Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

Grown men in tank tops usually aren’t my jam, but… can they teach us something about leading?
Grown men in tank tops usually aren’t my jam.

So when Pat McAfee made his appearance on Gameday this year to replace a former Georgia football player that looked really good in a suit (more my jam), I was like what the heck?

I watched him for a minute, determined he was there to sensationalize, pull in a different type of audience, and create some new dynamic I wasn’t into. I thought I’d lost a little bit of respect for the Saturday morning football institution, even if Corso is still there picking his favorite team, glorified mascot head and all.

But my husband keeps showing me clips of McAfee’s show. (To note, tank tops aren’t my husband’s jam either. He’s even more buttoned up than I am when it comes to stuff like that.)

“You’ve got to watch this,” he’s said at least three times to me in the past two weeks. Usually when he says this, it is because he’s watched it and he knows I am going to take some organizational psychology/leadership lessons from it and run with it.

As I’ve watched, the popular host isn’t really sensationalizing anything- unless you take into account his frequent foul language- which is also, you guessed it, not my jam. He’s teaching leadership and organizational psychology 101. Lessons I try to teach myself and others each day. Like:
- “Take care of your people.” Pay people what they are worth. You trying to short change everyone around you only leads to you short changing yourself.
- Stand up for what you believe in and don’t back down when people criticize you for it. Ignore the outside “noise” both the good and the bad.
- “Humility drives you to success.”
- You have to customize your leadership to the people you are leading.
- Humor helps. Deploy it often.
- Surround yourself with the GOATs of the world and listen to them. Learn from them. As I’ve watched and not just listened to the show, you see how attuned McAfee is to listening to his guests. He’s not silently interrupting- trying to think about what he is going to say next while someone else is talking- and he’s not literally interrupting either. He’s sitting there with his ears and mind on and he’s soaking it all in.
If you want to listen to the episodes that my husband keeps putting in front of me, here is the two most recent examples:

Pat McAfee Responds To Report He pays Aaron Rodgers “Millions” for Weekly Interviews

Coach Saban Talks Punishment vs Discipline, How He Motivates His Team

Thanks to my husband and Pat McAfee, I’m learning that it’s not wise to judge a book by its cover. Leadership 101.
October 17, 2023
How to Get Millions Back in the Workforce
During the pandemic, it was estimated that between two and three million women left the workforce. While there are signs that women are returning towards pre-pandemic levels, there are still a variety of sectors, especially care workers, that have not recovered and signs don’t point to an optimistic outcome.

Why?

Women are largely those that leave the workforce to provide care for children and or the elderly. Providing care makes it difficult for women to work, especially in more traditional sectors where workers must be present and work hours that don’t align with school and care options. This is especially true for single mothers.

What should be done? There are many thoughtful people across the country that are working on this issue. As you think about how your company and or community can support labor participation among women by tackling caregiving needs, here are some things to think about:
1. What is it that workers actually need and want when it comes to childcare? In order to address caregiving, we must address quality and quantity and respond to what workers want and need when it comes to childcare. For example, the West Alabama area has realized that blue collar workers want their childcare close to where they live, not close to where they work. Whereas one solution would be for large manufacturing companies to build onsite childcare facilities, this would neglect to understand what the population they employ needs and prefers. So they have launched an initiative to increase in-home daycares in their community. You can learn more about their program in this Family or Group Childcare Homes Workbook.
In addition, employers across the state are looking into options like Tootris to provide a customized approach to childcare instead of a one size fits all approach (and most likely saving millions by outsourcing the access to childcare). In this model, Tootris helps families find childcare that meets their needs through an online network and then the employer provides a financial subsidy to the employee through Tootris to help pay for that childcare.

Finally, we also need to consider what people need when it comes to carrying not only for children, but also for aging and/or disabled loved ones. Often, this is largely left out of the discussion when seeking to address the labor participation issue.
1. It is an affordability issue. Systems like Tootris provide a means for employers to help offset the cost of childcare. And to be sure, quality child care is expensive. My youngest child just transitioned from a high-quality childcare program to a public school Pre-K and what we paid for that childcare now almost pays the mortgage on our home each month.
Some states are getting involved to try to figure out how public-private partnerships can make an impact on labor participation through subsidizing the cost of childcare. The state of Indiana proposed splitting the cost of childcare in thirds- employers paying one third, employees paying one third and the state paying one third. Although this legislation has not passed in Indiana, the research behind it showed that the state would more than offset the cost through increased payroll taxes being collected by those that were able to return or enter the workforce because their childcare needs were now met.
1. We need to examine what it means to work and when and how we structure education with working parents in mind. I mentioned that my youngest child transitioned into a public school Pre-K. While this is saving us over $800 a month, he now has to be picked up by 2:15 pm each day. Given he is in Pre-K, he is too young to go to the school’s extended day program. My husband and I are fortunate to have flexibility when it comes to working hours and we have retired grandparents available around the corner from the school we can call on when needed. My issues, to be sure, come from a place of unique privilege. But when we think about childcare, we have to stop and realize that school days and work days don’t often align when it comes to hours and schedules. My school aged children are out of school now for fall break- five days- and will be out of school a total of seven days before December (not counting Christmas Break). People working in traditional fields do not have access to seven days off in less than a two month period.
I don’t have the solutions for this issue, but we need to be talking about it. Employers need to consider what it actually means to get quality work done, and oftentimes we are too rigid on when and how this takes place. Communities and school systems need to work with employers to consider the demands placed on working parents when every time you turn around, kids are out of school and the hours in which they go to school aren’t consistent with a traditional work day. Our workplaces would be better off and our schools would too because families would be better supported.

What are you seeing that is helping to address labor participation due to caregiving issues?
October 10, 2023
The Economics of Union Activity

Supply and Demand. The first lesson of Economics, or at least I remember it that way. The most important lesson of economics as I remember it.

Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but I think the issues of the supply and demand of labor need to be reinforced when we think about anything and everything that is going on in our world. And one of those things is union activity.

The issues at Starbuck, Amazon, UPS… the list goes on and on about union organization and in the media seems on the surface to be about wages, benefits, and the overall treatment of workers. As Jillian pointed out in our last post, People want to be valued and listened to. They need to feel like they have some sense of control over their lives, and that includes at work. Many employers don’t offer that. When people don’t have this at work, they aren’t happy.

But none of that matters from a union sense if only one person feels that way. Many people have to feel that way. And when many people feel that way and there aren’t enough people to go around to fill the demand for labor, they have power. Or in union terms, they have “collective bargaining” power.

And right now, there aren’t enough people to go around to fill jobs in many industries both in terms of the actual number of human beings available and or in terms of a desire to work in certain jobs or industries. And it is only going to get worse.

Typically, this issue of supply and demand for labor is measured by the number of job openings compared to the number of available workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there have been more job openings compared to unemployed people since May 2021. In January 2023, there were almost twice as many job openings as there were unemployed people in the United States according to this BLS data.

This challenge is not unique to the United States. Boston Consulting Group’s The Global Workforce Crisis- $10 Trillion at Risk highlights the differences in labor supply and demand by country (both Germany and Japan are experiencing particularly acute issues with labor supply). Whereas some countries are currently experiencing a higher level of supply than demand, the piece emphasizes that by 2030 most countries will experience labor shortages. BCG postulates that this issue could result in $10 Trillion in GDP not created.

So, when there is more of a demand for labor than there is supply, employers better pay attention. We would hope they don’t have to pay attention because they are treating people like people. But when they aren’t, the most important law of economics will bite you. Workers will all leave and go someplace else, because someone else needs them, because there are more jobs than people available to fill them.

We can be distracted by the media saying artificial intelligence (AI) is going to take over all our jobs, but the data doesn’t show this. We may need to retool ourselves for the jobs of the future, and that may be where employers need to be focused to not only help with labor supply issues but also to employee engagement issues. Both impact union activity.

What are you doing to impact labor supply and union activity?

August 29, 2023
3 Lessons in Effective Training from Inmates
My family and I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica this summer to serve with Voz de Liberta (Voice of Liberty). They are “a non-profit NGO that is dedicated to sharing the message of hope to prisoners, former prisoners, their families and victims throughout the country by providing comprehensive assistance.” It was amazing to see the work they are doing, in particular in the APAC (faith-based) prison they run.

Through my time there, I found that the prisoners taught me a thing or two about how to do training well:
1. 2 by 2: We sat in on a training class on the gospel of Mark. There were two instructors facilitating the class of about twelve people. When I asked the director about this, he told me that all their training classes are taught by two facilitators. When I asked why, he simply stated that it provides for diversity of thought and delivery that is beneficial for the participants and the facilitators. We may see this as inefficient in the United States, but it seemed to be a model that makes the training more effective.
  
  At HPC, we frequently send two trainers, so that one person can learn from a more seasoned trainer or two styles or levels of expertise can be shared. Each person brings different experiences, learning styles, and personalities to the group, and with two trainers it is more likely for a diverse audience to be reached effectively with a team approach.
2. Everyone can and should lead. I hope you noticed in the first lesson that the classes are not taught by outside facilitators. They are taught by the inmates themselves. The team at Voz de Liberta (three full time people and more than eighty volunteers) are constantly equipping the inmates to lead. This makes their ministry not only scalable but also more effective.
  
  The model of training in the prisons is also designed to multiply leaders/facilitators. Each training class facilitated by two people is designed to identify two more people to be trained to be trainers. The mindset here is that everyone is valuable and capable of leading with the right training and tools.
  
  In addition, in the faith based prison, everyone takes a turn leading what they call “motivation” that occurs before lunch everyday. There are about 90 prisoners in the faith-based prison and they take turns leading the motivation that involves roll call, announcements, and prayer. We were fortunate to be there on a day when a prisoner was slowly but faithfully calling roll. The director leaned over to me and explained that he was learning to read and was currently taking first grade classes in the prison. I would guess he was about 45 years old. With a smile, he worked through all the names and then started on the announcements. It was a privilege to witness.
  
  I think so often we separate the educated from the uneducated, the haves from the have nots, the young from the old, the prisoners from the non-prisoners, the experts from the non-experts. When we create these binary categories, we leave no room for learning and growth on either end of the spectrum. We can live on a continuum where we are constantly seeking to equip and learn from each other. I know I learned more from the man slowly calling roll in Spanish that he will ever learn from me. It’s amazing what can be done when we see people as capable first and then treat them as such.
3. Who, then what, then how. The training class followed a model of who (in this case Jesus and the inmate participants) in order to build self awareness. Next, it focused on now that I know who (me) I should focus on what I need to do. Then, once I understand what I need to do, I need to know how to do it and be able to practice that how over and over. This was a simple model to follow, but one that was grounded in the belief that self awareness comes first before any planning or action takes place. And that in order for the training to be effective, practice (how) has to take place in order for behaviors to change.
The experience in Costa Rica flipped the way I see many things. It did so for my husband and my children as well. I hope we will take these lessons to inform what we need to do next and then practice how over and over again.

What do you think makes training effective? How have you learned from those you least expected to teach you?
July 18, 2023
How to conduct an effective one-on-one meeting
I’ve been experimenting with the Ink and Volt One On One Pad to help me organize my thoughts. I organize around these 4 four pillars:
- Current work
- Future work (business development and proposals out)
- Short and long term development priorities for the person I’m meeting with
- Personal needs/support
I use our Insightly software to refresh my memory on what everyone has going on with the first two (the software calls these “Projects” and “Opportunities”) before the meeting. I record these things on the Ink and Volt pad. I also take a look at each person’s task list in Insightly before the meeting. Doing this always makes me keenly aware of how on top of it everyone on our team is. They are always juggling multiple priorities to meet multiple current and future client needs by living two of our other values- Passion and Productivity.

Usually, the person I’m meeting with that is driving hits all of these pillars without me having to. If they don’t, I circle back around to things I have on my list once they are finished with theirs. Sometimes the meetings are more focused on one of these things more than the others, but I always try to hit all of them. Some people gravitate towards needing to talk about one pillar over another and it is my job as a leader to make sure I follow their lead on the needs they have.
1. One-on-ones should lead to a greater team dynamic. We used to spend way too much time in our whole team quarterly planning meetings talking through current projects. Invariably, one or two team members were focused on the project but the others weren’t. We were wasting other people’s time talking through every project and every proposal as a team. While it’s valuable for everyone to understand each other’s work load, spending thirty minutes of a half-day team meeting on one project in which only part of your team is involved is a waste of time and effort. Therefore, we have made sure that when a quarterly meeting is coming up, we have one-on-ones the week before if possible. Needs that involve the whole team come up during the one-on-ones and then can be discussed at the whole team meeting where collaboration needs to take place.
1. Finally, one-on-ones should focus on open feedback and communication. If tough issues aren’t coming up from time to time (both personal and professional) in these meetings, then something isn’t being done right. One-on-ones should be a place where psychological safety is being demonstrated- both ways. If all conversations in one-on-ones are surface level and tactical, then no one is growing.
We also spend one or two one-on-one meetings a year facilitating our Leaders as Career Agents process which dives deeper into development priorities, and at times, we schedule a longer meeting if we need to take a deep dive into a specific project, proposal, or issue.

How do you make your one-on-one meetings the best they can be?
June 27, 2023