Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

  • 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?

  • College Prep For Sophomores

    College Prep For Sophomores

    Your sophomore year of high school is a pivotal year to make sure you are challenging yourself and expanding upon what you learned your freshman year. As a high school senior about to transition to college, I’ll be continuing this week with my focus on what to do each year to make sure your beyond ready for college.

    When Sophomore year came around, I felt like I had high school figured out. Little did I know there was so much more that I could have done to help me be prepared for college.
    Here is my to do list for high school Sophomores:

    Take the ACT or SAT– It is important that you do this for experience.
    Pay attention to scholarship opportunities– Even if it is for a small amount or you don’t think you will get it, do it anyways. It will give you practice and you could win and already be saving money for college.

    Challenge yourself– Start thinking of what level classes you want to take to next year. If the classes you are taking right now don’t push you, plan to go to the next level. I suggest that you take any AP class that is offered your sophomore year. Getting an easy A now will not help you when you get to college.

    Choose your priorities wisely– When building your resume it is important to think quality over quantity. If you joined a club your Freshmen year that did nothing, don’t join it again. Spend your time on things that will set you apart. Trust me there are hundreds of science or spanish club members that will applying to the same college you are. Join the the clubs or organization that helped you get volunteer hours and make you be involved.

    With each year comes more opportunities to prepare yourself for college. It is rare for students to have that focus and drive to take those opportunities in order to be ready for college. The Horizon Point’s Checklist provides a plan for students to make college a reality.

  • The Ins and Outs of Leadership Coaching Series- How to Select the Right Coach

    The Ins and Outs of Leadership Coaching Series- How to Select the Right Coach

    Today, you can find a “coach” for everything. Where we used to associate coaching specifically with sports, now there are life coaches, leadership coaches, executive coaches, parent coaches, career coaches… you get the picture.

    Since our firm provides leadership and career coaching, we obviously see the value in coaching.Performance Management: Putting Research into Action states, “There is strong research and case-study evidence that coaching is an effective leadership development tool.” In fact, one of our coaching clients from last year received a substantial raise as a result of gains in his performance. He deserves the credit for this through his hard work, but we were able to help him maximize his performance through behavioral-based leadership coaching. I have an executive coach I work with and she has helped me tremendously in focusing company efforts towards growth.

    So if you are seeking someone to help you improve your performance, what should you be looking for?

    1. A coach who has a governing set of ethics/professional standards. Ask them to provide you with their standards inInformation on confidentiality, conflict of interest, professional conduct and scope of practice, at a minimum, should be included.
    2. Industry knowledge and people knowledge. For example, if you are in manufacturing, does the coach understand this arena? Within the scope of practice your coach should be able to provide to you an explanation of their training and background. Make sure this is in line with your needs.
    3. Track Record. Your coach should be able to provide you with a list of references.
    4. An approach. The coach should have an approach to coaching grounded in research and practice that comes with a proven process you can align with and devote the time implementing.

    We’ll be focusing over the next few weeks specifically on leadership coaching including things to consider before hiring a coach, our approach to leadership coaching, and common areas of focus in leadership coaching along with tips to aid in these common areas. We’ll wrap this series up with ways to measure the impact of coaching at an individual and organizational level.

    Do you have a coach or have you thought about hiring one? What sold you on their ability to help you gain the results you were seeking to accomplish?

  • College Prep for Freshmen

    College Prep for Freshmen

    The way students prepare for college changes from generation to generation. Teachers and parents provide wonderful, and much needed, encouragement and support, but it can help to have the perspective of someone who is going through the process of applying and choosing a college. I am a senior at Decatur High School and just finished choosing the college I will attend.

    When I was a freshman it was hard for me to plan past the weekend much less make a four year plan. There are a lot of things I am glad I did but a few things I would do differently to help me prepare for my next step in life.

    Here is a list of my Do’s and Dont’s for High School Freshmen:

    1. Do try anything that interests you– be involved in as many activities as you can, then you can find what really interest you and manage your priorities. Start a portfolio of everything you have done, my mother made me start one when I was a freshman and it helped me out a lot when I started college applications.

    2. Do take advantage of learning the basics– Like most students, I hated grammar. It did not come easy to me and it was last thing I wanted to do. All those times I tuned my english teacher out during the lessons caught up with me when I started taking the ACT ,and my english score suffered.

    3. Do get to know upper classmen– Understanding what responsibilities and decisions they have to make can help you see the bigger picture. Also ask for advice, you can avoid the same mistakes they made when they were a freshman.

    4. Don’t get ahead of yourself– Make this year a learning year, you don’t have to make any big decisions.

    5. Don’t get on a teachers bad side– Teacher recommendations will be needed throughout high school, for scholarships, and for college applications. Teachers talk to each other about students so being disrespectful can ruin your reputation even before you step foot into a another classroom.

    6. Don’t slack off– You have three more years of high school, and it only gets harder.

    While you don’t have to make big decisions, it benefits you to be aware of the steps you can take to be prepared for college. Horizon Point’s checklist can help you make a game plan for the next four years.

  • Are You A Free Agent By Nature?

    Are You A Free Agent By Nature?

    Do these characteristics describe you and your work/life values?:

    • I desire flexibility in my work (work hours, days, etc.). This is more important to me than the stability of a consistent check or the stable benefits a company can provide.
    • I desire autonomy or control in how work gets done (when, where, etc.)
    • Or to more bluntly sum up the above two bullets, quiet frankly I don’t like other people telling me what to do! I’d rather decide how things get done and be rewarded (or not rewarded) according to the outcomes I decide to achieve.
    • I don’t mind taking risks
    • I have a strong sense of what work is important for me in relation to my purpose and who I am.

    If most of these characteristics describe you, then you may be designed to a free agent instead of an employee. People who seek an arrangement where a particular company does not employ them have been called many things from contractor, to freelancer to self-employed and the number of these types of workers is growing. Do you desire to be one of them? As both individuals and companies desire more flexibility in how work gets accomplished, the trend for a “Free Agent Nation” will continue.

    If the above description fits you, how might you transition into yourself out of an employee role and into a role that allows you to more fully foster the personality and values that exhibit best who you are?

    Here are some tips:

    • Use the Power of 3 Worksheet to help you determine your mission/purpose. This helps you explore your talents, passions and values to set goals, create ideas and identify accountability partners to help you on your pursuits.
    • After defining that purpose, explore avenues where you could live the purpose through providing a service or product that meets needs. Create of list of these ideas.
    • Create a plan, complete with goals, to act on the path you have determined through your mission and ideas.
    • Already doing work you enjoy, but just don’t like the structure that is required in being an employee? Talk to your current employer about how you might shift your relationship to an employer contractor model instead of an employer employee one.   Come prepared with facts that will help show that it will create a win situation for the company.
    • Explore websites that can act as platforms for you to pursue a free agent approach. Here are some:
    1. Etsy
    2. Udemy
    3. Google Helpouts
    4. Freelance.com

    Are you a free agent by nature? What’s holding you back from pursuing this path?