in your career field do you prefer to take the initiative in your assigned duties or wait for a superior to give you directions

I believe in hard work and for this hard work you have to take steps whether you are asked or you've to take the initiative step for the assigned duties.
We as human can make mistakes so every successful human has sometime at some stage made mistakes so don't be afraid taking the initiative if you are not directed by your superior (this will make you unique and will give you competitive edge over your colleagues).
You Just need to watch your steps very carefully and document what you are doing to leave good examples for your followers.
Me myself don't like to follow other people and I always try to work in a unique way and provided other people for doing tasks in an easy manner.
I've done it while I was a student and I'm doing this during my work & I proved it.

That depends on the task at hand, the risk factors, experience and time factor.
But in all cases, before you dive in, it would be advisable to inform your superior, so as to avoid unexpected outcomes.
However, if the risks involved are negligible, it would definitely be an impressive move.

It may also depend on supervisor's management style as well.
If he/she tend to follow "delegation with review at end" , employee has plenty of opportunity to show initiative in his work.
However in case of "work delegation under strict control and supervision at all times", supervisor tends to have difficulty letting employees make decisions and discourage taking initiative in order to minimise risk of error or failure.

first the employee must give a try if and only if have the experience for these duties and if not he / she can ask how do it from other parties according for the concept of WILLING TO LEARN in any carrier but that must be within the time given for these duties and if he / she didn't know must run to the superior directly in order to make these duties done without being late which by sequence will reflect the other match concept TIME MANAGEMENT.