, "Hey, I'd be willing to lead that charge cuz I see this needs to get done, but could someone please give me some guidance on how to make the best decisions along the way?"
Make it happen, baby. That's the "street" way of saying all this...
