Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Lorrie Coffey

  • Increase the Value of your Organization’s Biggest Asset

    Increase the Value of your Organization’s Biggest Asset

    “Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” – Sir Richard Branson

    As another school year comes to a close, my boys have already started getting that end of year fever. To them the end of the school year means a break from learning. To me it means a summer filled with opportunities to teach them things they can’t experience in a classroom. With that comes the opportunity to encourage them to challenge themselves and set personal goals for what they want to accomplish during the summer (besides sleeping in).

    Performance reviews are a great opportunity for leadership to sit down with employees and not only review their past performance, but to also help employee set personal learning goals for their future as well. While employees are an organization’s best asset, those assets are only worth what an organization puts into them. The more an organization encourages employees to seek out continuous learning opportunities and the more resources an organization provides for employees to do so, the more valuable the employees become to the organization.

    There are countless ways for an organization to provide continuous learning opportunities. Regardless of the size of your organization, there are ways to help your employees grow in their careers. Some options include:

    • Tuition Reimbursement Programs
    • In-House Training Programs
    • Webinars & Conferences
    • Lunch and Learn Sessions
    • Vendor Presentations (these are often provided for free)
    • Mentor/Shadowing Programs
    • Monthly Informative Newsletters

    Providing training opportunities to employees not only helps them to increase their knowledge, it helps them feel more connected to the organization. Leaders can encourage employees in their efforts through continuous feedback and review of the goals set during the performance review process.

    Are you increasing the value of your organization’s biggest asset through continuous learning?

  • Top 10 Quotes on Authentic Leadership

    Top 10 Quotes on Authentic Leadership

    As we continue to explore authenticity, I think it’s important to focus on how to actually be an authentic leader. One of the best ways to learn is to pay close attention to the authentic leaders you know in real life and those who are doing the work publicly and sharing their experiences. We always look for research and subject matter experts to inform our work, so here are ten authentic leadership quotes we often reference:

    10) “Authentic Leaders are not afraid to show emotion and vulnerability as they share in the challenges with their team. Developing a solid foundation of trust with open and honest communication is critical to authentic leadership.” – Farshad Asl, The “No Excuses” Mindset: A Life of Purpose, Passion, and Clarity

    9) “Authentic leadership is the full expression of “me” for the benefit of “we”.” – Henna Inam, Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead

    8) “Authentic leadership is revealed in the alignment of what you think, what you say, and what you do.” –Michael Holland, Founder & President, Bishop House

    7) “Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet — thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing — consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.” – Lance Secretan, The Secretan Center, Inc.

    6) “Authenticity and knowing who you are is fundamental to being an effective and long-standing leader.” -Ann Fudge

    5) “Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.” – Stephen Covey

    4) “It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.” –Zig Ziglar

    3) “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” – Andy Stanley

    2) “A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

    1) “A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes.” – John C. Maxwell

    To read more about Authentic Leadership, visit my blog post Authenticity and Authentic Leadership.

  • Continuous Learning.. Are You Cheating Yourself?

    Continuous Learning.. Are You Cheating Yourself?

    I was recently presented with the opportunity to start hosting a monthly event that brings HR professionals together to discuss issues we are facing and to learn from each other’s experiences. I volunteered for the opportunity without hesitation, knowing that my co-workers would both be excited for me in my new endeavor and support me in any way needed.

    Continuous Learning. We believe continual learning is a key driver in creating passion and productivity in life and in work. To that end, we invest in the personal development of our people because we know that people are a company and community’s greatest asset (People First). We work with clients who believe in continuous learning and take steps towards continual self-improvement in order to maximize their passion and productivity.

    At Horizon Point, continuous learning is in the forefront of everything we do. We learn through meeting with new clients and assessing their HR needs, researching HR issues to help better assist our clients, and sharing articles and books that help us become more authentic leaders. We are encouraged to attend conferences, workshops, and networking events that feed our passion for HR and we are given the flexibility in our schedules to do so. We also pull from each other’s strengths, taking the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise.

    While we strive for continuous learning within our organization, we also strive to provide continuous learning opportunities for our clients by helping them strengthen their HR foundations, providing leadership development training, assisting with talent management, and assessing and addressing employee engagement issues. Through these learning opportunities, organizations are able to strengthen their leadership teams, improve employee morale and retention rates, and ensure that they are meeting the needs of their employees and their organization through sound HR policies and procedures. We share our expertise at workshops and conferences, through The Point Blog, and through our monthly Workplace Innovation and CDF newsletters.

    “If you are not learning while you’re earning, you are cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation.” – Napoleon Hill

    Are you cheating yourself?

    Join The Point Blog: Sound Advice for Career and Leadership Development mailing list here.

  • Authenticity and Authentic Leadership

    Authenticity and Authentic Leadership

    I just read an article about authenticity and authentic leadership that is going to stick with me. The big takeaway:

    “See, authentic leadership is all about self-awareness, positivity, solid ethics, measured transparency and personal development; far more nuanced than just being ‘real’.”

    – The Difference Between Authenticity and Authentic Leadership by Morgan Browning, President and COO, Emergenetics International

    To read the full article click here.

  • Make It Effective… Improve Communication Within Your Organization!

    Make It Effective… Improve Communication Within Your Organization!

    Think about your family, organizations you volunteer with, the company you work for. How would you rate communication in each of these groups? Do the members of each of these groups communicate effectively with each other, or is something lacking?

    We learn to communicate from a very early age, learning to listen and speak as an infant and later on learning to read and write. However, even though we learn to communicate very early in our lives, many people have difficulty communicating effectively.

    As an HR professional, one of the complaints I hear most often from employees and leadership within organizations is that there is a lack of effective communication. This lack of communication in the workplace often leads to added stress and tension among employees, loss of productivity, a decrease in employee morale, and turnover.

    • Businesses with effective communication are 50% more likely to have lower employee turnover. (ClearCompany)
    • 33% of employees said a lack of open, honest communication has the most negative impact on employee morale (HerdWisdom)
    • Miscommunication costs even smaller companies of 100 employees an average of $420,000 annually. (Top Ten Email Blunders that Cost Companies Money, Deborah Hamilton)

    So how can you improve communication within your organization?

    1. Keep employees informed. Make sure employees know what is going on in the organization. If your company just made a major policy change or won a new client contract, make sure your employees know. Send out a communication to all employees, have managers announce it during team meetings, or post it in the employee break room.
    2. Provide training to your leadership. Good communication starts from the top. If your leaders aren’t effective communicators, that will trickle down to the rest of your employees. Make sure leaders have the training and tools needed to communicate effectively.
    3. Listen to and address employee concerns. If employees come to you with concerns about communication, take those concerns seriously and address them. Whether the concern is regarding a single employee or a department, determine how you as a leader can help improve communications.
    4. Remember, it’s not always what you say but how you say it. Communication involves a lot more than just what you say. Body language and tone play an important part as well. So be sure you’re conveying the message you intend to convey through your body language and tone.
    5. Use the appropriate method of communication. Make sure you’re using the appropriate method of communication to get your message across. Is the message best communicated via email, phone, or in person? This may vary depending on what message your conveying as well as who your audience is.

    For information on Communication Training, as well as other training topics we offer, click here.