Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

  • The Success Sequence: Workforce Development Meets Poverty Prevention

    The Success Sequence: Workforce Development Meets Poverty Prevention

    The Alabama Legislature recently passed SB289, a bill supporting the teaching of the Success Sequence in all public schools. This three-step model offers a data-driven approach to breaking the cycle of poverty:

    1. Graduate from high school

    2. Obtain full-time employment

    3. Marry before having children

    The sequence is simple, but the order is essential. Research from Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang found that 97% of millennials who followed this sequence were not poor in adulthood, further citing that is also the case for 94% of Millennials who grew up in lower-income families and 95% of those who grew up in non-intact families.

    Source: The Power of the Success Sequence for Disadvantaged Young Adults

    Education, Employment, and… Marriage?

    The relationship between education, employment, and poverty is widely studied (also, remember the Benefits Cliff?). However, marital and parental status is often overlooked, unless the discussion centers around childcare or workforce participation. But the data suggests we need to talk more openly about the order of life events.

    Raising children is hard and expensive, regardless of your educational level, job status, or marital situation. But raising children without a high school diploma, without full-time employment, and without a supportive partner makes the challenge exponentially harder. The hurdles compound and make it more difficult to escape poverty.

    How the Sequence Supports Workforce Participation

    Let’s zoom in on the middle step: employment.

    If you lack a high school diploma and have children without support from a spouse or caregiver, holding a job becomes significantly more difficult. You’re more likely to experience job instability, absenteeism, and burnout. For employers, this translates into higher turnover and less workforce reliability.

    While the model doesn’t say you must get married or have children, it suggests a strategic order if you do. Marriage before children, backed by education and employment, sets individuals – and their families – up for long-term stability.

    Why the Success Sequence Matters for Employers and Communities

    Promoting the Success Sequence isn’t just about preventing poverty. It’s also about ensuring a strong, stable workforce. When individuals follow this path, they’re more likely to stay employed, reducing turnover and increasing productivity.

    Supporting the sequence, whether through school programs, community education, or policy, could be a smart, proactive investment in both economic mobility and workforce development. The Brookings Institution in D.C. has been talking about the Success Sequence for over a decade. Maybe it’s time we pay attention.

    What Are Your Thoughts?

    Do you think the Success Sequence is a valuable tool in reducing poverty and improving employment outcomes? Should schools and communities promote it more directly? We honestly want to know. Drop us a line at info@horizonpointconsulting.com or fill out the quick poll below.

    Create your own user feedback survey
  • What Really Motivates Employees? Lessons from Herzberg

    What Really Motivates Employees? Lessons from Herzberg

    What really motivates employees? We don’t have a straight answer for you, but we do love a good organizational psychology theory that stands the test of time—and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation. We aren’t ready to talk about what really motivates employees until we’ve talked about what doesn’t unmotivate them (yes, we know that’s a double negative and that unmotivate isn’t a real word, but stay with us.)

    Simply Psychology puts it like this:

    Herzberg’s two-factor theory suggests that job satisfaction is influenced by two categories:

    Motivators    , like recognition and achievement, lead to higher satisfaction and motivation.

    Hygiene factors, such as salary and working conditions, prevent dissatisfaction—but don’t necessarily inspire motivation.

    In other words, motivators spark engagement and growth, while hygiene factors help employees stay neutral rather than dissatisfied. According to Herzberg, what really motivates employees are factors that can’t meaningfully exist until hygiene factors are taken care of. Both hygiene factors and motivating factors are necessary to create a productive and fulfilling work environment.

    Yikes, I’m a supervisor!

    If you’re in a supervisory role, this might sound a little discouraging—are you only responsible for preventing dissatisfaction? Can’t you inspire motivation too?

    We think you can. In fact, we’d argue that the ability to influence motivators is what helps a supervisor become a leader.

    What Really Motivates Employees: In Practice

    Here are a few practical ways you can move beyond maintenance and actually create a motivating workplace:

    1. Get to Know What Drives Each Employee
    Want to know what really motivates employees? Ask them.

    Different motivators resonate with different people. Start with our Motivation Checklist to understand what matters most to your team.

    We often use this in conjunction with DiSC training, which we highly recommend for new teams or teams experiencing disconnect. 

    2. Hold Meaningful One-on-Ones
    Use regular one-on-one conversations to explore motivators and check on hygiene factors. Ask questions like:

    • What are your career goals?
    • What kind of work energizes you—and what drains you?
    • How do you prefer to be recognized?

    Need help? Try our printable conversation cards designed for intentional check-ins. We also recommend cards from The Unstuck Box.

    3. Don’t Ignore Hygiene Factors
    In your one-on-ones, also check on basic needs:

    • Are tools, resources, and safety measures in place?
    • Are personal challenges affecting work?
    • Are compensation or benefits a concern? (Make this a point of discussion at least once or twice a year.)

    4. Support Development and Growth
    Create personal development plans that encourage ownership and responsibility. We use the Leaders as Career Agents process to guide these conversations.

    Leaders as a Bridge to Satisfaction

    Leaders who consistently invest time in these actions are more than just supervisors—they become the bridge between employee potential and job satisfaction. So… what really motivates employees? It doesn’t require big budgets or elaborate programs—just intentional conversations, consistent follow-through, and a commitment to growth.

    How are you creating engaging work environments?

    We’d love to hear what works for you.

  • 4 Steps to Fanatic Leadership Discipline

    4 Steps to Fanatic Leadership Discipline

    This post was originally published after Memorial Day weekend ten years ago. On it’s 10th anniversary, we’re bringing it back. Enjoy!

    Over Memorial Day weekend, my family spent some time at the river. Trying to stay true to actually getting some exercise, even while on vacation, I was pushing my kids in the stroller down a windy and hilly river road when we came upon a man chopping firewood, transporting in on a wheelbarrow, and putting it in a spot beside his house to store.

    It’s May in Alabama. Even at 9 am it was approaching 90 degrees with the humidity level about that high. It was hot, and it will be hot for a while, most likely until at least October. I thought this man was crazy. With no need for firewood in the near future, why would he be utilizing the vacation holiday weekend farthest away from winter this side of Easter to chop firewood? In long pants and a long shirt no less.

    I wasn’t the only one perplexed by what he was doing. After we passed him a second time, my four-year-old said, “Mommy, what is that man doing?” I responded he’s chopping and moving firewood, to which he replied, “Why?”

    But as a read, Great by Choice by Jim Collins, a book focused on leading and thriving in the midst of uncertain environments (and let’s face it, isn’t every environment uncertain in one way or another?), I realized this man just might be illustrating a key leadership principle emphasized in the book.

    This is the principle of “Fanatic Discipline” and this quote captures its sentiments:

    “Victory awaits him who has everything in order- luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” Roald Amundsen (the first person to lead a team to reach the South Pole).

    It dawned on me, this is what we strive to teach leadership coaching clients by instilling consistent behaviors that lead to habits that then lead to results. In other words, we preach “fanatic discipline” by chopping your firewood before you even need it.

    If you are wanting to instill “fanatic discipline” to reach results, how do you do it?

    1.You focus on what you can control, not what you can’t. The only thing you can control is your behavior. Nothing more classically illustrates this than Stephen Covey’s Circle of Control and Influence concept (read more about it in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People). Our friend wasn’t focused on the heat, which he couldn’t control, or one to make excuses for the heat, instead he did number two….

    2. Focus on doing important behaviors regularly, not all in one bout of energy, but in a way that allows for consistent progress to be achieved (for more on this, read the chapter on “20 Mile March” in Great by Choice. I imagine our man chops a little bit of firewood every morning throughout the year, even when it is hot and even when it is a holiday, in order to have enough stored for the winter. He doesn’t wait until the first sign of a cold snap to get to chopping. Slow and steady really does win the race. As Collins states…

    “It’s about having concrete, clear, intelligent and rigorously pursued performance mechanisms that keep you on track. The 20 Mile March creates two types of self-imposed discomfort: (1) the discomfort of unwavering commitment to high performance in difficult conditions, and (2) the discomfort of holding back in good conditions.”

    3.The behavior is monitored and tracked, not the outcome. There is nothing like a good ole chart, simple and easy to keep track of your progress and actually motivate performance. The simple process and tool we have begun using for this can be found in Marshall Goldsmith’s book Triggers. As Goldsmith states, “Quantifying effort rather than outcomes reveals patterns that we’d otherwise miss.” I imagine our friend the firewood man has a chart on his fridge that he checks off on the days he does his chopping or one that he makes a tally mark on each day he chops to count how much wood he has or has left to chop (or maybe he doesn’t, but for my story’s purpose he does).

    4.When the first three things are done, we set ourselves up to achieve outcomes. I know the firewood man won’t be cold this winter. Do you often leave yourself out in the cold because you’ve focused on the outcome and not the effort or the consistent behavior to achieve the result you are looking for? I know I have.

    What is one thing you can control, start to do today, and track with “fanatic discipline” that will help you be the leader you want to be?

  • Lessons from March Madness: Talent is Global

    Lessons from March Madness: Talent is Global

    Our crew is all about some March Madness. We have an extended family bracket competition complete with prize money and trash texting. The kids even get in on it. My bracket was shot pretty soon after the first round (I think I finished 33rd overall), but I still enjoyed watching the competition down to the final game.

    While watching the introduction of the starting five for the championship team, one thing stood out to me about the talent.

    Consider the starting five for Florida:

    Two of the five (or 40%) of the starters on the championship team are from outside the United States. Looking at the entire roster, 35% of the players are from another country.

    There is no doubt that Name Image and Likeness (NIL) has changed the game of college sports. But I would venture to guess that global recruiting is also a part of reshaping the game. NIL makes players more mobile, chasing the best deal, and players across the globe are mobile. Players are also having to compete with the best talent in the world, not just the best talent in the country – much less their own state! – for a chance to start on a championship team, or any team for that matter.

    If you are wanting to put together the best team at work, following the lesson from college basketball champions (and football!) may be wise. Don’t limit your search. Talent is global.

    One of the biggest lessons from March Madness this year is that excellence knows no borders. Whether you’re building a roster for the court or a team for your company, casting a wider net can bring surprising strength. Diversity of background, experience, and perspective can be the game-changer that sets your team apart from the rest.

  • Conflict, Conflict Everywhere: How to Resolve Conflict at Work

    Conflict, Conflict Everywhere: How to Resolve Conflict at Work

    “You would have thought he would have at least stopped and asked him what was going on. He has never once behaved like that at work. Don’t you think his boss should have asked if he was okay or something?”

    My friend said this to me while explaining that her brother was suspended from work without pay for lashing out at a colleague. The altercation was verbal not physical and occurred because the colleague had undermined her brother’s authority. Neither of them were able to resolve conflict at work in this heated moment.

    “I know he shouldn’t have done it, but doesn’t context matter?” she implored.

    Turns out the context (background) was not only the undermining of authority but also the fact that my friend and her brother had just lost their mother AND his little girl was in the hospital.  Truth be told, he probably shouldn’t have been at work to begin with, given the stress he was under. But my friend says their work culture is one in which they all pretend work and “life” exist in two completely different compartments, and YOU better be dead or in the hospital to not make it to work.

    As we launch our series on how to resolve conflict at work, I can’t help but think about this story my friend shared with me. If you are a leader in an organization, you can take your first cue from this story and realize that if you don’t know the stress that others may be under (inside or outside of work) and actively work to help them manage it, you may not be the best leader.

    To resolve conflict at work, we suggest using the SBAR Model to lead your way through it. Originally developed by the US Marines, we find this approach is best explained by our friend and Reality Based Leadership expert, Cy Wakeman. 

    Here is her overview of SBAR from her LinkedIn Article:

    S = Situation. I need the person to identify, in one true, drama-free sentence, what the issue is.

    B = Background. This is 2-3 sentences of only the facts and history that applies to what we’re trying to (re)solve. 

    A = Analysis or Assessment. This is the “Why does the issue matter?” section. It should also include fact-checking so you know what’s real and what’s a story.

    R = Recommendations (yes, that’s plural). If you come to me with just what needs to be done, that’s your opinion, your request, your demand. Come to me with ideas of all the things you could do and I’ll know you’re being mentally flexible and thinking your way through the problem. It shows you’ve got resilience.

    If you noticed, Cy’s approach is to get the person you are dealing with to walk through these questions, not you as the leader.  This is an empowerment based approach.

    What might have happened if the supervisor of my friend’s brother did this with him after the conflict took place?  Would the brother have been psychologically safe enough (from a glimpse into the work culture sister described, probably not…) to tell him the B- background of his current situation?  Would he have R-recommended suspension for himself? Without pay?

    I of course don’t know the answers to this, and I of course don’t know if sister got the whole truth and nothing but the truth from brother, but when it is all said and done, when conflict takes place at work an empowerment based model like SBAR can help keep the conflict from escalating and can help us build stronger teams.

    What is your approach to dealing with conflict at work? 

    Take a look at Cy Wakeman’s Ego Bypass Toolkit here or click the teaser image below. 

    reality based leadership SBAR