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…).

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
How Personality Assessment Can Help You Be A Better Leader

“This is why I’m not married anymore,” said a participant in a recent leadership training class.   She was partly kidding, but it was obvious that the results of her personality assessment, which were being used to launch the leadership training series we were conducting for her company, had struck a cord.

Her personality assessment showed that she was a highly dominant, take charge, get it done kind of person. These characteristics had served her well in her role in finance with the organization, but she realized that maybe her personality had impacted the success of her marriage.

In another conversation with the director of a college career center, concerns were expressed about students’ ability to know themselves- their strengths and areas for development- and take this knowledge into the workplace in order to succeed. In designing a leadership workshop for them, our first approach was to implement a personality assessment to help these student leaders with the self-awareness they seem to so desperately need.

As we’ve often said, self-awareness is the first step in establishing yourself as a leader.   Although it isn’t the only way, personality assessment can help with this self-awareness and then provide a framework for building interpersonal relationships, providing feedback, delegating and a host of other leadership issues.

Here are some assessment tools/vendors we use based on client needs (Note: It’s important to know which personality assessment is right to use based on your organization’s needs.   You should define the needs first- are you wanting to facilitate teambuilding, leadership coaching or training, make better hiring decisions, etc.- then pick the best assessment, not the other way around.):

Hogan Assessments

DiSC Assessments

Tools from Assessment Associates International

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

How as a personality assessment helped you at work or in your personal life?

September 26, 2014
No Rules, Just Shoes for Sensitivity Training

One of our favorite clients requested that we come in and conduct “sensitivity training” for employees. According to Wikipedia, sensitivity training “is a form of training with the goal of making people more aware of their own prejudices and more sensitive to others.” The client wanted to make sure that employees understood how to conduct themselves around each other and customers and to understand the legal standards around discrimination.
Of course, we at Horizon Point aren’t very good at conducting your standard, run-of-the-mill employee training that revolves around an instructor standing at the front of the room telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. Number one, that’s just plain boring, and number two, this kind of training doesn’t lead to changed and improved behavior on the job.

So we shook it up a bit, and after getting groups in the class to research and explain with examples what legislation such as Title VII of Civil Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Sexual Harassment Law, and The Age in Employment Discrimination Act, our theme for the training became:

When it comes to knowing how to interact with others in the workplace, the legislation that surrounds this dynamic can become overwhelming. Overwhelming to the point that it inhibits your ability to accomplish anything for fear of doing something wrong.

The challenge of our “Beyond Talent” approach to “Sensitivity Training” is to simplify it. And quite simply, you simplify how to interact with others by taking a walk around in their shoes before saying or doing something. Throw the law or rule books out the window and challenge people to get to know people who are different than they are and try their “shoes” on for size. By doing this, nine times out of ten you’ll act in a way that won’t ever get you in legal hot water, but more importantly, this way will build more engaged and productive workplaces because people are treated with respect and valued for who they are and what they contribute to the team.

Have you ever been thorough a sensitivity training? What was the best take away?

September 8, 2014