Horizon Point Consulting

Category: General

Horizon Point writes about dozens of leadership, career, workplace, and workforce topics. Sometimes we write whatever we want. Read this category for general blogs from the HPC team.

  • 4 Tips for an Awesome Job Shadow or Informational Interview

    4 Tips for an Awesome Job Shadow or Informational Interview

    Informational interviews and job shadowing are great ways to be briefly exposed to a career field you are interested in by interacting with someone in the role.

    In the student career coaching we do, our package offers arrangement of at least one job shadowing opportunity. This is how valuable we feel this component to career exploration really is.

    The difference between the two is that an informational interview is just a conversation with the person in the job. It allows you to ask the person questions about how they got where they are, what the like (and don’t like) about their job, and get advice from them about how to pursue a career in the field.

    A job shadow actually allows you to observe the person doing their job, and it usually takes place over the course of at least for one work day.   During the time the job shadow takes place, you can ask questions of the person about the job, just as you would in an informational interview.

    Regardless of what which set-up you are engaging in, here are some tips for arranging and conducting a great job shadow or informational interview:

    1. Connect with the right person:  After you’ve narrowed a list of jobs you want to explore, consider whom you know in the field.  You may be able to connect with someone you already know through a civic, sports or church group.  If you are a student, your teachers, parents or relatives may know of someone in the field. If you don’t know of someone directly in the field, you may be able to explore LinkedIn or other social media outlets to locate and connect with someone in a role you wish to learn more about.  It is always better to try to locate someone you know directly or indirectly (through a mutual connection) than to try to ask someone you don’t know at all.
    2.  Ask to observe or meet in the right way:  If you know the person, call them directly and say, “Hi persons name.  This is your name.  (If you know the person indirectly, or through someone else, add, “Insert contact name here is a friend/relative/co-worker of mine and he /she said you would be an excellent person to talk to about insert career field here.). I’ve been doing some career exploration, and I am interested in the career field that you are in.  Would it be possible for me to meet with you for about 30 minutes to ask you some questions about what you do, and learn how I might gain more knowledge in order to be marketable in the field?”  If and when they say yes, say,  “Thank you, I really appreciate your time.  When would be a convenient time for you to meet?” Be flexible with their schedule and let them dictate a time to meet.   Note: If you are a student, you call them, not your parents!  This is about you stepping up to the plate to learn more, it’s not mom or dad’s job to do this for you! If you don’t know them, and you’re reaching out via social media say basically the same thing as above, but give a little bit more details about who you are and why you are interested in the field.  After you meet with them, you can ask they would be available for you to observe them on the job.
    3. Practice Good Etiquette. Keep your appointment, arrive on time, and dress as you would if you were in the field they are in.  For example, if they work in a bank, put on a suite.  If is in the construction industry, wear boots, long pants, etc.
    4.  Ask the right questions. Here are some questions you can use.  The Intern Queen also has some good questions to ask in an informational interview here.

    If you’ve done an informational interview or job shadow, what was the most important take-away for you?

  • What are we teaching our kids about leadership?

    “Your daughter really stepped up to be a leader with all the kids today,” says one mother.

    “Really?”  asks the other, “She wasn’t being bossy was she?”

    Why do we think as parents, and especially with girls, when our child steps up to take charge of a situation that they are being bossy?

    I heard a similar dialogue with a dear friend of mine, who is one of the best, if not the best mother I know. Her oldest daughter, who is a smart, caring and leaderful girl, stepped up to engage kids of all ages, who all really didn’t know each other well, to play a pool game together. My friend was describing the situation to me, and I could tell she was proud of her for stepping up, but at the same time, felt the need to make sure her daughter wasn’t being bossy by taking charge.

    From this example, I have some thoughts on how to spot leadership capabilities in kids:

    • Kids who are natural leaders seek to organize activities where all are included and the activity is fun for all.
    • Kids who are natural leaders find places where they can help out, not seeking be the center of attention.
    • Kids who are natural leaders see the talents and passions in others and emphasize them.  They also know where they can best serve.

    From this example, I also have some thoughts how I can nurture leadership in my child.  I’m struggling with many of these, but maybe my struggles can help us all:

    • First and foremost, I don’t need to feel the need to APOLOGIZE for the behaviors my child that exhibit who he is unless the behavior is making other kids feel bad in the process. I’m not talking about making excuses for destructive behaviors (like our little jaws was at one time) but behaviors that are just an expression of his personality.  If my son steps up to take charge of the situation, I will not label the behavior as bossy or apologize for it.
    • I will let the natural evolution of kids playing take place and I won’t try to organize or monopolize it for them. Hovering is not allowed.   I will just allow them to play and let a natural leader emerge and realize the leader that emerges may be different given different activities.
    • I will let my son work out (most) of his problems on his own, especially as he gets older. See above rule, “Don’t hover.” Allowing him to solve his own problems without me or my husband hovering (my husband doesn’t fall victim to hovering as much as I do) will help him be better equipped to solve his own (often bigger) problems as he becomes an adult. I hope this will help him to be more capable of aiding others in solving complex problems.  A post that has said this lot of this better than I have, can be found here.
    • If we all want our kids to be leaders in their own lives and have the opportunity to lead others, then we need to help them identify and move past, as emphasized in this post by Lyz Lenz, “FIRST. WORLD. PROBLEMS.”  This starts with letting them solve their own.  My favorite quote in Lyz’s post is, “I don’t care if that kid took your toy, get it back yourself, that’s street justice.”
    • The above points emphasizes that in order for leadership potential to take place, I have to regularly engage my child in playing with other children.  Taking this a step further, I need to engage my son with people who are different than he is in age, in gender, in interests and in socioeconomics.
    • I will let him fail. Even as I write this, I know I’m not entirely telling the truth. It’s my instinct to protect and nurture. But as tough as this is, he is going to learn more from failures than he ever possibly could from winning all the time. In an HR meeting I was in last week, the sponsor was from a drug rehabilitation program. Instead of focusing on trying to sell their services, he used his 2-3 minutes of talking time to tell the group that the main reason people end up in their program is because their parents have sheltered them completely from failure and from pain. He went on to say that those that experience recovery in their programs are the ones that can admit and recognize their failure and pain, own it, and learn from it. Maybe telling myself that allowing my child to fail will keep him out of drug rehab will help my efforts.

    How do you spot natural leadership in your child and how do you nurture it? How do you spot natural leadership capabilities int he workplace and nurture it?

  • 3 Tips for Sharing the Love with All Your People

    Are you a leader that inadvertently tells people to talk all the time?

    Last week, we focused on how saying too much is like saying nothing at all when people talk too much and monopolize a meeting or conversation.   As a leader, you may not be talking too much, but are you telling your people to talk too much because you give them all the attention?

    There is nothing inherently wrong with being extraverted and feeling comfortable vocalizing thoughts and opinions or being introverted and having less to say.  However, it does become a problem when leaders neglect to give important assignments to those who are quiet because they aren’t as vocal or neglect to seek their opinions because they don’t usually voluntarily give it.

    3 Tips for sharing the love with all your people (even the quiet ones):

    Regularly ask questions and seek opinions and ideas: Calling quiet individuals out in a meeting may not get the best results, but seeking to ask for input from all, even in groups can be beneficial. This can help build confidence in others and generate better discussion and ideas.

    Give meaningful assignments to all even those that aren’t always the first to ask for them.

    Aid all in development (the talkers and the quiet ones) by having regularly scheduled performance development and feedback conversations.   Those that are gregarious may be more likely to seek out your time and attention. Make sure you divide your time with all, even those that don’t seek it out, especially newcomers.
    Have you ever made the mistake of reinforcing a behavior, like talking too much, to your team members without even realizing it?  What made you realize this and how did you correct it?

  • you’ve made a career match? Now what?

    Often students are afraid to ask, but when I talk to them about careers that match their talents, passions and values, I know they are wondering, well what on earth would I be doing in this job you’re describing to me?  We miss the mark in exploring careers, oftentimes, because we assume that people know what they don’t know.

    Now what?

    Once you’ve made job matches and considered them through their demand in the marketplace, you have to actually learn about what you would do on a day-to-day basis in the jobs that seem like a fit for you.

    Your matches should lead you to further exploration.

    STEP 1:  Compare your matches on paper. First, document your matches and other careers that interest you with a chart like this one that you can download here.  It’s a good way to compare them to each other and consider pros and cons.   If you are a student, I’d consider about 10 possible jobs to explore. Many of them may be very similar. If you are an adult considering a career transition, documenting 3-4 careers may be adequate.

    Once you’ve got your list completed, grab a highlighter and highlight the things that are “pros” of each job listed.   You may want to rank order those that have the most “pros” to the least.
    STEP 2:  Get REAL TIME:  After you’ve done this documentation, it is now time to learn about these careers REAL TIME, not just by reading about them, but by experiencing them.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll talk about these real time activities and give you downloadable tools to help you with your exploration in each REAL TIME AREA:

    • Informational Interviews
    • Job Shadowing
    • Internships

    How have you learned the most about a job or career you’ve considered or have been considering?

  • 4 Tips for Being Heard as a Leader

    4 Tips for Being Heard as a Leader

    Leaders often have opinions and usually want them heard.  They have also earned the right, so to speak, to be heard.  But recently, in facilitating a management meeting for a company, I came to the keen awareness that no matter who you are, saying too much is like saying nothing at all.

    You see, there was one person in the group that monopolized most of the conversation.   At first, he had a captive audience, but by the end of the meeting people weren’t even listening to what he had to say, some even were rolling their eyes when he went to open his mouth, but on he went.

    If you want to be heard, here are some tips:

    1. Establish Talking Self-Awareness: In a meeting, count how many times you speak as compared to others (the collective whole of the group).  Just doing so will probably help you not talk as much as you might be prone to do.

    2. Establish a Listening to Talking Ratio:  You want to be listening at least twice as much are you are talking, so 2:1, would be your listenting:talking ratio, bare minimum.  Interestingly enough, that’s everyone’s ratio of ears:mouth.   Now, if there are ten people in the room, that number needs to be a multiplier effect to your ratio.  Ratio begin 10:1.

    There may be some exceptions to this.  If you called the meeting or are responsible for facilitating, you may have leeway to lower your ratio.  But overall it’s a good goal to strive towards.

    3. Ask good questions: Asking good questions while in a group can also help you establish the chance for others to want to listen you.  Asking questions implies to others that you want to hear what they have to say.

    As Covey said, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”  When you do, people want to listen to you because you have gained their respect by listening to them.

    4. Be selective in what you say:  Are you talking every time a thought comes to your mind, or are you talking only when you feel like you have something beneficial to the whole group that would further the purpose of the interaction? Ask yourself, is this furthering the cause of this meeting?  Would not saying this be doing a disservice to those that are here and/or the organization? When you only say what is essential to purpose, your words carry more weight.

    What helped you temper your desire to talk more than you listen?

     

    Personal Disclaimer:  I am working on taking my own advice on this.

     

    Image Source:  http://hearinghealthmatters.org/betterhearingconsumer/2012/how-to-talk-to-people-with-hearing-loss-illustrated-version/