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).

  • Employee Mentoring Programs

    Employee Mentoring Programs

    Written by guest blogger: Steve Graham

    What role do employee-mentoring programs have?

    Mentoring programs have a tremendous impact on employee development, talent retention, and engagement.  Employees crave feedback and often seek someone who has walked their path.  Offering a formal mentoring program demonstrates the organizations commitment to talent development.  It also allows for assistance in developing a career path, and answering the often-asked question, “How do I get where you are?”.

    One common reason for turnover is lack of professional growth. Mentoring offers a chance for an employee to discuss many of the same concerns their mentor once had.  This is vital in offering hope and encouragement when it is needed the most.  It is invaluable to have someone who listens, cares, and offers sound advice.

    An important component to employee engagement is the relationship between the employee and their manager.  Time and time again, research has shown that most employees leave due to bad managers.  Mentoring fills the gap that is left by having a disconnected or bad manager. They can offer insight on navigating complex situations and give the employee that needed ear.

    What is the ROI of these programs?

    I believe the most important ROI is the fulfillment of serving someone else.  We all need someone to help us during our journey, both professionally and personally. My best mentors helped me grow in both areas. We don’t live compartmental lives, and what happens in our personal lives influences our professional lives.

    Another ROI is creating a culture that values talent development.  Having mentoring programs helps with recruiting talent and building a strong employer brand.

    One of the top questions I receive during interviewing or shortly after hiring new talent is, “What do you offer to help with career advancement or growth?”.  It is a great return on investment when you can tell them about your outstanding mentoring program.

    What is an example of when you’ve seen a mentoring program work?

    My first time having a true mentor was not in a formalized program. While our organization valued mentoring, it was not structured.  I would not be the person I am today without that first mentoring experience. It crafted my early view of management, demonstrated leadership, and showed me the value of caring for your people and their growth.

    Even though I have not worked with my mentor in almost twenty years, I still value his advice, and seek it out when facing an important decision.  In my opinion, mentoring is something that should be passed down. It is a great feeling when the mentee becomes a mentor. Leadership is about influence and mentoring is a leadership process.  I cannot help but think about the loss of potential talent due to lack of access to a mentor.  Mentoring is beneficial in identifying leadership potential and opportunities for career advancement.  There are several organizations that require any potential management candidates to complete a one-year mentoring program.

    A great resource for learning more about workplace mentoring is from Matt Collins DDI blog, the value of being a mentor.

     

    About the author: Steve Graham serves as Vice President for Marketing, HR Business Partner, and college instructor. He holds graduate degrees in management and higher education. As a life-long learner, he has additional graduate and professional education in executive & professional coaching, health care administration, and strategic human resource management.

    He is a certified HR professional with The Society for Human Resource Management, certified coach with the International Coach Federation, and a Global Career Development Facilitator. His professional memberships include: The Society for Human Resource Management, the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, Association for Talent Development, and International Coach Federation. LinkedIn.com/in/hstevegraham

  • A Culture Where Nothing Is Ever Good Enough and How to Fix It: An Interview with Rajeev Behera CEO of Reflektive

    A Culture Where Nothing Is Ever Good Enough and How to Fix It: An Interview with Rajeev Behera CEO of Reflektive

    1 in 4 people say their jobs are the most stressful part of their lives. What is creating stress in the workplace and how can it be resolved?

    Rajeev Behera, CEO of Reflektive, says that a fear-based work culture where nothing is ever good enough is a main cause of stress in the workplace. This occurs when managers use intimidation tactics, putting more value on the employees that put in the most hours, instead of those who are team players.

    Rajeev saw this first-hand in his work life before founding Reflektive, a performance management and talent development software company, where he is CEO.   In a fear-based environment, he said, “Managers task managed instead of people managed.  A focus was always placed on the past judged by the metric of what tasks were completed or not completed.”  As result of this mindset, Rajeev saw a culture of intimidation taking over the workplace.

    This resulted in the wrong things being measured and rewarded, leading to nothing ever being good enough.  For example, Rajeev points to time spent at work as one thing that was measured, instead of results.  “Time”, he says, “is subjective. How much is enough?  And you can never give enough of it.”

    So how do you change it?  Rajeev emphasizes several key points in helping managers move a fear based culture where nothing is ever good enough to one that is employee and future focused:

    1.  Set goals:  Instead of measuring things like time that are subjective, set goals with employees and monitor and measure performance based on the progress of these goals. Empower the employee to take the first pass to set their goals each quarter and collaborate to agree on realistic outcomes.
    2.  Be collaborative and agile in your future focus: Rajeev encourages leaders to, “talk about it (goals and projects) while they are being worked on so employee and manager can partner together.  Because things can change quickly, the goals can be adjusted when needed. This is contrasted with the manager just saying ‘go, do and don’t bother me till it’s done and perfect.’ This fear-based approach leads the manager to become judge and evaluator instead of collaborator and coach.”

    Rajeev says that one of their most popular products is Agile Goal Management, because it makes sure that goal setting is a “Collaborative process- not just one-sided- so both manager and employee agree.  And if expectations change, they can edit it together, document, and focus on what to do to move the business forward.”

    “So how do you get managers to become coaches instead of evaluators?” I asked Rajeev.

    He offered these practical steps:

    1.   “Discuss the why, not just the “what” to do.”  The why comes back to achieving business success by treating people as partners instead of task completers.
    2.   Diagnose the current culture.  Rajeev said you can do this by paying attention to “How the employees and managers talk. For example, in meetings, when there is a problem or process that is not up to par, how is the leader phrasing an action item? A fear-based approach will phrase it as something that isn’t done, placing it in the red, or when it should be done or already have been done, and saying things like ‘why didn’t we already have that done?’  This demonstrates a culture of negative reinforcement where nothing is ever good enough.”

    In contrast, leaders with a future oriented approach ask questions about what can and should take place to accomplish a goal and help employees plan from there.

    1. Mandatory weekly one-on-ones and quarterly check-ins. Future oriented cultures, focus on employees and managers having regular, one-on-one checks, but as Rajeev says, “it up to you (the manager) to decide on what’s  important to focus on and as a leader, manage your schedule and flow of these meetings accordingly.”  People managers actually meet with people, so the one-on-ones provide a time for relationship building, giving clear instructions up front, setting goals and talking about career development as it relates to organizational and personal goals and priorities. Quarterly check-ins provide the opportunity to step back and discuss progress, readjust objectives, and plan for how the manager can help the employee achieve their goals over the next quarter.

    This approach allows you to “talk about it while you’re working on it so we can partner together, instead of the go do and don’t bother me till it’s done and perfect,” says Rajeev.

    1.  Focus on career development.  “Coaches instead of fear-based managers,” Rajeev says, “figure out what employees want to do with their career and where they want to go, and then they give them projects to help reach those goals. Many people leave a company because they see a lack of opportunities.”

    While we can learn from the past, a focus on the future is what drives performance management today. Equipping organizations with the tools to look forward, instead of backward, inadvertently leads us to think about the possibilities of how great we can be instead of thinking nothing is ever good enough.

  • Do Mentors Matter More than Bosses and Parents? How to Establish Mentor/Mentee Relationships

    Do Mentors Matter More than Bosses and Parents? How to Establish Mentor/Mentee Relationships

    “Not having a mentor is just stupid,” said a young and successful sales professional in a meeting I attended a few weeks ago.   She was giving the group advice on how to be successful in sales.

    I couldn’t agree with her more.  Not having a least one mentor (and seeking to be a mentor to someone else) is just about the dumbest mistake you can make in business.

    I was fortunate to have a wonderful academic and professional mentor in college (he passed away a few years ago and I still miss his sound advice), and I continue to have a few professional and personal mentors.  They may not even see themselves as my “mentors”- we haven’t been so specific as to have a DTR aka high school code for “Defining the Relationship”- but they are.

    I’ve never thought about how important having a mentor is in all aspects of life until reading Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant.  Like most things, business books end up teaching me more about parenting than they do about business!

    In his book, Grant states:

    The paradox of encouraging children to develop strong values is that parents effectively limit their own influence.  Parents can nurture the impulse to be original, but at some point, people need to find their own role models for originality in their chosen fields…. If we want to encourage originality, the best step we can take is to raise our children’s aspirations by introducing them to different kinds of role models.

    But how do we establish mentoring relationships for our kids, and ourselves whether in business or in personal relationships that grow us as people and as professionals?

    Sheryl Sandberg in her book, Lean In, emphasizes that asking someone to be your mentor isn’t the right approach; instead these relationships should grow naturally.  I do think, however, you can set-up some framework to help these relationships grow organically:

    1. Find or establish common connection groups. I’ve found that my interests in business start-ups, running, faith and talent development have led to meaningful mentoring relationships.  Help yourself, your company and your children seek out or establish common interests groups and grow relationships through them.
    2. Realize that mentoring doesn’t have to be the “old” mentoring the “young”. Often people call this “reverse mentoring”, but mentoring should be a relationship where one who has wisdom through expertise and experience can help another person.   If strong relationships are established, often the role of mentor and mentee can be reversed at times during the course of the relationship depending on the circumstances and topics.  For example, I may be able to be a mentor for someone younger than myself about how to start and grow a business, but that person may be more tech savvy than I am and can teach me a thing or two about establishing business scalability through the use of tech tools.
    3. Understand that mentoring relationships may have more of an impact on outcomes than close familial and/or working relationships. If you’re the parent or the boss, you may be thinking that it is your job to be the mentor.  However, as Grant’s research points out, you may be better off helping your child or employee establish a relationship outside the home or your workplace or department to help them grow and become more successful.

    Diversity of ideas and thoughts can help people grow more than the familiar.   Like I hear many parents that come to us for career advice for their kids say, “You don’t have a dog in this fight”.  What they mean by this is since we aren’t so close to it, we can give more objective advice that people are more receptive to receiving and acting upon.  The kind of wisdom that comes from a mentor is not the carrot or the stick approach on advice that often comes from our parent(s) and/or our boss.

    What the best advice you’ve received from a mentor?

  • The Candidate Experience Influences The Brand

    The Candidate Experience Influences The Brand

    Branding is an important marketing topic. Some organizations invest heavily in a brand strategy that reaches many audiences, including the job seeker. A great brand attracts job candidates to an organization. As a marketer and HR professional, I have a unique perspective on this topic.  The marketer side understands the importance of brand equity and the HR side values the role it plays in talent acquisition.  Some organizations fail to make this connection. Other organizations offer poor candidate experiences, which cast a negative image. As a result, it harms the brand while turning away potential talent.

    Over the years, I have heard candidates’ horror stories of bad encounters, which diminish the job seekers value of an organization.  A few of these experiences were so negative that it impacted the candidate’s use of the products and services. Most job seekers desire an organization that aligns with their values and where a connection can be made to the culture. The candidate experience is an extension of the brand strategy. It expands beyond the talent acquisition strategy.  Recruiters are often the first human contact a job seeker has with the brand. Having a marketing orientation is vital to recruiting, since they are brand representatives.

    A negative candidate experience has a lasting impact. Talent acquisition influences brand equity.  Designing a marketing-focused talent strategy can create positive candidate experiences. Collaboration between marketing and talent acquisition is beneficial in driving the strategy.  Every encounter is exposure to the brand, so make it exceptional.

     

     

    About the author: Steve Graham serves as Vice President for Marketing, HR Business Partner, and college instructor. He holds graduate degrees in management and higher education. As a life-long learner, he has additional graduate and professional education in executive & professional coaching, health care administration, and strategic human resource management.

    He is a certified HR professional with The Society for Human Resource Management, certified coach with the International Coach Federation, and a Global Career Development Facilitator. His professional memberships include: The Society for Human Resource Management, the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, Association for Talent Development, and International Coach Federation. LinkedIn.com/in/hstevegraham

  • Diversity and Inclusion in My Eyes and in the Eyes of My Children

    Diversity and Inclusion in My Eyes and in the Eyes of My Children

    Ask any HR professional and they will tell you that “diversity and inclusion” as we like to call it is trending in our world.   In fact, Deloitte’s 2017 Human Capital Trends Report points to this rule of work by emphasizing that,

    “Leading organizations now see diversity and inclusion as a comprehensive strategy woven into every aspect of the talent life cycle to enhance employee engagement, improve brand, and drive performance. The era of diversity as a ‘check the box’ initiative owned by HR is over.”

    The issue is so big, its no longer just HR’s job.

    But as business professionals, we can read and hear about diversity and inclusion and the best practices out there until we are blue the face.   And we can talk about it ad nauseam seeking ways to implement tactics to eliminate bias and select and retain diverse talent pools.  In fact, I spent no less than 30 minutes yesterday on the phone with a client examining the idiosyncrasies that relate to diversity and inclusion in formulating strong hiring processes and practices, and the purpose of our call was on their employee handbook!

    But, as distant past and not-so-distant-past personal experiences remind me, you’ve got to look inward and be honest to tackle the topic effectively.

    My first personal observation comes from giving a presentation over five years ago on “Recruiting and Retaining the Best”.  In the presentation, I displayed a slide with a picture of pretty and sweet country singer side by side with a tough rapper.   The country singer happened to be a white female, the rapper happened to be a black male.   I displayed the slide to point to the fact that you need to know your work culture and then select people who fit in with your culture.

    I didn’t mean to imply that one of the singers was better than the other, just that one might be best for one environment, and one might be better for another. But apparently to my audience, I conveyed that you needed to screen the black rapper with the tattoos out. Hire the pretty white girl I must have implied, because that same day I got a call from the person putting on the workshop who told me that a person in the audience (who happened to be a black male) was offended.

    Given that the person who called me happened to be a black female and actually knows me, she assured me that she told him I in no way was a bigot and did not mean to imply anything racially motivated.  I thanked her, but obviously the offense I caused still sticks with me five years later.  Can I ever get diversity and inclusion right as a practitioner if, potentially, I have unconscious biases that play out in my speaking especially when someone else saw it as conscious and deliberate?

    Fast forward to last weekend.  We are all in the car as a family and the topic comes up as to why our almost three year old has so many princess dolls.  (I’ll blame it on grandparents, as I do her endless collection of purses as well.) Our six year old then chimes in naming the princesses she has.  “She’s got Elsa and Belle and Ariel and Cinderella” then he stops for a second and says, “Mom, why doesn’t Paige have any darker princesses?”

    What is a mom to say?  I think I responded with something along the lines of,  “A darker princess would be nice to get, racking my brain trying to come up with a “darker” one.   I said, “How about the one from The Princess and the Frog?”  I didn’t even know the “darker” one’s name.  Before my kids could respond, they were on to talking about something else.

    But I was still stuck on my obvious need to do some reflection on my worldview and how I tout myself as an open-minded and inclusive person. Who am I to give anyone advice on how to create a diverse and inclusive workplace? Our toy shelf isn’t even diverse.

    In fact, culturally our stores aren’t diverse and our movies aren’t diverse.  There seems to be only one “darker” princess present in a slew of mostly white blonds, just like the pretty country singer in my presentation slide. No wonder we struggle with diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

    But as I walk through Target a few days later, I tell my son to go pick out a birthday present for his sister. He runs towards the toy section excited to take a detour from the bottled water and toilet paper we were there to buy.

    I catch up with him, thinking this is going to take forever, but yet he comes straight back to meet me, and without a word, drops her present in the cart. The Princess and the Frog Princess, Tiana, is what he has chosen for his sister’s third birthday present.

    output

    These personal examples point to only one area of diversity, and that is of race. There are so many more areas of diversity I could discuss, in both specific and generic terms. I echo Deliotte’s report stating that, “Diversity is defined in a broader context, including contexts of ‘diversity of thought’, also addressing people with autism and other cognitive differences.” Too often we boil diversity and inclusion down to something far narrower than it should be.

    And I could also wrap up this post with a list of ways to try to overcome unconscious bias or how to create a diversity and inclusion program at your place of work (and mine).

    But maybe the first step in thinking about diversity and inclusion is to look in the mirror and be self-aware. We need to be honest about how the environments we have grown up in and quite possibly still work in, shape us to think and decide in ways that we may not even be aware of.  And then and only then, once we are honest with ourselves and vocalize that honesty to others are we are aware enough to change our course.

    I need my six year old to remind and help me learn that diversity and inclusion starts quite simply with being aware of when we’re off the mark and buying the right doll (or hiring/promoting the right person) to begin to fix it.

    You may also like:

    You can hire for fit AND diversity: How the most innovative companies hire