Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Leadership Development

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 in your own leadership development (or if you’re looking for resources for someone else).

  • 6 Ways to Help Create Caring Instead of Callous Leaders

    6 Ways to Help Create Caring Instead of Callous Leaders

    I have the opportunity to coach a lot of middle managers. Quite often they are middle-aged men, and I’m working with them because there is some issue with how they lead (or actually don’t lead) others.   

    Through some type of feedback mechanism, these men are described mildly as “aloof” or “disinterested” (always related to how they are with people, not necessarily the tasks or functions of their job) to more extreme words like “jerk” or “a**hole”. 

    I’m brought in most of the time to try to fix their “personality”. Making them more caring and a better leader of people is my assignment.  

    If the goal is to help them grow and care, I’m up for the task. But the reason they are described in these unappealing ways is often not what it seems. It’s not a personality issue or another fixed trait issue where someone is born less or more caring because of their disposition.  

    Sometimes it’s a skill issue, meaning they just don’t know what they don’t know.  They want to be a leader of people, but they’ve never been taught how to do this.  This means I often help by providing tools, questions, and activities for self-reflection and awareness to help them facilitate positive leadership practices with others. 

    It’s never personality. It’s sometimes skill.  

    But it is almost always an issue of time.  

    You see, middle managers are often pulled in a million different directions. They are hurrying to do something for their boss, to be at the next meeting of which two-thirds or more of their scheduled workday is packed with, to complete a project, to approve someone’s PTO in an inefficient system.   Or trying to make it home in time to help their spouse, care for a child, or make it to another meeting of an organization they are involved within the community. 

    You see they aren’t callous, cold, or a jerk because they are born that way or don’t know how to be caring, they are these things because they are ALWAYS in a hurry and their task list is NEVER done.  

    Quite simply, they don’t have time for their people or don’t feel like they do. So when someone that reports to them comes in and needs to talk to them about an issue with the project they are working on or an issue with a co-worker, or to check on their PTO request for next week that hasn’t been approved yet, they appear at the best aggravated with the person, and at the worst, they act like a downright jerk to him or her. 

    In a classic study aptly titled “The Good Samaritan Study” Princeton researchers examined what conditions impact a group of seminary students actually helping someone. Personality and religious evaluations of each individual in the study were included. Some participants were told they were late for the task they were assigned to do (which was either to talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan or to talk about seminary jobs).  Others were told they had a few minutes to arrive where they needed to across campus for their assignment. 

    In route to give the talk, participants encountered a man obviously in distress. Some helped him, some didn’t. 

    Which ones helped the least?  Personality didn’t impact helping behaviors and neither did “religiousness” like a Samaritan.  Those that helped the least were the ones in a hurry.  In low hurry situations, 63% helped compared to high hurry where only 10% helped. That’s a huge difference. 

    Found in a summary of the conclusions of the study are some key insights: 

    Ironically, a person in a hurry is less likely to help people, even if he is going to speak on the parable of the Good Samaritan…. Maybe that ‘ethics become a luxury as the speed of our daily lives increases’. Or maybe peoples’ cognition was narrowed by the hurriedness and they failed to make the immediate connection of an emergency. 

    Many subjects…. were in a conflict between helping the victim and meeting the needs of the experimenter. Conflict rather than callousness can explain the failure to stop.”

    So, if you are a leader of a middle manager, or honestly anyone this day in age where margins of time seem to be non-existent, work hard to: 

      1. Make sure they know that the most important function of their job is leading those they manage and that the majority of their time should be spent on activities that grow others.  Help those you lead prioritize people over projects.  Quite simply, the best way to do this is by your example. Do you see a man in distress and stop to help? If you don’t, the people who are watching you won’t either. 
      2. Set up conditions that allow people for margins in their day.  Cancel some meetings and give them permission to block time off for focused work where anyone- especially you (the experimenter)- doesn’t bother them or set-up expectations that create a constant state of hurry. 
      3. Give people permission to say no. 
      4. Help people learn and apply proven time management strategies and principles. I particularly like training around Covey’s principles in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First.
      5. Eliminate as much bureaucracy as you can.  Don’t make people have to get permission from you to do everything. Put systems in place that increase the autonomy and flexibility people have and allow for fluid communication channels where people don’t waste time having to track people down or wait on decisions from above. 
      6. Most of all, model these principles for the people you lead.  If you are always in a hurry you are setting the expectation that they should be too. 

     

    What is the number one reason you become less caring than you should be as a leader? 

  • 3 Tips for Leading Well in 2020

    3 Tips for Leading Well in 2020

    I enjoyed the opportunity to hear Karith Foster speak recently.  If you haven’t had an opportunity to check her out, she is well worth it.  She combines humor and storytelling to make simple, but profound points about leading and living well. 

    In her address, she talked about the ABCs necessary to be a leader in 2020. 

    A. Ask for help & Ask for what you want.   

    Asking for help may seem contrary to what leaders should do, but as I heard Brene Brown say in another keynote speech, asking for help is actually the best way to create trust.  As Karith said, no one totally knows what they are doing, and no one can do it all. The act of asking for help acknowledges this and gives people permission to also ask for help themselves. Seems to me like it creates a place for psychological safety to thrive. 

    One thing my husband loves to say to me is, “I’m not a mind reader.” Of course, I love it when he says this to me, but there is truth in it.  We can’t expect people to read our minds (or our intent) so we can’t expect them to also know what we want and need. Letting people know what you want and need leads to a lack of confusion. When things are clear, things get done to the standard or expectations we have in our minds.  

    One of the biggest sources of disappointment for people is when expectations aren’t met.  This usually comes not from a lack of desire to meet expectations, but from a lack of communication or clarity about the expectation.  You need to make your intent clear.  Taking this a step further, also explain the why behind the want or need.  This further clarifies expectations and helps people not make assumptions. 

    B. Be Kind.

    Speaking of intent, as Karith emphasized, we all need to take a deep breath and set our intention for kindness with both words and actions.  She emphasized 1) we never really know what someone is going through and 2) we never know what the ripple effect of one small act of kindness will be.

    Most notably, she emphasized this has to include being kind to yourself.   It is rather difficult to be kind to others if we can’t first establish personal leadership and become kind to ourselves.  

    C. Choose Community Over Clicks.

    Karith emphasized that it is basic biology for us to be attracted to people who are like us because it gives us the least amount of opportunity for threats to arise, our brain tells us.

    However, we need to recondition our brains to realize that creating exclusivity isn’t good for us as individuals and it isn’t good for workplaces.  Realizing that most of what divides us this day in age is surface stuff and realizing that being around people who are different from us increases our learning and therefore our value, we need to get out of our comfort zones and go to places where people that are different than us reside both physically and virtually. 

     

    Overall, Karith emphasized that leaders are to model the behavior they want to see in others in order to impact the workplace.   By asking for help and for what we want, by being kind to ourselves and others, and by choosing community, especially with those who are different than us, we will move into 2020 positioned to lead by example. 

    What are your key focus areas for leading well in 2020? 

     

  • Find Another Seat (or Challenge) or Get Off the Bus? How to Lead when Skill is High but Will is Low

    Find Another Seat (or Challenge) or Get Off the Bus? How to Lead when Skill is High but Will is Low

    We’ve all seen someone there before.  We’ve most likely also been there before ourselves.  One of the most, if not the most knowledgeable and experienced person in the room.  The one that can do the task or assignment with his or her eyes closed. Possibly the smartest person in the room. 

    But somehow, they are also the most disinterested person in the room.  Whether this disengagement comes from boredom or burnout, you can’t be sure, but it is obvious they’d rather be anywhere doing anything other than what they are really good at doing.  

    You need them to do it, but they don’t want to.  They have high skill and little to no will. And interestingly enough, because they have no personal drive to do it well or with excellence, their skill begins to tank.  

    What do you do? It often comes down to one of two things: 

    1. New Challenge
    2. Rest

    For example, my almost nine-year-old is in the throes of multiplication tables.  This semester, he has to demonstrate mastery of all his multiplication facts by completing a test on each fact family and getting them all correct in less than a minute.  

    He probably could have done this all (except for maybe the nine and twelve fact families) day one.  I’m not sure how he learned them all, but I do know he has a natural ability with numbers (he gets it from his daddy) and he often thinks in numbers, not in words. 

    But, we are required to practice the facts for at least 10 minutes every night and sign off it has been done.   

    Needless to say, he’s so over it.  So, we’ve had to find other ways to challenge him in doing this routine every night.  We skipped ahead, doing harder fact families that he wouldn’t be tested on for a few weeks because he had already mastered the ones he was being tested on next.  Then we went to challenging him to apply the multiplication he learned by multiplying two digits instead of just one, or we broke it down and showed him how he could divide, which is a concept they hadn’t started yet in school.   

    We’ve also engaged him in teaching his sister (in kindergarten) basic multiplication facts, which he loves (and she tolerates). 

    So, we challenged him.   And the same is true of what you should do with someone you are leading that has a high skill level but is so over doing what they are doing.  Challenge them to take it to the next level by: 

    1. Applying their skills in novel or advanced ways
    2. Getting them to teach their skill to someone else

    But something strange happened.  We had been practicing our four and eight fact families and he had mastered them. We went to revisit these facts the night before the test on them just as a brush up on his skills. Well, when simulating the same situation as the test (all thirteen facts listed to answer correctly in less than a minute) he flipped out and said he couldn’t do it. He just froze and it was like all he knew had vanished. 

    Honestly, I think we had beat a dead horse.  He had practiced so much when he really didn’t need to, that he was burned out.  

    So I told him to go to his room and rest.  He didn’t want to, but he did. He came back down about 15 minutes later had made a paper airplane and said he was ready to try again. 

    He answered all his fours correctly in less than 30 seconds and completed the eights correctly with about fifteen seconds to spare.

    He just needed a break. He was burned out.  Much like some of your people who are highly skilled are.  If you see someone’s will begin to wane on something they are highly competent in doing, first challenge them to take their skill to the next level or give them an assignment to teach someone else to do it.  If that doesn’t work, give them a break. 

    I found myself at this high skill, waning will point not long ago.  After a solid spring and half the summer spent facilitating a lot of training that more often than not required travel, I found myself at best bored and at worst burned out.  And honestly, I felt like I had gotten worse at it. 

    I love nothing more than helping other people succeed in leading, but after almost ten years of training and many months training on the same content over and over again, I was kind of over it.   had the experience and knowledge to do it well, but I felt myself not doing it very well because I was bored by it and tired of it. 

    I was also pregnant, so that might have also had something to do with my mood over it all. 

    A break from travel and work being required with the pending arrival of our child, I had to have a plan. And I had to rest.  I took a risk and hired someone else to train. And I am so glad I did. 

    This brings up a third route for leading others (and yourself) well when your will tanks in high skill areas: divest in it. 

    I actually have done all three of these things related to my skill and will with group leadership training.  I handed off the bulk of it to someone who has a high skill and will for it, I challenged myself by beginning to build new training content using my skills, and I’ve enjoyed teaching our new colleague on the unique way we feel like we add value in our training approach. 

     

    What do you do when you or someone you lead is highly skilled but has lost the will to do something or do it well? 

     

  • Leaders, Know the Skill and Will of Those You Lead

    Leaders, Know the Skill and Will of Those You Lead

    I’ve found myself talking about skill and will a lot lately.  Whether it be in one-on-one leadership coaching sessions or in group training, the conversation is often directed towards customizing a leadership approach based on the needs of the person being “led”.  Much of our basic leadership training modules focus on customization based on personality, but that is only one piece of the puzzle. A person’s level of skill in doing a job or task and a person’s will to do the job or task (which includes aspects of personality) are critical to success. 

    So what is skill and what is will? 

    Skill: A person’s ability to do a job or tasks well which comes from him/her having the knowledge, experience and/or raw talent needed to achieve the desired results. 

    Will: A person’s desire to do a job and do it with excellence which comes as a result of personality and internal motivation.  A person being on the right bus (organization) and on the right seat (job) on the bus also impacts a person’s will. 

    Simply put, skill is the fact that a person has what is needed to do the job well, a person’s will is that the person actually wants to do the job and do it well.  Each dimension also breeds and fuels off each other. If you are good at something, you often like it, and if you like to do something you often get good at it. 

    So many things can go wrong when we mismatch our leadership to a person’s skill and will.  This can occur when: 

    1. We don’t diagnosis someone’s level of skill and/or will correctly.
    2. We are so afraid of “micromanaging” that we don’t correctly realize people need guidance at times based on their level of skill.
    3. On the opposite extreme, we are so afraid something may go wrong that we do micro-managing, which leads to crushed will when someone who does have the skill needed to  do a job is “over led.”
    4. We know someone has a certain level of skill and will with one thing so we label them the same level of skill and will for everything.  Skill and will can and are variable based on a variety of factors at any given time. 

    In order to avoid these mistakes, the first thing to do is to correctly diagnosis a person’s skill and will level based on the task or job at hand.  You do this by: 

    1 Simply ask the person where they think their skill/will falls. Most people can give an honest assessment of these levels if you’ve built trust with them.   I ask questions like: How do you feel about doing this on your own? Have you ever done this before?  What problems do you think you will face or are you concerned about? Do you want to do this? Why or why not? Simply asking questions will help you know where people are.  

    2. Ask them to walk you through how they would do something/achieve an outcome. Can they articulate steps in achieving an outcome or provide specific examples of when and how they’ve done it or something similar before? If so, their skill level is most likely high. If someone talks in vague generalities about how to do something, they most likely won’t have the maximum level of competence needed to achieve the result.  You can also assess their enthusiasm for the task and desire to do it through this exercise. (Note: This is a good interviewing tactic too when hiring to assess for skill and will.)

    3. Observe them doing the task/job to assess where they are.   Quite simply, if you watch someone do something you can tell if they can do it well or not.   You can assess their confidence, skill, and enthusiasm through observation. 

    4. Debrief after they do something to assess their like for the activity and their desire to do it again.  What did they learn and how will they grow to develop further skills based on what they learned?  Do they want to do it again or are they bored by it? Oftentimes, when someone reaches a high level of skill, will can begin to diminish because a been there, done that attitude begins to set in.  If the person can build on those skills by teaching others the skill(s) and or adding the next level of complexity to the task/job, you can continue to maintain will and interest.

    Once you’ve diagnosed someone’s level of skill and will, it is then time to put these two pieces together to determine how you should best lead the person.   

    Giving examples of how to lead I find is the best way to illustrate what you can do right and what you can do terribly wrong.  With that being said, we’ll devote the next few posts to scenarios based on all four combinations:  

    • low skill & high will
    • high skill & high will
    • high skill & low will
    • low skill & low will

    Stay tuned…..

     

    Note:  Many of the thoughts and ideas derived with skill and will come from the Situational Leadership approach developed by Hersey and Blanchard.   This approach uses different terms than skill (competence) and will (commitment), but many of the thought processes are the same. I’d suggest reading The One Minute Manager if you are interested in learning more about this model and the practical application of it in the workplace. 

  • 4 Training Facilitation Tips Gleaned from a Five-Year-Old

    4 Training Facilitation Tips Gleaned from a Five-Year-Old

    “Mommy,” my five-year-old said from the backseat of the car on the way to school one morning, “What do you do for work (pronounced more like wurk)?”

    I wasn’t sure where her question was coming from, but in trying to think about how to describe what I do to so her Pre-K mind would understand, I quickly thought that “consulting” wasn’t going to make sense.

    So, I chose instead to describe what I do in the context of what I was scheduled to do that day.

    “Well, today, I’m going to train some people on their first day of work. I get to help my client get new people excited about where they work and what they are going to get to do.”

    “So, you’re a cunductor?” she said.  Her short u that always seems to replace her short o confused me.  

    “A what?” I asked.  

    “You know a cunductor,” she said with mild frustration.  “Like you help people on and off trains.”

    “Oh, a conductor you mean?” I asked.

    “Yes, she said.”

    I had to chuckle.  In trying to pick a word she would understand opting for training instead of consulting, she used the train to make a connection to actual trains.

    I tried again.

    “I’m like your teacher at school kind of, but I get to teach adults and help them learn at work.  There are no trains involved,” I laughed.

    To which she replied, “So who is your principal?”

    This is just one example of conversations we have as her inquisitive mind processes everything around her in a cute, but also thought provoking way.

    But her questioning helped me to think about some best practices for facilitating training that may help any of you who are “cunductors” aka training facilitators and leaders, helping adults learn at work:

    1. Word choice is important. Consider your audience- age, skill level, position, part of the country or globe, etc.  when deciding if the way your explaining things and your word choice makes sense.  I’m the world’s worst at this but try to avoid catch phrases and sayings.  For example, using “beating a dead horse,” may make sense to some as a way to say we’ve gone over this way too much, but if taken literally and/or being translated into another language, it could cause a lot of confusion.

    In addition, avoid using words that are vague and may cause confusion.  For example, “We will break in a few minutes.” As opposed to, “We will break at 10:15 am.”

    2. Explain things in more than one way and in more than one medium.  Not everyone learns the same way.   Analogies may help in describing something in a way that may make sense as long as it doesn’t violate recommendations in number one above.   In addition, engaging people in listening, writing, drawing, reading, small and large group discussion and individual reflection activities helps to ensure that content is internalized.  Once internalized, it can then be used to help shape and change behaviors on the job.

    3. Slow down when you talk. This may actually be what I’m the worst at in my southern way of talking, but this really hit home for me while facilitating a training this week where everything I said was being translated into another language for about half the participants.  Inserting pauses and breaks in your discussion is helpful.  In addition, inserting a variety of activities helps to break up the speed and prevalence of talking.

    4. Gauge your audience’s understanding.  Watching the facial expressions and body language of your participants, as well as questions they might ask, can help you know if they understand what you are saying.  If you are talking too fast, not explaining things in a way that makes sense or using words/phases that are confusing, facial expressions and body language will cue you to this.  I learned quickly in my training this week that the interpreters would look at me funny if I said something that wasn’t easily translatable or unclear.   

    In addition, participants would stop me to ask clarifying questions, and some were of the “So who is your principal?” nature which showed me I was off the mark in my analogy or explanation of a topic and needed to try again.

    How do you ensure that your “conducting” facilitates adult learning in a way that impacts job performance?