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…).

New Years Resolutions 101: Don’t put the cart before the horse
It’s a new year. Have you set your resolutions or goals? Most of us do, but then give up on them by the end of January.
One key reason I see people fail at goal setting in the leadership and career coaching we do (and for myself as well) is because we put the cart before the horse. We set a goal and don’t have any method put in place for measuring progress towards it or achievement of it.

Maybe a couple of examples will help:

1. I’m so guilty of this, so I’ll use myself as an example first.   In 2013, I set a goal for my family to sit down at the dinner table and eat together on average four times a week. And as you can read about in this post, in 2013 this goal was a total flop.   One of the main reasons it was a failure was because I put the cart before the horse. I didn’t put in place a way to track it and therefore my progress towards it, which lead to no motivation and no results achieved.

I reset this goal in 2014, with a plan to track progress towards staying on track for this effort because I felt like making dinner together as a family a priority and a habit is important to my family’s health in so many ways. Thank goodness for my mother-in-law and one of her Christmas presents to me at the end of 2013. It was a simple weekly calendar booklet that had a magnet on the back.    I set out to plan our weekly meals on this, design a grocery list around it and then simply check off the days we had achieved a meal at the table. It was stuck to the refrigerator as a visual reminder all year.

As you can see here, the “5” at the top is the number of days we ate together. Not all weeks were this good, but overall, the goal was met. More importantly, I’ve established a habit that will hopefully keep this priority going without setting a goal for it (and hopefully my mother-in-law knows how much I love this simple tool and has another one waiting for me this Christmas).

2. One of the clients I love working with went about establishing an accountability culture in 2013, and created a performance dashboard to track their progress.

You can read more about their story as a company here. As I now work with this team coaching their managers, I love setting goals with them because they have already established ways to measure performance.   It is not uncommon, when setting goals with companies and individuals for one of the goals, or sub-goals of a large goal, to first put in place a way to measure and track performance towards the desired outcome. With this company, the horse is already there and it helps pull the cart.

If you are looking to set your New Year’s Resolutions or make sure they are achieved, don’t put the cart before the horse:
1. Put in place a mechanism for tracking goal progress and attainment.
2. Make the tracking mechanism visual and put it where you see it ALL the time.
3. Monitor and record performance toward the goal with your mechanism at least weekly.
4. Recalibrate if your mechanism is creating more work, thus decreasing motivation. Don’t get rid of the goal, just find a more efficient way to track it that leads to synergies in other areas.
If you need help doing this, our goal setting worksheet, which includes a section for “measurement” of each goal may help you.

How are you measuring your goal(s) for 2015?
January 1, 2015
The Best Books to Give for Every Person on Your Christmas Gift List

My reading list for 2014 has been shorter than my 2013 list for a variety of reasons- new baby, more time spent devoted to working with some wonderful clients and probably, most importantly, due to not setting a goal around reading this year (But that’s a post for another day- stay tuned for lots of good goal setting stuff soon to help us all kick off those New Year’s resolutions in the right fashion.)

But, I have read some good ones this year and want to recommend my top picks organized for those hard to shop for people in which you may still be searching for the right gift.

For the Business Person: Scale: Seven Proven Principles to Grow Your Business and Get Your Life Back Although the title of the book implies that this book is for business owners, the book is really for anyone that wants to work smarter not harder.

Favorite quotes from the book:

“The world doesn’t pay you for the hours you put in; it pays you for the value you create.”

The right parking space for your company lies at the intersection of three factors: your company’s biggest strengths (your parking space must rely on what you do really well); your market’s deepest desires around your type of product or service (it must be something that your market values); and the open spaces your competitors don’t already own in the mind of your market (it is very expensive to move another company out of a space if they truly already own it).

For an article that says the same thing as the above quote for the job seeker check out: Why Pursuing Your Passion is Not Enough

For the seemingly lost and the youth contemplating direction for his or her future: Steve Jobs

Favorite quotes from the book:

“Jobs also began to feel guilty, he later said, about spending so much of his parents’ money on an education that did not seem worthwhile. ‘All of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition,’ he recounted in a famous commencement address at Stanford. ‘I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay.’”

“There falls a shadow, as T. S. Eliot noted, between the conception and the creation. In the annals of innovation, new ideas are only part of the equation. Execution is just as important.”

“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them,” Jobs later explained. “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things. The original Mac team taught me that A-plus players like to work together, and they don’t like it if you tolerate B work. Ask any member of that Mac team. They will tell you it was worth the pain.”

For more on the thoughts this last quote reflects see: Leadership Lessons from College Football: The “Mediocre” and Team Success

For anyone who wants to be better: Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements

Favorite quote from the book:

“1.Every day, use your strengths. 2. Identify someone with a shared mission who encourages your growth. Spend more time with this person. 3. Opt into more social time with the people and teams you enjoy being around.”

For the Avid Reader: Get them an e-reader and encourage them to go digital. I mostly made the switch to digital after extreme reluctance. I like a book in my hand and lots on my shelves. But, I have begun reading on my iPad through the Kindle app and love it. Most notably, I love that I can highlight and save quotes from books I’ve read and find them as references all in one place. Let me tell you, this blog post was much easier this year with digital files than it was last year because I could easily find and quote my favorites with a click of the mouse.

For the avid reader who is still reluctant to switch to e-reading: Give them a subscription to Signed Firsts from Square Booksin Oxford, MS. This classic bookstore just makes you happy when you walk in. It is one of the last true, locally owned bookstores and they have a program where you get a book (sometimes two) a month which include ēnew releases, hardback and signed. They mail them to your door each month and charge you monthly for the book(s) sent.

What was your best read this year?

December 18, 2014
Developing a Personal Mission Statement to Prevent Stress & Burnout

As I began my career with Horizon Point Consulting, Inc., one of my first goals was creating a personal mission statement. Successful companies create mission statements. Why shouldn’t people who want to be successful do the same?

Even if you are in a career that you truly love, sometimes you can get burned out and lose focus. That’s where the personal mission statement comes in. When you have a mission statement to reflect upon, you can avoid burn out. It is a litmus test for determining priorities and steering direction.

My personal mission statement reads: I will strive daily to present the best version of myself to clients, family, friends and others. I will work to empower others and help them in their journey to lead better lives.

So, where do you begin you might ask. The task of creating a personal mission statement can seem overwhelming. One great resource that was helpful for me is the book First Things First by Stephen Covey. There is a section dedicated to helping you develop your personal mission statement. Check outPersonal Leadership on Purpose for more insight.

To help get you started, here are a few examples of anonymous mission statements:

I live to serve my talents as communicator, artist, and independent businesswoman. I create balance in work, play and community. I inspire those I interact with.

I want to be the kind of person my dog already thinks I am.

The mission of our family is to create a nurturing place of order, love, happiness, and relaxation, and to provide opportunities for each person to become responsibly independent and effectively interdependent, in order to achieve worthwhile purposes.

Resource: www.franklincovey.com

Zig Ziglar said it best in this quote: “Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.”

The end of the year is quickly approaching. Why not develop a personal mission statement as you begin a new year? If you need more direction, check out our Beyond Work™ Workbook.

Blog post written by: Taylor Simmons

November 20, 2014
5 leadership lessons I learned in the Army that help me in the real world

Davis Ozier is a perfect example of the value Veterans can bring to business. After serving in combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Army as leader, he is now working on his MBA at the Darden School of Business to apply his leadership skills in the private sector. Through his experiences, he can help us learn some very important lessons in dealing with real world problems.

Here are 5 leadership lessons Davis learned through his service:

1. Make the decision (or recommendation). We will never have all of the information that we wish, but will still be forced to make the decision. The Army did a wonderful job of forcing me as a junior officer to make an informed decision with the information I had at hand and then execute accordingly. We will never be perfectly at ease in ambiguous and constantly shifting environments, but we can at least be comfortable with making a well thought out decision instead of suffering from paralysis of analysis.

2. I have to work with others for the unit to be successful. Contrary to popular belief, I could not simply issue an order and expect it to be carried out without opposition or voices of discontent. Leaders in the private sector also recognize this and hopefully incorporate consensus building and collaboration into their managerial style. This does not mean I have to accept every recommendation or cater to specific requests if I believe it isn’t in the best interest of the organization, but I do need to listen and incorporate feedback into my decision making process. This applies not only in the direct organizational hierarchy, but also with regard to working with adjacent departments and supporting functions.

3. Work within the commander’s intent. The boss doesn’t need to specify exactly what he wants me to do or not do. It is my responsibility to listen to his vision, his plans for my role within the broader organization, and understand his priorities. I should ask clarifying questions where appropriate, but I have the necessary information to make sound and independent decisions on a daily basis. I can exercise initiative to support the boss’s vision and improve the organization.

4. Deciding what I’m NOT going to do is just as important as what I am going to do. Deciding where I am going to focus my energy and allocate resources is a constant struggle because I never have enough capacity to do everything I would like or that my boss has asked me to do. In the Army, I realized I can continue to try to do it all with often mediocre results or I could prioritize and make informed decisions to assume risk in certain areas to ensure outstanding results in priority missions. The latter always achieved better organizational and personal results than the former. My bosses expected me to make tough decisions just as they had to do and when the situation prevented the successful completion of everything then I had to understand what the critical, no-fail objectives were and focus my energy and resources to be successful in those areas.

5. Assume positive intent. It was a personal wake-up call when someone interrupted my complaining one day to point out that the individual didn’t wake up this morning wanting to screw things up for me. I stood there speechless. What a great reminder that we are generally all doing what we think and hope is the right thing to do. My outlook and attitude as a leader completely changed when I decided to assume that the soldiers under my command, the staff personnel supporting my unit, and the people at higher headquarters were all working to try to make the unit better just like I was. I became more patient and understanding, and guess what? The organization improved much more drastically than when I was sitting back and complaining.

Davis Ozier served 8 years on active duty including combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and currently serves in the Army Reserves. He is currently pursuing his MBA at the Darden School of Business at The University of Virginia.

November 11, 2014
Impacting the performance of employees when you just want them to show up, do their job and not complain
“I just want them to show up and do their job and not complain,” said one burned-out manager to me not long ago. He was struggling with how to motivate the performance of several members of his staff, and in his exhaustion to try to be a leader, had adopted a mindset of something far from leadership.

So how do leaders influence and impact the performance of employees when sometimes we just want them to show up and do their job and not complain?

1. Adopt a Leadership Mindset. First, a mindset of leadership needs to be present. Leadership is grounded in seeing people as assets and realizing that the greatest responsibility of the role is to invest in people to drive their performance. This means spending most of our time as leaders with those we are trying to develop, not wishing they would disappear into the oblivion get their work done and not bother us. My manager client is never going to be able to drive performance in his employees long-term if his mindset about what his role is doesn’t change to one of leadership.

2. Get over your own burn-out. You can’t motivate performance if you’re burned out yourself. My client was tired. On top of dealing with employee issues that were unpleasant, he was trying to run a business, meet client needs and juggle a never-ending myriad of tasks. The personnel issues were just another thing that he was barely spending enough time on to be able to see any results, and his people know from his actions that they are being seen as just another annoyance in a never ending cycle of being hopelessly behind and burned-out. If you aren’t working smarter, not harder, why would they? Part of a leadership mindset is setting an example. If you are burned out and annoyed, you’re probably complaining and that’s why they are complaining too.

If you are burned out:
1. Take some time to regroup; get away if you have to and unplug.
2. Manage your time. Consider how you can kill two-birds with one stone by empowering your people through delegation.
3. Get rid of stuff that doesn’t matter- say no. And saying no to investing time your employees shouldn’t be one of the no’s on your list. Saying no to things that aren’t important leads you to be able to say yes to your employees, who are important.
The bottom-line is leaders impact the performance of their employees by the example they create. If you want people to show up, do their job and not complain, then do the same. Adopt a leadership mindset and find ways to get over the burn-out and negativity you may be experiencing. If you can’t, then maybe you’re in the wrong role.

You’ll find that if you empower employees through your positive mindset and results, you’ll get much more than just a group of non-complainers who do their job. You’ll get a group of people who are engaged in their work and drive productivity. Start with yourself and it will rub off on those you seek to lead.
October 31, 2014