Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

To be the Best, Run with the Best

Since running my first marathon in 2009, it’s been in the back of my mind. Can I run a sub-four-hour marathon? Of the two I’ve done, I would have to shave more than twenty minutes off my time to do so.

This summer, I started running occasionally with someone who runs fast. So fast, she has qualified for Boston and qualified this year to run the New York City Marathon. I think her marathon PR is around a 3:24. This means she has finished a marathon about an hour faster than I have. She typically runs each mile at least one to two minutes faster, if not more even during her casual runs, than I am used to running.   And the other people she runs with do the same.

I like her as a person and felt like her company would be nice. So I thought, well let’s just see if I can keep up.

Running is often a metaphor for leading and living, and what I’ve found to be true in this new occasional running group is to be better, you have to surround yourself with people who are better than you are.

Smarter, faster, stronger. A better entrepreneur, wife, leader, heck, a better person in general. If you want to be it, find someone or people who are that, and spend time with them.

The things that I think hold true for being around people that are better than you are:

1. You don’t have to be around them all the time to feel their impact. These ladies get up EARLY to run. While in the summer that time was around 5 am, I went a couple times a week with them. When that start time was pushed back to 4:30 am when school started back, I’ve found it hard to mentally wrap my mind around getting up that early. Coupled with some inner ear problems I’ve had that is the worse first thing in the morning, I’ve only been running with them less than once a week now. However, doing an 18-mile-long run with them showed me I could hold a sub-nine-minute mile for that long and make my sub-four hour marathon time possible.

So, if you can devote one hour a week to being around those that are better in the arena you are trying to improve in, do it. Everyone has one hour they can carve out each week, and it is worth it. Schedule that time and stick to it.

2. Their impact begins to become a habit or come naturally. When I’m not running with them, I’m still running faster than I used to. Running in the nine to ten-minute mile pace has now become running in the eight to nine-minute mile pace for me.   The slower pace now seems weird or unnatural. Running a half-marathon solo a couple of weeks ago led to a PR of 1:48:50 (8:18 per mile pace) and it felt good.

So, when you aren’t physically with those who are better than you are, harness what they’ve taught you and practice it solo.   You might even want to schedule a solo “race” or trial run to help you see if you can go it alone, using their positive influence to move you forward.

3. You’ll find that what you set out for them to help you improve in isn’t the only thing they make you better in. The person I started running with has a child the same age as one of mine. They are both having a hard time reading in school. I’ve found it hard to find people that I am friends with or that are good friends with my son who are dealing with the same challenge. Talking about this while we run has helped me with perspective, insights, and calmness about the situation. My husband ran with us for a bit right before the first report card of the year came out. After we finished, he said, “Man, it was so good to hear her say she had the same worries that we do. We aren’t the only ones dealing with this.”

So, when you surround yourself with better people, don’t silo them into the one area you think they can help you improve in. Be open to their insights as it relates to all aspects of life by building a holistic relationship with them. Conversely, don’t see them as perfect either. Just because they are making you better in one area doesn’t mean they are a God. Offer them grace (and yourself grace) when it comes to learning and growing.

4. Their impact allows you to have an impact on others. The same child that struggles with reading does not struggle with running. He loves it, and he is fast. And if there is anything I’ve found to be true, it is when things are hard (like homework and school are for him right now) you’ve got to have an outlet to pursue some things you are great at and love.

Running with her has allowed me to see this running fast thing as an opportunity to connect with my speed-demon seven-year-old. Running unites us in a common passion. We’ve signed up for the Huntsville Marathon together. He will do the kids’ marathon, where he will run 25.2 miles before race day, keeping a log, and then run the last one mile on race day when I run the 26.2 miles all at once. I may not make my PR and sub-4:00 goals, but if I were a betting person, he will at least win his age group if not more. Seeing him excel at something he loves is way better than me hitting my goal.

My favorite runner is Shalane Flanagan. She just finished 3^rd in the New York City Marathon (where my fast friend finished in 3:42). She’s my favorite because she seems to get this point so well. She is committed to making herself and others better through creating opportunities for mutual gain. To read more about this, check out the article from Runner’s World that was written after her stunning 2017 NYC Marathon win.

When you find the opportunity to grow and learn from someone who is better than you are, take that experience and use it to help someone else learn and grow. Or at least use it to share a passion with someone.

How do you surround yourself with people who are better?

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November 13, 2018
What You Should Title Your Job Posting
The job market is hot right now. As mentioned in a previous post about targeting passive candidates, there are more job openings now than there are people to fill them.

So how do you get a candidate’s attention for your job when you post it? Obviously, some things to consider are where you post it (and hopefully you aren’t just posting and praying) and how you are advertising/boosting your post within those sites.

But one thing we often neglect to consider is the actual title we place on the job when we post it. Most often, we just pull the job title that is on the internal job description, but that title may or may not reflect what people are actually searching for in the market.

So, to make the best decision about your job posting title:
1. Make a list of the various titles you think would fit the job. For example, Coder, Programmer, Developer, and Software Engineer could potentially all be a title on the list for a job that requires someone to perform computer programming. Also, make a list of various qualifiers that may need to go in front of the keyword of the job title. For instance, in this case, you may also need to use words like “Full Stack,” “Front End”, “Java”, “Python” based on what specific skills/experience you need for the opening.
1. Next, search for all these job titles you’ve come up with in the job posting board(s) of your choice by your geographic area. What brings up the highest volume of postings? Volume could indicate more people are searching for those keywords, thus more potential applicants. Or it could indicate that you wouldn’t get noticed by applicants, and therefore fewer applicants because the list is so saturated. In general, though, you want to be using a job title that will resonate with what candidates are searching for.
1. Taking this information, you then need to do some testing. Take what you believe to be the top two job titles based on your search in number two, and post the same job posting with the two different titles on the same job board. Track the number of hits and applicants you get. Which one performs better?
1. It is a quality over quantity game. Even though you may get more applicants from posting a job one way does not mean that you are getting more quality applicants by posting it a certain way. So, do an initial screening to see if the candidates are qualified for your opening to see which title is better. For example, posting the job title “Developer” may get you a lot of applicants, but may not get you the level of skill you need. However, posting as “Full Stack Developer” or “Python Developer” or even posting as “Software Engineer” may get you the right quality of applicants. That is why you have to test different titles and see what yields you the best results.
1. In addition to tracking quality in the initial screening, track your quality over time. After you’ve made a hire, is it really a quality hire? Obviously, there are a variety of factors that affect the quality of hire, but one could simply be the job title of the opening they were for which they were selected. This is because your job title should reflect the reality of the position and steer people who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are a match for an opening. For example, we have one client where “code monkeys” as they call them are not a good fit for their organization because the reality of the positions they have is that people need to not just know how to code but be able to more aptly be a “Full Stack Developer.”
Making sure the job title reflects what the position really is as well as what will draw attention in the marketplace for the right applicants are the critical factors in determining what to “call” a job when you post it.

How do you determine if you are posting a position with the right title?
November 6, 2018
Three Things to Stop and Do When You’ve Made Someone Out to be a Villain
Movies, TV shows, and plays- anything that tells a story really- usually create a victor and a villain. There always seems to be a bad guy. And we are all so happy to create and label the bad guy.

And in our own lives and workplaces, there seems to be this fight for good versus evil. None of us are or want to be on the side of evil, so someone else must be, right?

If you’re like me, you’ve villainized at least one person in your lifetime. I see it so much in one-on-one leadership coaching. The labeling of someone as bad or the person to blame for all the bad going on is classic victim/villain mindset.

And in this black and white labeling of character, we’ve also tried to get everyone else to see what a villain he or she is. Of course, we want to win people over to our side, the “good” side. And before you know it, we end up becoming the villain in outright pursuit to give someone else that title.

I’ve found that those who are effective in moving past the victim or victor mentality employ these three strategies:
1. They create at least three alternative stories or reasons for the actions of those they might want to label as a villain. In a classic sense, this is like saying, “Well, he kicked the dog because the dog bit him.” There could be any number of things you could come up with, but it helps to breed some level of empathy for analyzing the situation in a more objective manner.
2. They ask, “Have I done this same thing before?” Often, we are quick to be the pot and call the kettle black. We are often subject to the psychology principle of self-serving bias. Asking this question of oneself can help with this.
3. If the person really is the “villain”, having caused irreparable harm to others or the business, they “eliminate” the villain and move forward. Sometimes you can come up with reasons why someone has done something (#1), but that still doesn’t make what they did right. As long as you aren’t practicing hypocrisy (#2), giving yourself a pass for something that you won’t give another person a pass for, the best way to move forward is to avoid the label of villain, but to make the best decision for you and the business. Think about the greater whole that is served in your decision.
When have you labeled someone a villain?
October 30, 2018
The Power of Pause
“Patience is the primary virtue needed in order to reach your destiny.” Tony Evans, Detours

We use the DiSC model in leadership training. As you can see below, the first question asked of people when they are trying to determine their DiSC style or the style of another without the assessment is, “Are you cautious and reflective or are you fast-paced and outspoken?” I’m so fast-paced and outspoken, you don’t even need to ask the next question (questioning and skeptical or accepting and warm?). I am a Di or an iD all day long.

So, it’s obvious that patience is not one of my virtues. In fact, it is quite contrary to the way I am wired.

I’m used to driving forward to meet goals without ever pausing to think about is this goal really what I want or need anymore. This has led to some positive results, but also an increasing inability to enjoy the process of getting there, not to mention stopping to examine if there are better goals to be pursuing.

This year, I’ve been learning the power of the pause. Through trying to force some things to happen in order to launch a new business we had set out to do this year, I have learned that oftentimes pausing to re-valuate the timing of and need for things is critical.

If you, like me, have trouble with pausing and patience, here are some things that have helped me self-reflect on whether or not a pause is needed:
1. Are the right people, circumstances and resources available to drive forward? In my experience trying to launch this business, one of these things fell off, then another, then another. Yet, I was still trying to push forward because I had the goal written down on paper. When I realized that everything I thought I had at my disposal when I set that goal was no longer there, it was time to pause.
2. Are you enjoying the pursuit? And enjoying it enough to push through resistance? If you don’t know whether you are coming or going and/or can’t stop and reflect on a few things each day you enjoyed doing as a part of the pursuit, it is probably not right. Also, if the first “no” and/or questions and skepticism come your way and you cave, it is probably time to pause and question is it worth it?
3. Are other things put in front of you that need your attention more? A large volume of current client work, a son who needs a lot support and time from my husband and I right now, and my husband being promoted into a role he loves but that is more demanding of his time, I have realized are all more important priorities (sometimes not as fun, but always more important) and have led to the need for pause in this area of pursuit that I thought would be a large part of my focus for the year.
I love this thought by Tony Evans from Detours:

“Training for greater things always takes place in lesser things. … always-always-always be faithful where you are..,Far too often, we are chasing our destiny so much that we forget to maximize the location where we are right now.”

My pause has been such a blessing. And the pause, I believe, is now making way for this pursuit to, at the right time, become a more fruitful reality.

How are you pausing to maximize where you are right now?
October 23, 2018
4 Keys to Communication to Create Optimal Candidate Experiences

Candidate experience isn’t just about getting people to apply for your opening positions. It is also about getting them to continue to or start buying your products and services. In a recent candidate experience study by IBM, “candidates who are satisfied with their experience are twice as likely to become a customer of the hiring organization compared to unsatisfied candidates (53 percent vs. 25 percent).”

So you may not care if an unqualified applicant applies for your openings, but you definitely want everyone to continue or start buying from you.

With this in mind, communication is the most critical piece of positive candidate experience. In order to create a positive experience these things need to be present:

1. Informative Communication. Many applicants find that their application goes into a “black hole” and they never hear anything. Candidates should be informed if they have been screened out for a job and why. A rejection may seem like bad communication, but in reality, no communication is much worse. Make sure you follow-up and inform candidates after every step of the process (application, phone screen, assessment, interviews, etc.) as to whether or not they are still in the applicant pool and why or why not.

If candidates are screened out, inform them of other openings with your organization that may be a good fit for them, if this is in fact the case. Definitely don’t do this if you do not have openings that are a fit for them because this is misleading and unauthentic (see #4).

2. Differentiated Communication. If you’ve done a good job of informing candidates, the next step is to go beyond using the boiler plate emails that your ATS provides. Customize the communication to reflect your culture and brand.

3. Diverse Communication. One way to differentiate your communication with candidates is to diversify it. Let candidates hear from someone other than the recruiter or hiring manager. This could come from someone in the job they are applying for, someone who is at the same stage in their career, and/or someone who fits their demographic profile.

Video is a great way to differentiate and diversify your communication. Take short clips of people throughout the organization talking about what they do and what they like about their jobs and the organization. Use these on your careers site but also make use of it in customized emails/newsletters to candidates you are trying to target as well as those who are already in your pipeline.

4. Authentic Communication. If you’ve differentiated and diversified your communication, you’re stepping in the right direction of displaying authentic communication.

Make sure your communication materials do not convey something your organization is not. No organization is all sunshine and rainbows, so make sure your candidate communication is realistic, honest and authentic. If you don’t have pool tables in the breakroom along with endless snacks, don’t act like you do because you’ve heard that is the way to attract millennials to a workplace. If you’re organization’s demographic isn’t diverse as you’d like, don’t hire actors or use stock graphics to populate your careers page. Actually use people who work in your organization.

Make sure you know who and what you are as an organization and what you are striving to become. Tell candidates about this throughout the process.

What do you do to communicate effectively with candidates to build a positive experience for them?

October 16, 2018