“Gratitude became my door to grace.” Alexsys Thompson The Power of a Graceful Leader This year at Horizon Point, we launched a training curriculum called Illuminate, seeking to further our mission to innovate the workplace through people practices and bring light to all that we do. The training idea came about from our work seeking to help organizations adapt in a rapidly changing workplace environment and from our personal experiences of trying to do the same. What seemed to resonate the most in all the concepts taught was the practice of gratitude. Each participant was given personalized thank you notes
Of course, it’s Thanksgiving week, so who can neglect to write a post related to thankfulness and gratitude? At Horizon Point, our thoughts on this stem from a focus we’ve seen emerging this year tied to an abundance instead of a scarcity mindset. As we’ve met with people throughout the year and also examined our own behaviors, clear patterns emerge. You can almost immediately see whether a person, an organization, or a community is coming from a mindset of scarcity or abundance. Scarcity displays a mindset that in order for me to win, someone else has to lose. Abundance is
I was a hardcore rule follower as a child. I didn’t question rules in any form or the adults or organizational or societal factors that put them in place. I was on time, didn’t question when or how things were done in school, on the sports field, in my home, and in my community. I did all the things I was “supposed” to do. In fact, I don’t think I thought much about the why and reason behind much of anything, I just did as I was told. For example, if a school supply list told me I needed 48
David Letterman most likely had it right when he said, “Life experience is the best teacher.” But I’d add a word and say that BAD life experiences are probably the best teacher, at least when you’re trying to grow in leadership and you’re willing to learn from them. Our Horizon Point team had a discussion about something related to this concept in a meeting based on some client experience that I can’t even recall now. This led to the idea of using this theme for a blog post. My team encouraged me to write about the lessons learned from difficult
If you believe employees need strict rules and enforcement to be productive, hiring and retaining high-performance people will be a challenge for you. You hired these people for their tenacity and talents. Get out of the way and let them be great. Deal with any people who choose not to meet expectations on a case-by-case basis.” Sue Bingham, HBR article My husband came home one day and told me about a conversation he had with a friend about her company’s recent switch to unlimited paid time off (PTO). “Is that really a thing?” he asked me. “Yep,” I