Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

All Leaders Need to Develop Others
Tactical leadership coaching should be customized based on the person being coached and his or her development needs. You waste your time trying to focus on areas that are not critical to the person’s success or aren’t about maximizing strengths or minimizing weaknesses when you cover the same topics for the same person regardless of the situation. This is why assessment and feedback seeking is so important, and it is also why, oftentimes, one-on-one coaching is more value-added than group training.

All that being said, though, a leaders’ primary role is to make more leaders. It doesn’t matter what industry a person is in, what skill sets they possess, or what job title they hold.

I’ve found that the Situational Leadership approach developed by Hersey and Blanchard provides an excellent framework for helping leaders think through people development and implement behavioral-based methods for developing others. The clutch of this approach is that you don’t develop everyone the same way. One-size does not fit all, or in other words, the most unfair thing in the world to do is to treat unequals as equals.

The approach (as illustrated here) is grounded in two dimensions of the person being developed:
1. Their competence level (I like to call this their “skill”)
2. Their commitment level (I like to call this their “will”)
(See more on skill vs. will)

Based on the combination of a person’s skill and will level, a leader then responds based on leading that person with a combination of a directive and/or supportive style to drive results.

Although a fairly simple model (compared to others out there), an example might help to illustrate how this approach would be applied.

Let’s say you have just hired a new college grad. He is an energetic, “eager beaver” so to speak. He’s ready to save the world, and he is ready to do it through your company and his job. High commitment or will. However, he lacks training on your company’s processes, does not have an understanding of your industry and lacks some level of confidence in dealing with others, whether co-workers or customers. Low competence or skill. He needs to develop his skills in order to be successful or his will/commitment will end up going out the window.

Based on looking at the model below, which style would this leader employ to develop his new employee? He would begin by being very directive with the employee. But what does being directive mean? What behaviors would the leader exhibit?

The leader would be best served by “providing specific direction (what to do, how to do it and when) and closely monitoring task performance” (italics mine) from Leadership and the One Minute Manager. This means training the employee thoroughly, meeting with him regular to monitor the accomplishment of tasks and providing very frequent feedback.

For new hires, having a training and development plan complete with tasks and measurements for those tasks is a great complement to directive leadership style that is usually needed at this stage in an employees’ tenure.

But you don’t do this forever. An employee should move through the progression of their competence and commitment level where both are high if the directive approach is implement correctly and timely. A leader employing the Situational Leadership approach, if done correctly, should help with this progression of growth and development and should know when to adapt their style based on the person’s skill and will level to help them continue to grow. Keep being directive forever and you will kill a person’s will too.

As a leader, how do you adapt your style to develop people?

If you want to learn more about Situation Leadership and how it is applied, take a look at Leadership and the One Minute Manager as well as the other One Minute Manager books. All are short and very easy to read and follow. You can skip the scholarly journals on the theory and go straight to the application of it in about a 30 minute read with these books.

Image source: http://www.12manage.com/images/picture_blanchard_situational_leadership.gif
March 24, 2014
High School Advice

With only a few months left in my high school career, I look back on my decisions and feel like I am college ready. In the past weeks, I have broken down how to be college ready for freshmen, sophomores,juniors, and seniors. Sadly this isn’t the case with all of my graduating class. Even though most of them will be accepted into college, most of them will not be able to keep up with the responsibilities of college.

If you plan on going to college, take AP courses. They will challenge you and your grades might not be as good, but AP classes will help you study like you will when you are in college. If you struggle through AP classes, try different ways to study, it is better for you to figure out what works best for you now than when the college courses begin and you are drowning in work. You can’t expect to be successful in college if you breeze through honors or regular classes with an easy A. Taking challenging courses will also help to increase your ACT and/or SAT scores.

A couple weeks ago I discussed the ACT and how it is important if you want a big scholarship. I stress this because most students rely on their GPA to get scholarships, but end up with next to nothing because they weren’t focused on the right area. Most of the scholarships at the schools I researched (mostly southern schools) had a minimum GPA that was as low as a 3.0. So a student that has a 3.0 with an ACT score of 28 will receive more scholarship than a student that has a 4.0 with an ACT score of 24. What level of scholarship you get is determined by your ACT score. I don’t agree with the system, but if you want to get a scholarship you will have to put effort into the ACT.

Be involved in as much as you can. You won’t ever have the opportunity to be involved in so many activities while in school. College clubs and sports take up a lot of time so you have to pick and choose what you are involved in. Savor your experience; I will miss going to games where I know everyone playing and the people in the stands. I won’t ever be able to have that again.

I speak from my experience and the experience of others in my position. Don’t wish away your high school years. They are important in getting you ready for your future. There are a lot of changes that have occurred in me since I was a freshman. I wish I had not cared what everyone else thought of me. When I was a freshman, I thought the seniors were so much older and wiser than me. It is so not true. Most people don’t mature until much later than high school. They might have high school figured out, but life is far from being figured out. Take this in consideration when dealing with others in high school by acting with empathy and helpfulness instead of judgment. This mindset will not only serve you well in high school but throughout your life.

March 20, 2014
The Top 10, Wait 9, Leadership Coaching Needs
What would you guess to be the Top 10 most common topics covered in leadership coaching? Maybe we can get Letterman to do a Top 10 list on leadership coaching needs (oh, what humor we could probably find, it wouldn’t take much creativity), but in all seriousness, by reviewing many, many 360° leadership evaluations and coaching individuals on maximizing and improving their performance, here is my list- and I could only get to nine:
1. Developing Others
2. Time Management
3. Delegation
4. Thinking Strategically
5. Managing Upwards
6. Communication
7. Planning/Organizing
8. Managing Conflict
9. Empowering/Motivating Others
I’d love to hear what would be in your Top 10 list of your needs for improvement as a leader, or better yet, what areas you think the person who leads you or manages you needs! Maybe by comparing my list to yours, we can get to 10. And better yet, send them to me in David Letterman style! How would he phrase them? Email me your list or post it to our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter Feed.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll be writing on ways to address these common areas. We’ll phrase them in your Letterman style and add to our list based on your feedback. If we use one of your submissions, we’ll send you a $25 Visa Gift Card. Submit away!
March 17, 2014
Playing the ACT/SAT “Game”

There is a lot of fuss about college admissions testing and a lot of money (it’s a multi-billion dollar industry) spent on test prep services. In fact, Press coverage last week regarding standardized college entrance exams was all a buzz with the announcement of changes being made to the SAT.

Why is there so much focus on these tests? Because if you want to get in to the school of your choice and if you want to get scholarship money, your ACT/SAT score is the number one determinate.

We’ve even been focusing on the ACT prep here at Horizon Point with our recent blog post and arecent resource release “ACT Tips and Tricks”.

But do these test even matter? Should you even pay to play the game?

Taking into account some things I’ve been reading lately, these test aren’t actual predictors of overall success.

The first chapter of The Millionaire Mind, which is a study in the way millionaires think and what has made them successful, basically rips to shreds the notion that success in school, as indicated by grades and test scores, is an indicator to predicting if someone will be a millionaire (except in the case of millionaire doctors and lawyers, which most millionaires are not of this variety, but are entrepreneurs).

Thomas Stanley the author states,

“Testing has its place in society, but there should be more testing of the intereststhat young people have inside of them. Tell them this: if you want to be successful, select a vocation you love. It’s amazing how well people do in life when their vocation is one that stimulates dedication and positive emotions.”

Stanley proves through data that focusing on selecting a vocation you will love is a better predictor of success than any standardized test score or GPA.

Or consider this quoterecently found in an HR Capitalist Blog Post

“LAST June, in an interview with Adam Bryant of The Times, Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google — i.e., the guy in charge of hiring for one of the world’s most successful companies — noted that Google had determined that “G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. … We found that they don’t predict anything.” He also noted that the “proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time” — now as high as 14 percent on some teams. At a time when many people are asking, “How’s my kid gonna get a job?” I thought it would be useful to visit Google and hear how Bock would answer.

The long and short of his answer- The ability to think creatively and process things on the fly is the number one predictor of success at Google.

So should you even play the SAT or ACT “game”?

Unfortunately, yes. In the absence of colleges weighting other criteria higher than standardized tests, which I don’t think is going to happen any time soon because one test score is such an easy method for distinguishing among candidates, if your plan is to go to college, the most effective way to make sure you aren’t paying any more than you have to is to do well on these tests. I’d choose paying $500 for testing prep than an extra $40,000+ for a college education than a 2-3 point difference on the test (ACT that is) can cost you.

If you, however, want to succeed in life, don’t put too much stock in your SAT or ACT score (parents, you’d be well advised to listen to this, too- your kid’s success is not defined by a score on a test). Instead, your overall time is better spent discovering your talents and passions in order to be able to do what you love and think on the fly. Doing these things will lead to millionaire status or a job at Google much quicker than flashing your ACT/SAT on a resume.

March 13, 2014
6 Steps for Maximizing Feedback Through Feedforward
Described by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, feedforward is a process to solicit help in improving your performance once you’ve gotten feedback on what you need to improve upon. In our coaching process, and in many others, this is done through a 360° feedback assessment. (If you want other tips on how to solicit feedback yourself, Goldsmith’s book has a methods you can employ, or you can read ideas we recommend here.

How to do it:

Once you get feedback, you then follow the feedforward process as Goldsmith describes by:
1. What do you stink at? Pick the behavior you want to change or improve based on the feedback you’ve received. In our coaching process, this should be reflected in the goals the individual sets as a previous step in the process.
2. Tell people what you stink at. Describe the behavior you want to change one-on-one with anyone. It could be co-workers, your boss, your spouse, anyone. They do not have to be an expert.
3. Ask for help. Ask the person for two suggestions on how you could improve in this area in the future. There should be no discussion of the past- only the focus on the future.
4. Shut up. Listen to the suggestions, take notes if you desire, and thank the person for their suggestions. Don’t comment or judge their suggestions, just thank them.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 with other people. As many as you like, the more the better.
6. Stop stinking. Once you have a list of suggestions, commit to implementing what will work for you and regularly communicate your efforts to those involved.
Feedforward at first can appear to be a process that leaves one vulnerable, and many people think that others won’t provide honest input when asked. But if done correctly, it can build your capabilities as a leader not only to help improve your performance but engaging in the process will convey humility, which is a trait many people actually seek in a leader they are want to follow.

Have your ever sought someone’s input on how to improve? If so, what were the outcomes of you implementing their suggestions?
March 10, 2014