Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Beyond Leadership

Beyond Leadership is Horizon Point’s line of resources for managers of people. Managing ourselves is a distinct set of behaviors from managers the work of others, and we are here to help. Read stories in this category if you are ready to take the next step into people leadership (or if you’re looking for articles to send someone else…).

  • Leading with Emotional Intelligence

    Leading with Emotional Intelligence

    It’s Okay to Be Angry

    The last few weeks have been stressful ones in my house. My oldest son turned nineteen. My middle son competed in a district-wide theatre competition, his school’s first time ever competing. He also got his driver’s license. My youngest son turned thirteen, participated in his first Academic Team competition, and had a science fair project he had to get underway. And in the midst of it all, I was going through testing to find out if I had Leukemia. The great news is that I do not! The not-so-great news is that the doctors have yet to figure out what I do have, so I continue to go through testing. 

    I’m the mom, but I’m also the leader of my family. And I knew that how I handled this situation, this potential crisis, would be so important for my children. I believe in being transparent with my kids and felt that it was important for them to know what was happening, so I sat down with them and made them aware of the situation and have kept them informed each step of the way. With each test result that has come back, we’ve talked. We talk about what the results mean, what next steps are, and how they’re feeling. I want them to know that their emotions, whatever they are, are normal and are okay to be feeling. Even if they’re angry with me. During the two weeks it took to get the initial test results back, we talked a lot, even if it was just a quick check in. 

    As leaders, it is so easy to get caught up in our own emotions and to a degree we need to in order to be able to help those we lead. For me, it was when my kids weren’t around. I’d allow myself to sit with my emotions. Was I scared? Absolutely. My grandmother died from Leukemia. By allowing myself to understand my own emotions it both helped me understand the emotions my kids may be feeling as well as ensure that I have my emotions under control when I’m communicating with them. As a parent, the last thing I wanted to do in this situation was let my fear show through in how I communicated with my kids, I wanted them to know and understand that regardless of the outcome, we would get through it together. 

    Research shows that leaders who possess high emotional intelligence – the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you – are more successful leaders. 

    • Productivity increases by 20-25% in organizations where employees are connected. (Inc.)
    • Leaders who show empathy perform 40% higher in coaching, engagement, and decision making. (DDIWorld.com)
    • Workers who have managers with high EQ scores are 4x less likely to quit than those with managers who have low EQ. (Linkedin.com)
    • Employees with high EQ are favored over employees with high IQ for a promotion 75% of the time. (Careerbuilder.com)

    Leading with emotional intelligence isn’t just for those times of crisis, it’s for those every day moments. It’s knowing that an employee who made a mistake is beating themselves up enough and needs a leader who will use the opportunity as a teaching moment instead of as an opportunity to rake them over the coals. It’s knowing that how you as a leader react to a situation can make all the difference in how your employees view the situation. And it’s being aware of the fact that your emotions and awareness of those emotions impacts how you build relationships. And sometimes it’s knowing that you need a few minutes alone to get those emotions under control before you communicate with your team. 

    Want to know how emotionally intelligent you are? Take this free quiz from IRD Labs. 

  • Student Leadership – How are You Leading Today?

    Student Leadership – How are You Leading Today?

    Student Leadership – How are You Leading Today?

    Around fall, each year, I typically spend some time with student leadership groups and facilitate activities to help them with their next right thing. (For reference, The Next Right Thing, is a book we love at HPC!) These students are involved in so many areas and often hold leadership roles that help them prepare for future leadership opportunities. 

    Last month, I also had the opportunity to judge student scholarship applications for a non-profit. I’m amazed at what all the students in our community are involved in. Student leadership is not just for the students at the top of the class academically, and it shouldn’t be. There are opportunities for students to lead and serve in so many areas in our schools and community. FFA, First Priority, Sports Captains, and the list goes on.   

    Here are a few just a ways students can develop leadership skills:

    • Participate in a Chamber sponsored Student Leadership Program (check your Chamber’s website for more information) 
    • Join clubs of interest & look for opportunities to lead and serve  (ask your favorite teacher or counselor for ideas)
    • Attend a leadership conference (Leadercast is an annual nationwide conference that can be attended in person at a host site or virtually)
    • Volunteer in class or in your community (serving is a great way to lead!)
    • Get a job & learn everything you can! You may have the opportunity to be in a leadership role too.

    Check out Top 10 Quotes on Servant Leadership. My favorite one is:  “The best way to find yourself is in the service of others.” — Mahatma Gandhi. What’s yours? How will you lead today?

  • Top 10 Servant Leadership Quotes

    Top 10 Servant Leadership Quotes

    Servant Leadership is a term that gets thrown around haphazardly in the business world, but what exactly does it mean? It appears that there is a unique art to this style of leadership, and it all begins with an unselfish mindset. True Servant Leadership is about other people. Here are 10 thought-provoking Servant Leadership quotes.

    1. “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.” –Simon Sinek
    1. “You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people.” – Dr. Cornel West
    1. ”The best way to find yourself is in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
    1. “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”- John C. Maxwell
    1. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
    1. “Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself—to serve.” – Wm. Paul Young
    1. “I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” – Brene Brown
    1. “If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” – Lao Tzu
    1. “Success is…knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.” – John C. Maxwell
    1. “Every time we interact with another person at work, we have a choice to make: do we try to claim as much value as we can, or contribute value without worrying about what we receive in return?” – Adam Grant

    Someone seeking to be known as a Servant Leader because it’s a nice buzz phrase has a bit more work to do. Ultimately, someone seeking to become a genuine Servant Leader must work on shifting their mindset from self to others in all things. Earlier this year, Taylor worked with a great Servant Leader in our local community and shared some thoughts on The Point Blog.

    One important note here is that self-care is distinct from selfish behavior. Giving attention to personal wellness and wellbeing is critical to be able to give attention to others. Taking on the title or image of a Servant Leader to the extreme of ignoring self-care will only end up hurting those you hope to serve.

    How can you apply these Servant Leadership quotes and ideas to your life?

  • 2 Key Places Where You Need a Rule Breaker

    2 Key Places Where You Need a Rule Breaker

    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 Ticonderoga brand pre-sharpened pencils (I don’t know if I actually ever had this on a school supply list with such specificity when I was a child, but you better believe my kids do now) on the first day of school, that’s what we brought regardless if it meant going to ten different places to find them.  Also, regardless of whether I liked that kind of pencil or thought they were the best tool to use. And if my mom wasn’t on board, I’d worry her to death until she followed the “rules” to the exact specification. I wasn’t coming with the “wrong” thing on the first day of school.  And the truth is, a lot of this probably helped me succeed in school. Education today is still by and large very much geared towards the industrial revolution environment that created it. 

    Now I see this on a supply list for my kids, and if Target doesn’t have that exact number packaged neatly in that brand, sharpened or not, we get what is available. And I’m getting what’s available for drive-up pick up. I’m not going into the store, and I’m most definitely not going to hunt them down. Invariably, they come in multiples of 18 and that never adds up to 48 evenly and because of all the other rule followers out there, they have zero left of the brand on said supply list.  I’ll grab two Target brand packages of 18 (yes, I know that is 36 not 48, and yes, I know some of you are just cringing thinking anyone would get less than what is on the list) because I know from experience to expect approximately 30 never used pencils to come back unopened in my kids stuff at the end of the year.  I just can’t bring myself to care, or have the time to do it.  What does it matter?  Especially when they don’t even use them!

    Basically, I’ve switched in my old age to someone with a much lower level of rules orientation. Described this way, “people with a high level of rule orientation will have a more rigid view, seeing fewer conditions under which it is generally acceptable to violate rules. People with low rule orientation will have a more flexible view, seeing more conditions under which it is acceptable to violate rules.” 

    Rules orientation is really a sub dimension of conscientiousness, one of the most researched dimensions of personality. And as Psychology Today says, “conscientiousness is generally a key ingredient for success—in love as well as work. It’s also a major predictor of health, well-being, and longevity.” 

    Here’s the breakdown of conscientiousness dimensions in a tool we use to help leaders build self-awareness called the Work Behavior Inventory: 

    Of course, you read through these and most people would think, man I’m going to hire someone that is high on all this stuff! Conscientiousness is, in fact, one of the key predictors of success across almost all job types. 

    But, I’d encourage you to pause on the rules orientation and consider whether you need someone that is high or low on this dimension if you are charged with hiring people.  And if you are considering career direction or wondering why the heck you hate your job so much, I would encourage you to pause and question whether you are low or high on rules orientation. Nothing creates a recipe for disaster more than a round peg in a square hole, and rules orientation is most often the lynch pin. Kris Dunn describes the need to understand rules orientation for cultural fit better than almost anyone else in his Workforce.com post. Read it. 

    So, where do you want to consider hiring someone with low instead of high rules orientation? Or if you are low in rules orientation, where are you going to thrive? I think there are two key spots: 

    1. In start-up and high-growth organizations where you are trying to create things, not maintain the status quo (as Kris’ post states, when you are in need of pirates, not the people in the Navy) you need someone with a lower tendency towards rules orientation.  

    One of the places we really like to use the WBI assessment because of its analysis of rules orientation is when we are advising Alabama Launchpad finalists.  These are entrepreneurs working to create and grow high impact start-ups across the state. A lower level of rule following contributes to higher levels of “Creative Innovator” and “Business Start-Up” occupational fit as seen through the WBI. These people are trying to create something entirely different from the pencil, so they most definitely aren’t following the rules in the pencil buying market in order to succeed.  They want to make the pencil obsolete. 

    2. Secondly, you’ll want to consider the need for low rules orientation folks in organizations that have always played by the rules, heck they invented them, but things are no longer working. Typically, they have major issues on their hands. This is often because they are more concerned with the rules than anything else, and that has led to the downhill slide.  

    These organizations need someone to come in and say, why did you buy that type of pencil in the first place?  Does the supply list even serve a purpose? Do your kids even use pencils anymore in school? Well, they use computers all the time now, so six pencils for the school year will do, and it doesn’t matter what kind they are because they are on a computer now all the time anyway. This is the case where you need to bring in a pirate or a band of pirates to ask a bunch of questions, challenge the status quo, shake things up and fix stuff, also most likely saving you some money too and restoring profitability in the case of for-profit businesses. 

    I find myself in the middle of both these scenarios right now as I’m trying to grow our business and also help a few key clients shake things up.  

    I think I’ll be a pirate for Halloween this year.  I would have never gone for a pirate custom as a kid, probably citing something like pirates are boys (cultural rules and norms).  Well, bring me an eye patch now!  In my view, being a pirate is a heck of a lot of fun.

    Are you a rule follower or a rule breaker?   

     

     

  • Bring Me a Rock

    Bring Me a Rock

    My husband has a great analogy for ineffective communication that goes like this: 

    It’s like when they say, “Bring me a rock”. You go outside, grab the first rock you see, and take it to them. They say “No, we need a different rock.” You go back outside, grab a different rock, take it back, and they say “No, not that rock. It needs to be gray.” And so on and so forth until you eventually figure out that they wanted a big, round, gray rock from the bottom of the Mississippi River. How were you supposed to know that? If they knew what they wanted, why didn’t they just say it? 

    When people experience this type of interaction over and over again, they become less trusting and less engaged with the work. They start to feel like nothing they ever do will be the right thing, because it’s never clear what the right thing actually is. It’s a very demotivating work environment where accountability is high and psychological safety is not: the anxiety zone.

    We should all be working to find the right balance between accountability and psychological safety. In other words, we can absolutely have high standards of performance and a people-first, inclusive culture. I call this Graceful Accountability. 

    If you’ve heard me talk about Graceful Accountability, you know I’m serious about it. I’ve seen countless healthy and unhealthy teams over the years, and the difference is almost always the result of either too much “speak up” or too much “do what we tell you to do”. It’s either so relaxed and accepting that results suffer, or it’s so structured and rigid that people suffer. When we practice Graceful Accountability, we reset the balance. 

    Next time you need someone to bring you a rock, meet them in the middle – figure out what it is you really need and communicate those expectations clearly (accountability), then allow space for questions, discussion, and gratitude (psychological safety). 

    What are you doing now to find the right balance of accountability and psychological safety? 

    —

    Attending the UA HR Conference? Catch Jillian’s session October 27th at 11am. Learn more about #UAHR22 at horizonpointconsulting.com/whatsup.