Or was he relying on me to use my initiative, and show them without consent?

Use your own initiative to decide the best route back to the fleet.

When someone uses their own initiative, Peter can come on pretty strong.

Was he seeing things or had this fool actually decided to use his own initiative?

Added to this is my belief that children are not often asked to really use their initiative.

He went outside, used his initiative, and found some poor chap who'd give him a hand with it you see.

This is yet another area where the hobbyist can use his own initiative.

"Is this supposed to be an example of you using your initiative?"

And for God's sake don't start using your own initiative or something.

He recognized the worth of his staff and allowed them the freedom to use their initiative.