Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Skills Improvement

We all need a little personal development mixed in with our professional and career development. Read blogs in this category for personal skills improvement.

Make the Most of your Training Dollars
I often talk to smaller employers who just don’t have the funds to allocate to professional development. They want to grow their people, but just can’t scrape the pennies together to pay for it. The good news is that professional development doesn’t have to be expensive, in fact it can be free. And we all like free!

Last week Jillian talked about why employers should invest in professional development for their people. As she mentioned, research shows that spending money on professional development for your employees leads to more money for your company. But what can you do if your available funds for such training is limited?
1. Utilize your current staff to provide training. Whether you realize it or not, you have a wealth of knowledge in your organization and some employees would love the opportunity to share their expertise with others. A couple great ways to provide free or low-cost training is to plan lunch and learns where your current staff train their colleagues on what they do. That training may even be just spending 45 minutes to an hour explaining what they really do in their position or what their department does and how it contributes to the organization as a whole. Another great opportunity that can benefit any organization is cross-training. Give employees the opportunity to step into another department and learn how to work in that department. Cross-training not only gives employees the opportunity to learn more about the business and other departments, it can also assist employers in creating a succession plan.
2. Find free resources. There are a number of organizations that will come in and provide free training to your staff. Last week I worked with Cindy Smith at Edward Jones to present a free financial budgeting workshop to employees at a client. The client works in the healthcare industry and not only did the training benefit the employees; it was information that they are now able to use to help their clients.
3. Start a book club. Books are a low-cost way to provide training and professional development to your staff. At Horizon Point we read a lot! We share book recommendations and each year we select a book of the year to share with our clients. Some of our clients have then taken that book and shared it with their staff or asked us to provide training on the topics covered in the books. Select a book that speaks to your organization and meet weekly or monthly to discuss what was learned from the reading. Make attendance voluntary and hold the book club meeting during working hours.
4. Don’t waste conferences. If you send an employee to a conference, be sure to have them come back and share the knowledge they gained. Too often organizations spend the resources to send one or two employees to a conference and then don’t follow up once they return. Get the biggest bang for your buck! Plan the time for them to debrief with their team mates or lead a lunch and learn to share their conference takeaways. Also encourage them to bring back any resources or materials available at the conference to share with other staff.
5. Be thrifty. Anyone who knows me knows that I love saving money (and thrift shopping!). When you’re sending staff to conferences, be careful with how you spend your money. At Horizon Point we start discussing what conferences we want to attend a year in advance. We discuss the benefits of each and together determine which we will attend. By doing that we are able to catch early bird rates and often save $150-300 or more on registrations. If more than one of us will be attending, we try to carpool and we always look to see if renting an Airbnb will be cheaper than separate hotel rooms. Also make sure that your expense policy covers what is reimbursable and how much will be covered. Set a daily dollar limit on meals and if meals are provided at the conference, do not reimburse employees who opt to purchase meals outside of the conference. Another great way to save on conference costs is to submit to speak. Most conferences give speakers a free registration.
Organizations can never provide too many opportunities for professional development, so even if your organization has the ability and budget to provide professional development opportunities, the programs mentioned above can only enhance your current offerings.
September 17, 2024
Investing in People Makes Cents
Last week, Emily kicked off our new series on professional development. What it is and why we should care about it. I’m pulling that thread to talk about the dollars and cents of why you should invest in people and why you should do it NOW.

I just read a powerful article from McKinsey titled Increasing your return on talent: The moves and metrics that matter that hit me square in the face with this quote: “McKinsey research indicates that companies that put talent at the center of their business strategy realize higher total shareholder returns than their competitors.”

One more time for the people in the back: spending money on your people makes you more money. McKinsey’s research let them to the startling stat that some companies could be missing out on $480 million a year just by not investing in employee engagement and skill development.

McKinsey goes on to lay out a 5 step plan for companies to “maximize their return on talent”, and it’s a an excellent plan that relies on an already existing, already strong HR team. If that doesn’t describe the situation at your company, you might not be ready for McKinsey’s 5 step plan. Instead, maybe you need the Dollar Tree plan.

Last week, I had lunch with a great friend who also works in the HR space. She recently stepped in for me to facilitate some pro-bono training when I couldn’t make the date work. Her tactic? Conversation cards from Dollar Tree.

She spent $3.75 plus tax on conversation cards that turned into meaningful relationshipping for the group and several people left interested in adopting conversation cards with their own teams. Weeks later, my friend is still riding the high of a $3.75 investment. When we invest in people, it’s about the intent and the follow through more than the amount of money spent.

Horizon Point’s operating values include Continuous Learning & Improvement, and it’s truly part of everything we do. Our operating values make up the structure of our planning meeting agendas. Seriously, the line items are grouped by value:
1. People First
  - Catch up
  - Review accomplishments
  - Schedule one-on-ones
2. Productivity
  - Company performance
  - Open projects
  - Business development
3. Continuous Learning & Improvement
  - Review program & project feedback
  - Identify continuing ed / professional dev opportunities
4. Give Back
  - Volunteer leadership
  - Financial support
Just the act of talking about our learning with intention generates engagement and a future-focused mindset. But the impact is compounded when we put our money where are mouths are. I asked Mary Ila today about Horizon Point’s investment in continuous learning for team members, and the total so far this year is over $10,000, just for the 5 of us. She doesn’t hesitate to invest in people, as long as the purpose is aligned with the mission of our work at HPC and, of course, as long as the investment is reasonable and works in the current budget. Our work is about talent development and better workplaces, and it only counts if we practice our own preaching.

To close the loop on the McKinsey research, they reported that:

the most effective organizations encourage personalized, adaptive learning. Employees are motivated to own their journeys by deciding which skills and areas of expertise they want to focus on. They are given feedback, along with coaching and peer-learning opportunities, and they are supported by a digital ecosystem that can help them track their progress over time.

We strongly agree with this approach, and we spend a lot of time and resources talking about it and being about it. We learn together, we learn individually, and it’s all based on the skills or areas we want to develop. As McKinsey puts it, we own our journeys. We also train and coach our clients on this adaptive learning model using our Leaders as Career Agents process. We help them customize learning opportunities that drive their organizations forward and create more value.

To invest in people is to invest in a thriving future. Talk about it and be about it. Investing in people makes cents!
September 10, 2024
Who cares about Professional Development? Horizon Point does!

This week kicks off a brand-new series here at The Point Blog. The Fall brings a new school year and with that, all things Professional Development. Some would consider this topic a snooze fest, but if it is tailored to an individual’s needs and desires for career growth, it can be one of the most exciting things that you get to do! Mary Ila supports our interests by meeting with us for monthly one on ones and asks us what we would like to be doing and the best way that the company can support our future goals. We also discuss our opportunities for Professional Development as a team when we meet at our Monthly Mingles.

In my own journey of leadership development and career growth, I ventured out and started a new class last week. The class is Highlands College Leadership Institute. It will meet for an hour on Tuesday nights for 4 semesters, and the BEST part of it all? Horizon Point is investing in me to do it. I could not be more interested in the content that I’m learning, and I cannot wait to take back what I have learned about to our team for us to implement what I’ve been taught. That’s the beauty of Professional Development done the right way. It adds value!

Jillian on our team has been sharing all about ATD24 and her experience at Recharge Your Soul, their annual Expo. In one of her recent blogs she shares…

The theme for ATD24 was Recharge Your Soul. I absolutely felt recharged when I left, so much that I couldn’t stop talking about it (still can’t).

Jillian’s experience and excitement about the things that she learned inspired the rest of us at our Mingle when she handed out cards from different vendors and shared her stories. Not only is Mary Ila adding value to us individually, but as a whole, our team is better because of these opportunities.

Taylor was recently certified in School Career Development Advisor (SCDA) Training and can now offer the training through our website in addition to Career Development Training that is offered. Not only is the company investing in Taylor, but she is turning around and adding value to Horizon Point with her unique interests and skills.

Last but not least Lorrie got to attend the American Correctional Conference in Nashville last month and sent pictures of the songwriter Jelly Roll in our group text message. She said that it was one of the best conferences that she had been to and the experience ties right into Lorrie’s interests. Lorrie holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice and recently received her Master’s of Jurisprudence in Labor and Employment Law at Tulane University Law School.

Can you see the value of Professional Development? It doesn’t have to be the boring old lectures with stale ideas. If it is done the right way, it brings life to your employees. So go ahead and start asking, “How can I best support you?”

September 3, 2024
Summer is Here – Do You Need a Vacation or a Rhythm?
Summer is in full swing. The days are long, the kids are out of school, and the office may not be quite as bustling as it usually is whether it’s the physical office space or your email inbox because people are taking vacation. Have you heard of slow productivity?

I myself just took a long vacation, kicking off the summer for two weeks at the beach, but working intermittently while there. It was a long spring, and for the first time our family was able to check out for more than the standard one week, once a year vacation and get away.

While there, I dove deeper into some of Cal Newport’s work around slow productivity. He postulates in his book Deep Work that there are four philosophies for deep work. The type of work you do, your natural disposition, and the season of life you are in all play into which one is best for you.

They are:
- The Monastic Approach- Eliminate all the shallow work you can to focus deeply on one thing
- The Bimodal Approach- Create clearly defined stretches for deep work and then back to regular routine for stretches of time
- The Rhythmic Approach- Daily deep work sessions that occur at consistent times each day
- The Journalist Approach- Fit in deep work when and where you can. To note, this approach is not for the novice of deep work!
Watch this cool video to get a good overview of these.

While I find something that is appealing in each one of these approaches, you, like me, may not be at a stage in life or working at a place or in a field where one or some of these are realistic.

Even though only one approach is called “rhythmic” all of them have some thought of a rhythm tied to them, and it takes some reflection on what rhythms work for you. And these may change overtime.

In looking at some of the research as well as my own experience, some thoughts on rhythms emerge to order to do deep work and do it well and consistently:

Daily Rhythms- To do your best work:
- Break every 50 min to an hour, get up and move around if you work with your mind, sit down and rest if you work with your hands
- Utilize time blocking techniques to complete tasks that take deep thought; batch work shallow work into a time block to get it done efficiently
- Honor the “trough” period of the day when your energy is lacking (most people’s is in the early afternoon) by scheduling shallow work or a break during this time
- For more great thoughts on daily rhythms and the research behind it, read When.
Weekly Rhythms– To do your best work:
- Take one hour to plan at the beginning of each week (or at the end of the previous week) to map out your “big rocks” for the week and schedule time to get deep work done
- I like to have one day a week that does not have any meetings or appointments scheduled to focus on deep work and catching up
- Get a Full Focus Planner to help you with the weekly rhythm and big rock setting
Monthly to Quarterly Rhythms- To do your best work:
- Reflect- What worked and what didn’t in the previous period? Celebrate what did.
- Refocus- Chart out goals for the upcoming period and block time for those that may require or need the bimodal approach for deep work if you are lucky enough to have the autonomy to deploy this approach.
- Again, use the Full Focus Planner to help with this. It operates on a quarterly model so it naturally helps you structure your thinking around reflecting and focusing.
Yearly Rhythms- To do your best work:
- Honor the seasons if your work has periods of intensity and down time and schedule accordingly; deploy the bimodal approach if you can.
- Our approach at HPC is every three years a sabbatical occurs for deep rest and deep reflection. This is a period of six to eight weeks of complete time off from work.
Overall, rhythms and slow productivity create the opportunity for reflection that helps foster deep and creative work. As the CEO of Airbnb Brian Chesky stated on Adam Grant’s podcast, if you don’t create rhythms, “you’re just on the treadmill and that gets boring and anxiety ridden fairly quickly.”

How do you create rhythms in your life to do work and do it well?
June 11, 2024
Open the Door to Communication, Encouragement & Relationships

We have an active group text at HPC. It is rare for a day to go by that I’m not receiving (or sending) a text from (or to) our team. The content varies – a funny meme, a word of encouragement, a link to an innovative podcast or book, or a picture of a new pet. The subject of the messages change daily, but the intent does not. The constant stream of communication conveys how we encourage one another, share ideas and help us become a stronger team.

As with most success stories, our team dynamic starts from the top. Our President/CEO is a servant leader who actively listens, communicates and builds relationships. I’ve often said “she makes me want to be a better person.” She truly has a heart for others and opens her home, her door, her table to everyone. The best example I can think of when reflecting on opening the door to communication, encouragement & relationships is our monthly one-on-one meetings. Those conversations are full of encouragement and enlightenment, and they always leave me feeling ready to conquer the next month along with all the projects & challenges that go along with it.

How do you improve your communication skills? Check out Lorrie’s tips here:

Make it Effective … Improve Communication Within Your Organization

To learn more about building relationships, read insights from Jillian’s blog:

What’s Relationshipping, & How Do I Do It?

How do you open the door to communication, encouragement and build relationships? Check out What We Do at HPC, and let us know how we can help!

March 12, 2024