Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Jillian Miles Massey

Lead Up and Learn Up
MYTH: Individual Contributors can’t shift the paradigm at the organizational level.

Our team has a long-term partnership with a multinational company to facilitate leadership training for all of their Managers of People (MOPs) and Individual Contributors here at the local site. The program we’ve developed for them consistently receives glowing reviews, with one caveat: Individual Contributors are skeptical of a real shift among the “higher-ups”. The feeling is something like, “This is great and all, but unless corporate changes the way we do things, I can’t have an impact.”

Let’s tackle the myth.

Willie Pietersen, Professor at Columbia University and former CEO, refers to leading up as “The Neglected Competency” and says, “Leading up effectively is not easy to pull off. But I think we owe a duty to help each other learn and grow regardless of rank. We all have our blind spots. When I look back on my corporate career, the subordinates I valued most were those who helped me grow as a leader.”

Did you know that Starbucks didn’t always write customer names on the cups? Pietersen highlights this story as an example of small, incremental change that influenced a corporate shift:

In 2011 an imaginative barista decided to enhance [the] personal experience by writing the first names of customers on cups, instead of just calling out the name of the drink that had been ordered. The idea raced to headquarters and today this simple practice happens four million times a day at 30,000 locations worldwide.

Individual Contributors can and do influence organizational change every day. Sometimes it happens slowly, with small, incremental changes within a team or a department. Sometimes it happens overnight on a global scale. In every case, it takes guts and it starts with leading the self. John Maxwell emphasized leading the self when he crafted a simple message nearly a decade ago with 9 Ways to Lead Your Leader:
1. Lead yourself exceptionally well.
2. Lighten your leader’s load.
3. Be willing to do what others won’t.
4. Do more than manage – lead!
5. Invest in relationship chemistry.
6. Be prepared every time you take your leader’s time.
7. Know when to push and when to back off.
8. Become a go-to player.
9. Be better tomorrow than you are today.
So we bust the myth; we learn to lead ourselves in such a way that we Lead Up and influence organizational change…and then we tackle the fact that we need our top leadership to Learn Up in order for our organization to be a living, thriving place.

Pietersen says, “Arguably the most important learning is that which occurs from the ground up. When that circuit is blocked, an organization faces a survival problem. According to a Gallup poll, companies that listen to their employees are 21 percent more profitable than the competition.”

Leaders who Learn Up are more likely to see higher profits! Organizations that encourage Individual Contributors to Lead Up and Leaders to Learn Up are likely to make. more. money.

Be a workplace of and for the future. Lead Up and Learn Up.
November 9, 2021
Book Review: Happy Brain

My sabbatical was great for many reasons, personal and professional. One of the big ones: I could read books! I love to read, and my schedule had gotten so full that there was no time for it. So, the first book I read on sabbatical? Happy Brain by Dean Burnett. 10/10 would recommend.

Leading into my extended leave from work, I experienced my first personal mental health crisis. For several months, I felt wrong. Not like myself. My moods and emotions became erratic and unpredictable. It’s very strange, that feeling that you’ve lost yourself. So I did something about it.

I was open with family and friends about feeling “not like myself”, and I talked with my primary care physician about options. And let me say this – if you ever find yourself feeling wrong or not like yourself, tell someone. A friend, a sibling, a doctor, a counselor. Tell someone right away, and get to work on finding your way back. For me, it was books and talking. As I said, I love to read. Reading books about the brain, psychology, self-care, faith (and so on and so forth) was my way of doing the work. Learning about the science of stress, anxiety, and depression. I’m a fact-based girl. I seek knowledge and understanding. Reading and learning about what was happening in my brain and body was therapeutic.

I recommend Happy Brain specifically because it is charming, fast-paced, witty, and at times, a bit silly. It’s real and relatable and fun. Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist (among other things) in the UK, and he tackled the subject of Happiness – what it is, where it comes from, and how we get some for ourselves.

At Horizon Point, we help design workplaces that are inclusive, encouraging, and innovative. We believe in meeting employees’ basic needs AND growth needs, not just one or the other. Healthy brains and bodies make better employees, better family members, better community leaders. Folks like Dean Burnett and Adam Grant are helping the masses learn about the importance of mental and emotional health in workplaces and communities, and we share their insights to help our local business and community partners to move the needle forward.

I won’t tell you whether he solved the happiness riddle, I’ll just tell you to read Happy Brain. Learn some brain science, have some laughs, and explore your unique self. Let’s do the work together.

October 26, 2021
SAC Preview: Workforce Challenges and Solutions

This morning I read about 3 economists who’ve been awarded the Nobel Prize for their research and impact on critical workforce issues including minimum wage, immigration, and education. Their research on minimum wage in the 1990s found that raising the minimum wage had no effect on the number of employees, showing that companies could effectively raise the minimum wage, retain top talent, and increase the number of applicants in the labor pool. That was 30 years ago.
We’ve come a long way, but as we find ourselves in 2021, employers struggle to find and retain talent – particularly in retail and hospitality. So, we’re changing things up. Hourly wages are increasing in our local area and throughout the US. Read these highlights from writer Gene Marks in The Guardian this week:

“According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly earnings of all employees in the US working for private companies rose to $30.85 in September, following large increases in the prior five months…The National Association of Manufacturers says that its members plan to increase wages 3.5% over the next year…Those businesses that accept this reality will adapt and continue to profit. They will hire good people and succeed. Those business owners that refuse to understand this simple concept simply won’t.”

Bank of America, Walmart, Amazon, Costco, and more are raising wages for the lowest-paid workers. By raising wages, big business and small business alike are seeing benefits such as higher employee engagement, improved customer satisfaction, and better public perception.

As one restaurant owner said, “We put the focus on ‘staff comes first and everything else comes second’…I can’t succeed without a staff.”

We can make a shift together. As employers, as community leaders, we can move the needle forward and create workplaces that put People First.

My team’s wonderful leader, Mary Ila Ward, is speaking in-depth about Workforce Challenges and Solutions at the Southern Automotive Conference this week. I hope you’ll join us to hear her insight on the future of work.

Learn more about SAC2021 and other upcoming events at linktr.ee/horizonpointconsulting.

October 12, 2021
3 Reasons to Give and Take Extended Leave
Today I’ve been back at work for one week. Back at work after four weeks of extended personal leave. I could write a full-length novel about the why, how, who, and what of my semi-sabbatical experience. The short version is: every employer should give extended paid leave, and every employee should take it. I’ll give you three reasons.

1. We are People First.

People First is the single most important Horizon Point mantra. We live it and breathe it every day. That’s how we got here – this place in time where each of our team members is taking 4+ weeks of extended leave for rest and renewal. Our Founder, Mary Ila, took one long look at us during a quarterly planning meeting and saw a team of women who had forgotten that we, ourselves, are People First. The buck stopped there.

Our boss got vulnerable with us about her physical, mental, and emotional health (all deteriorating), and we got vulnerable right back. All of us called to the foreground our very real symptoms of Too Much Syndrome. Too much COVID-19 uncertainty, too much schedule changing, too much brain fog, too much or not enough of everything else. In that quarterly planning meeting, we came back to ourselves, saw our very real burnout staring us in the face, and landed squarely on the realization that we are just people.

Workplaces are made of People who have basic needs and who will predictably burn out without periods of rest.

2. Extended leave clears the fog.

On my second day back at work, I attended a Mental Wellness workshop with a local entrepreneurial center that specializes in woman-owned small business creation and growth. This particular workshop focused on the brain science associated with stress and anxiety. Join me on the journey for a moment. How many of these physiological symptoms have you experienced in the last week?
- Taut muscles
- Fatigue
- Hasty decisions
- Foggy thinking
- Negativity
- Worrying
- Irritability
- Indifference
- Apprehension
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Restlessness
As I sat in that room, I thought back to that quarterly planning meeting. I thought back to snapshots of my personal and professional life and saw every. single. one. of these symptoms. That good ole 20/20 hindsight sure did hit differently this time.

When I look at this list today, only 2 or 3 resonate. My four weeks of paid leave literally gave me new life. The sun came out, and the fog lifted. I’m a better version of myself, which benefits me personally of course, but also benefits my work team. Giving employees an extended moment to clear the fog breathes life into the organization.

3. It’s time for a paradigm shift.

Some of you are ready to give and/or take extended leave. You’re willing and able and ready. Here are 6 Steps for Planning and Implementing Effective Extended Leave.

Some of you are not. I know that paid extended leave is a luxury. I’ve heard time and time again how lucky I am, how lucky my team is, to work for a company and a leader with such a philosophy.

The thing is, we shouldn’t be so lucky. Our company shouldn’t be so different, so unique. This model of People First and the option of paid extended leave should be commonplace. As workplace and community leaders, we can and should shift the paradigm. It has to start somewhere, so why shouldn’t it start with me and you?

A month ago, when asked, “How are you?”, I would’ve (not so jokingly) said, “I’m surviving, but not thriving! Haha.” Ask me today, and I’ll tell you how much I’m thriving. How much my mind has healed. How much better I’m sleeping. How much of my personality came back. How much healthier I feel, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Extended leave was a blessing for which I’m immeasurably grateful, and now I’m on fire about spreading the wealth to others. It takes a village. Will you join me?

If you are an employer, and you want to explore options for incorporating extended wellness leave into your workplace, let’s work together to shift the paradigm.
September 28, 2021
Your Local Wage Survey is a Gold Mine

Does your area have a local wage and/or benefit survey? Do you participate? You should! Here’s why and how.
National wage reports are helpful to study the big picture of economic growth, but these reports might not (probably don’t) reflect the small picture of your business in your community. Further, a 2021 study found that U.S. workers may get 19% less than federal estimates:

Some tools, like CompAnalyst and SHRM, offer comprehensive data (for a hefty fee) that can be helpful in determining pay ranges and comparing company wage data to industry benchmarks. We use resources like these for some larger compensation analysis projects. Even still, we use data from the local wage survey to further validate and strengthen our recommendations.

Community-based benchmarks are critical for organizations to attract and retain talent. Our area is heavy in aerospace and defense contractors, and the competition for talent is fierce. Many of these organizations rely almost entirely on the local wage and benefits survey to drive compensation decisions year-to-year. This year especially, organizations are looking for real-time information about how the wage and benefits landscape has changed in the last 6-12 months.

Now, I’ll drop a note here to acknowledge that companies with multiple locations throughout the U.S. and/or multinational operations might have more limited local decision-making power. We work with many multinational organizations in our community, and the local wage and benefits survey is the most impactful resource for local leaders to demonstrate the need for changes to their top leadership. It might take longer to move the needle, but starting with meaningful, local data goes a long way.

In support of my argument that local wage and benefit data is invaluable, we regularly receive questions from businesses, chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, local governments, etc., about wage trends in our area. This data is not just for wage decisions in individual companies; this data is used in city and county economic and workforce development decisions.

Below is a snapshot from a report we recently provided for the local chamber. They wanted to know if there had been an increase in median hourly wages, particularly in manufacturing.

The wage and benefits survey we administer annually collects aggregate data for Production, Maintenance, and Warehouse positions. Comparing the local wage data as of 01/01/2020 with local wage data as of 01/01/2021, we were able to discern if and how much hourly wages grew for these job categories. This information helps business and community leaders make informed decisions to attract and retain people and their families.

So here’s my point: local wage surveys benefit you personally

…as an employee who wants to be paid fairly

…as an employer who wants to attract and retain talent

…as a citizen who wants to live in a thriving community

If you hold a role at your organization with influence over internal compensation decisions, or even if you don’t, I encourage you to participate in local wage surveys on behalf of your organization. When more businesses participate, the data is more robust and meaningful for individuals, organizations, and communities.

If you aren’t sure if your local community offers a wage/benefit survey, a good place to start is your local economic development agency (EDA) or chamber of commerce. For our readers in North Alabama, you can learn about our work with local wage and benefit surveys here.

August 31, 2021