Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

  • 3 Ways to Seek Feedback as a Leader

    3 Ways to Seek Feedback as a Leader

    In leadership coaching and training, there are several key areas where people seek help for maximizing their performance. Over the next few weeks, we’ll focus on one a week and provide you with some tools and tips to help you if the area is one in which you seek to develop as a leader.

    Last week we pointed to feedforward and feedback as one of the steps in our coaching process. We often find, however, that this topic is also a tactical approach for improving performance. Many people in leadership roles, don’t seek feedback for themselves and do not provide adequate feedback to those they lead, which inhibits the ability to maximize performance.

    Here are some tips and methods for seeking feedback for yourself:

    1. Ways to seek informal feedback for yourself:

    -Simply ask those around you what they see as your strengths and areas for improvement. Ask “What can I do better?” This shouldn’t just be done at work. It should be done at home as well.

    -Listen to what others say or comment about you whether in humor or not. These comments are often a good indicator of how they perceive your strengths and weaknesses.

    2. Ways to formally seek feedback for yourself: There are variety of good books out there that list questions relevant to leadership performance that can be found in 360° questionnaires. Use these questions to develop your own 360° evaluation and solicit someone’s help to distribute it to those you wish to gain feedback from. Have that person also compile the results for you in order to protect people’s confidentiality and provide better results.

    -Books with good questions for consideration:

    What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

                Successful Manager’s Handbook

    Another way to seek formal feedback for yourself is to simply take your performance evaluation process seriously. Hopefully your company has one. Utilize the feedback you receive in your review.

    3. Hire someone to conduct a 360° evaluation for you: Make sure you vet  this person/firm appropriately. Although you can gain meaningful insight into yourself by seeking feedback on your own, this method may provide the most objective, and therefore the most actionable plan for maximizing your strengths and developing as a leader if you can afford to hire someone to conduct the review.

    What is the best method you’ve used to seek feedback for yourself?

  • College Prep for Seniors

    College Prep for Seniors

    Your freshmen, sophomore, and junior year helped you be prepared for college, but your senior year is when you have to make it a reality. As a high school senior, I went through the admissions process this past fall. Applying to colleges and scholarships takes a lot of effort and initiative. The first few months of my senior year were a bit hectic. I had lots of homework, ACT tutoring, and college applications that had to be done in 2 months. I should have gone into my senior year with my future in mind.

    Here are a few tips to help you keep your future in mind:
    1. ACT/SAT is top priority- Research what test score you need to make to make you eligible for the college’s admission and scholarships. I suggest taking it every chance you have in the fall of your senior year. You don’t want to regret not putting effort into earning scholarships. I was able to raise my score by 3 points in my past ACT which saved my parents $20,000 on my college education.

    2. Start applying as soon as possible- The earlier you apply the more priority you have over other freshmen. Most schools are a first come first serve basis when it comes to applying to housing and other things for your freshman year. If you get it out of the way, then you don’t have to stress about it.

    3. Don’t worry it you declare an undecided major- I have been told hundreds of times that it is OK it I don’t know what I want to major in. Instead of narrowing down the majors you want, find out what is not a good fit for you. If you hate needles and blood, odds are you won’t want to be a nurse. If you are and impatient person and don’t like to be around kids, odds are you won’t want to become a teacher. Realizing your strengths and weaknesses can help you make your decision about what to major in.

    4. Focus on what is best for you- Lots of people will give advice, but it might not be right for you. Don’t let people tell you what jobs or majors aren’t good, everyone is gifted differently so don’t let people speak for you.

    5. Deadlines- Colleges don’t care if you didn’t know or you were to busy and forgot to submit application or scholarship applications. They have thousands of other students to worry about so excuses will not help. Be aware of the deadlines and submit everything as soon as possible.

    6. Enjoy your senior year!!- By now you will have a different mind set then when you were a freshmen or sophomore. This will be your last year with your class so make the best of it.

    The first semester of your senior year will be packed full of responsibilities, so to keep track of everything check out the HorizonPoint college prep checklist and join our mailing list.

  • Hiring a Coach to Improve Work Performance

    Hiring a Coach to Improve Work Performance

    If you are seeking to maximize your performance at work, hiring a professional coach may help you do this. We’ve mentioned key factors in vetting a coach, one of which is considering the approach or process the coach or firm follows.

    Our coaching approach is grounded in our company values. Our basic leadership coaching process focuses on these key elements, stemming from our values:

    1. Assessment. We start by assessing where people are from their perspective and the  perspective of people who matter in their life.

    2. Self-Awareness. Based on the results of the assessment phase, we work to build self-awareness between the individual’s perception an others’ perception to determine focus.

    For more reading on self-awareness:

    The Mirror

    Self-Awareness Test

    The Verdict

    3. Mission statement. As a way to solidify self-awareness and focus developmental efforts, our clients formulate a mission statement based on their values in order to govern their direction.

    For more reading on creating a mission statement:

    Don’t want to wake up with regrets? Create a mission statement

    Define and focus on what’s important

    4. Goal setting. After a mission statement is created, our clients set goals to govern focus for maximizing performance.

    For more reading on goal setting:

    4 tips for setting mission focused goals

    5. Feedforward and feedback. After goals are set, we work with clients to share their mission and goals with those who are tied to their performance monitoring. We provide a framework for them to seek continually feedback on the progress there are making towards maximizing their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses, through the help of a practice called feedforward (a concept developed by Marshall Goldsmith)

    6. Tactical coaching.  In conjunction with the feedforward and feedback process, we work to help clients maximize strengths and improve in weak areas by tackling key areas with behavioral-based coaching. We provide discussion, reading and exercises for the client to consider and implement. These tools are designed to help individuals take their performance to the next level. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be focusing on the most common tactical areas we see come up in coaching as well as tips and tools to help improve performance in each of these areas.

    What are of your performance at work would you most like to improve?

  • College Prep for Juniors

    College Prep for Juniors

    The past two weeks I have made a list for freshmen and sophomores on how to be prepared for college. While those years are important, Junior year has the most responsibilities for college bound students. Like most students I knew I was going to college, but that assumption made me ignore important steps when preparing. The beginning of this past year, when I started applying to schools, I made it so hard on myself because I was lazy and had little drive my junior year. I should have set my priorities with college in mind.

    To help you have college in mind, I have come up with some tips for high school juniors:

    1. ACT/SAT is priority- In my experience, colleges prioritize students by ACT/SAT scores. While GPA should not be ignored, the higher the test score the more opportunities there are for scholarships. For example, I have an older brother and sister that attend the same college. In high school my brother’s GPA was a 3.7 and my sisters was a 4.3, while she was more studious than he was, my brother received more scholarship money because he had a higher ACT score. When studying for the ACT/SAT it is almost impossible to learn and remember all the rules and formulas for the different problems. Instead, practice and learn how take the test. Find out what stratagy works best for you, the more comfortable you are testing the easier the test becomes.

    2. Push yourself- This year was the hardest for me by far. I took three AP classes. While that might be overwhelming to have so many, I suggest you take as many as you think you can handle. Like I have said before, the class that will get you an easy A is not going to help you in college courses.

    3. Build your resume- Continue to stay active in the activities and organizations in which you are a part.

    4. Search  and apply for scholarships- Even though they can be in small amounts, it is still less money you or your parents have to pay for your education.

    5. Start making a list of colleges that interest you- It can seem overwhelming at first but it gets easier. Thinking about simple things like cost and distance can help you narrow down your options. When you come up with a list of possibilities, be aware of deadlines. Some colleges allow you to apply as soon at the beginning of August before your senior year.

    6. AP Exams- If you are taking AP classes, put effort into your end of the year exams. You can avoid taking and paying for classes if you score well. I am eating my words on this one, I didn’t care and did not get any credits from my exam scores.

    7. Enjoy your summer- It is sad but this is the last one you will have without the stress of getting ready for college. Don’t expect to have your future figured out your

    Junior year. It is hard to be motivated for something that is 2 years away, but try to make yourself. You will be thankful you put in the extra effort when you begin your Senior year. With The Horizon Point’s College Checklist, you can be ready for the responsibilities for this year and your senior year. You may also want to check out Horizon Point’s College and Career Prep email subscription plan to help you stay on track starting your junior year.

  • Should You Hire a Coach?

    Should You Hire a Coach?

    Last week, we discussed what you should look for in a coach. But before you go looking for a coach, you need to look in the mirror. Consider these questions before you vet coaches to help you:

    1. Are you willing to devote the time to coaching? Developing as a person takes time. You’ll need to be willing to meet with a coach at regular intervals and devote the time to practice and follow-through on assignments that arise from the coaching arrangement. Just like you won’t be a become a better baseball pitcher if you only practice during the 1 hour of your coaching session, your performance in any arena won’t improve if you don’t take the time to put into practice what you are learning. If you don’t have the time or the willingness to devote to the process, don’t begin.
    2. What are your needs? Continuing with the baseball analogy, do you need help with your hitting, your pitching, your fielding, your speed? A similar list for leadership coaching may be help with motivating others, delegating, time management, managing upwards to develop your career, among many other things. What you need “help” with should focus not only on where you desire to see improvement, but where you want to maximize your talent. Consider what can help take you to the next level, and hire a coach that can help you focus on just that. If you are unsure of what you need or seek clarity in defining focus, a good coach should have the ability to assess this for you as a part of the process and create a plan for you. In fact, most coaches will start first with some type of assessment to begin the coaching engagement.
    3. What results are you expecting? Do you want to increase the number of strikeouts you have in a game? Do you want to get noticed by major league scouts? Clearly defining your needs should lead to clearly defined results you are expecting. Having these written down can greatly help you when you go shopping for a coach to help you achieve them.
    4. What are your values? Different coaches practice different forms of coaching. In leadership coaching, some focus on behavioral based coaching where others on psychoanalysis as their framework. There are multiple variations of coaching methods, none of which are necessarily right or wrong, but you need to have a frame of reference in terms of your values in order to select the best person to work with you. The clearest analogy for this may deviate from sports and come from parent coaching. Quite simply, if you fundamentally disagree with spanking your child as a form of discipline, choosing a coach who advocates for this type of discipline would not be a fit for you.

    So, should you hire a coach?