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…).

  • Have an Employee Bored as a Gourd? Not an ideal employment state!

    Have an Employee Bored as a Gourd? Not an ideal employment state!

    What’s one thing that is extremely detrimental to both employers and employees? Boredom at work!

    I once worked with an adult client wanting to make a career change.  She was an extremely talented individual, and in talking with her about her then current employer she says she felt like she was just a “warm body”.  One of the main reasons she wanted a change was because she was bored as a gourd at work!  She worked for a government contractor (a waste of taxpayer money as she sat there bored) and none of her talents and skills were being utilized in that role.
    Also consider a quote from a book, Tribes by Seth Godin:
    “Consider the receptionist at a publishing company I visited a week later. There she was, doing nothing. Sitting at a desk, minding her own business, bored out of her skull. She acknowledged that the front office is very slow and that she just sits there, reading romance novels and waiting. And she’s been doing it for two years.” 
    Two thoughts come to mind on boredom at work:
    1. What a waste of money! As a leader, why would you pay people to be bored?
    2. What a waste of talent!  This may even be more of a shame.  Leaders should be making more leaders, and leadership isn’t cultivated through boredom.

    What if you are an employee and bored?

    Two courses of action exist:

    1.  Change your work environment. You may want to check out these two posts to discover if there is a better fit for you in the workplace:
    2.  Proactively ask for challenging or varied tasks.  Does your boss seem overloaded and stressed, but you are reading your romance novel?  Simply ask him/her if there is something you can help with.   If they don’t volunteer anything (why they aren’t volunteering, is again, a topic for another day) pay attention to what they are spending time on and see if you can help them without being asked.  Prove your worth and your talents by proactively getting things done without being asked to do so.
  • Is Your Training Program Legendary or Lackluster?

    Is Your Training Program Legendary or Lackluster?

    “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

    As I discussed in my recent post Five Elements of a Great Onboarding Experience, having a great new hire orientation can be critical to making a great first impression and getting a new hire successfully onboard with your organization. While many companies have worked hard to create that great first impression, they fall short on the long-term impression they give employees by failing to create a continuous training program.

    I’m currently working with a client to help them set goals for the coming year. In meeting with their leadership and other employees, one theme stands out to me- they lack training opportunities. They conduct annual reviews and set goals with employees, but fall short when it comes to providing training to help those employees meet their goals.

    So how can an organization successfully design a training program?

    First, conduct an analysis of each job to determine what skills are needed for that role. Create a competency matrix that details each role and the skills needed for entry-level, intermediate level, and expert level mastery of that role. Then compare roles and see where skillsets overlap. This will help you to determine what training will have the greatest impact on your staff and yield the greatest return on your investment. It may also help you define career paths within your organization.

    Second, create a formal training program based on the competency matrix. Once you determine what training will give you the biggest ROI, you need to start designing that training. You may need to use internal and external resources. When designing the training, determine what method of training will be most successful. For example, the client I’m working with commented on training that had been provided previously where employees were required to sit through hours of classroom training but were never given hands-on experience with what they learned, so the training was not effective. Also, consider how you can measure the effectiveness of the training once complete.

    Third, use the competency matrix to define career paths and create a succession plan. Look at the roles in your organization, the skills needed for each role, and determine what makes sense for a path of promotion. Then assess the employees currently in those roles for possible promotions when they come available. If you have an employee you think would be great to move up, have a conversation with them to gauge their interest. Some employees do not want to move up into management roles, and that’s ok. But it’s best to know that at the beginning instead of spending time training and prepping someone to move up only to have them turn it down when an offer is made, or worse, have them feel obligated to take the position and then not be happy or successful in the new role. Once you have a succession plan designed, you can start working with those employees that would be good candidates for promotion and help them start obtaining the skill set needed to move into that next role.

    While it’s important to create a continuous training plan for your organization, it’s also important for leaders to understand that training doesn’t have to come in the form of a formal program. Some of the most important skills I’ve learned in my career have been through impromptu training opportunities. As you’re completing a task, ask yourself “is there someone that could benefit from learning what I’m doing or understanding what I’m working on?” If so, ask them if they have five or ten minutes to shadow you in your task.

    I encourage you to ask yourself “What have I taught someone this week?”

  • Must Reads for 2019

    Must Reads for 2019

    “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”  Harry Truman

    We always end the year with great book recommendations and these can spark your reading for an upcoming year. But if you’re like me, you like to consider what new books might be coming to look out for along with some recommendations from top thinkers and leaders.

     

    Here’s who I follow to create my must-read lists:

    Reese Witherspoon’s Book Picks.  Obviously, famous as the girl-next-door-like, Southern actress, Reese has created quite a platform promoting women’s stories on screen and in print.  Her Book Club reiterates the same passion.   A great article about Reese and her passion can be found here from FastCompany, where she was named as one of the most creative people in 2018.

    You can see all her picks for 2018 in this post:

    My favorite from her 2018 was Where the Crawdads Sing.

    Her January pick to kick off 2019 is The Library Book. So far, I’m enjoying this historical non-fiction book.

    Her list is a cross-section of fiction and nonfiction. It isn’t a list of chick-lit.   

    You can follow the list on Instagram at reesesbookclubxhellosunshine.

     

    Adam Grant’s Picks for 2019.  Adam Grant is one of our favorite authors, so who better to recommend what to read that someone you like to read? 

    His 19 Top Leadership Books for 2019 can be found here:  

     

    Another suggestion for 2019.  I haven’t ever been a connoisseur of books about historical figures, namely American Presidents and their families. But, after finishing Michelle Obama’s book Becoming, I am adding books written by and/or about Presidents and their family members to my reading rotation this year.

    I consider myself a moderate Republican (self-classified as fiscally conservative, and as a Southerner, what would be seen in my neck of the woods as socially liberal). Most of the time, I consider myself apolitical with too many other things to do and focus on than to worry about politics. However, the growing political discourse in our country has begun to disturb me, and I think a route to help me learn more and reconcile my thoughts is in reading perspectives from both sides of the aisle.

     

    Up next, I think I’ll pick up a book by a Bush.  Some options are:

    41: A Portrait of My Father

    Decision Points

    Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life

     

    Then I think I’ll travel back to some of our founding fathers:


    Alexander Hamilton

    Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty

    John Adams

    “How can any man judge unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading?”

     

    What are you reading in 2019?  

  • Change Management: Celebrating the Small Victories

    Change Management: Celebrating the Small Victories

    Change is never easy. I remind myself of this daily as I navigate some major changes in my personal life. And my experience has been a great reminder of why change is often viewed so negatively. It’s the unknown. While they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, the thought of changing that pattern and not knowing what the result will be is often petrifying.

    I recently started working with a client who is experiencing a great deal of change in their organization and as a result, is seeing a decline in employee morale. As part of the change management process, I have begun meeting with managers on a weekly basis. While part of the goal of these weekly meetings is to talk through issues or concerns they may have, the primary goal is to help them focus on the positive and then find ways to share those positives with employees.

    I start each meeting with one simple (yet difficult) question. “What went well this week?”

    The natural reaction to this question is to try to think of major accomplishments, but when experiencing change and a decline in morale as a result of that change, employees need steady reassurance that the change is having a positive impact on the organization. Without that reassurance, morale will continue to drop. By showing employees the positive impact change is having, even if a small impact, you’re easing their anxiety over the change and gaining their buy-in.

    So, after watching the managers struggle during that first meeting to answer my question, I gave them some guidelines:

    • Think smaller. It doesn’t have to be a major accomplishment to be worth celebrating. Instead of waiting until the completion of a project to celebrate the work done, set milestones along the way and celebrate when you hit each mark.
    • Celebrate the now. If it’s progress today, celebrate it. Even if it falls apart tomorrow. Deal with tomorrow then, but today it’s a small victory and deserves recognition. And there’s always that chance that it won’t fall apart down the road.
    • Tie wins back to change. If the win was a result of a change that employees viewed negatively, acknowledge that the win was a positive result of that change.
    • Decide how to share with employees. Is it a win that everyone should know about, or just a specific department? And how will you communicate it to them in a way that will ensure they receive it?

    Even though we have only met a few times so far, I have seen a shift in the managers as well. The first week they were hesitant to claim any wins, but during our most recent meeting, they walked into the meeting with a few to share.

    So, ask yourself what went well this week and have you shared that with your employees?

  • A Look Back On the Best Way to Thank Employees is to Make it Personal

    A Look Back On the Best Way to Thank Employees is to Make it Personal

    In 2015, we worked with a client where one of the company’s core values was relationships.  The value they place on relationships, with their employees and their customers, leads to a competitive advantage for the company. But I don’t think they do it because it creates a competitive advantage. They do it because it is just the right thing to do.

    One thing I learned from them is how this value actually plays out in the way that they recognize and reward employees.

    As an outsider looking in they:

    1. Get to know their people as people, not just as workers
    2. Set clear expectations for everyone in the company
    3. Reward people in a personal way when expectations are met. They are able to do this because they did step number one.

    Because they reward people in a personal way, their employees are more loyal, work harder and continue to meet and exceed the clear expectations that are set.

    For example, they have a high performing engineer. The guy loves anything to do with planes and flying. He did a great job last year. His bonus was flying lessons (and in case you didn’t know, flying lessons are not cheap).

    I have a book sitting on my shelf in my office that is titled 1501 Ways To Reward Employees by Bob Nelson. It is a good little book to get you thinking. It lists things like “provide a free makeover, give a full-day pass to a spa, give passes for bungee jumping, skydiving, hot-air balloon ride, whitewater rafting, provide lessons: golf, scuba, flying, rafting, tennis, horseback riding, cooking, painting…” and so on and so forth.

    All these things are cool, but if you give someone who is scared of heights skydiving lessons, that isn’t rewarding, that is scary to them.   I’d love a pass to the spa, but would my husband? Nope. And if you gave him a pass to the spa thanking him for a job well done, I think his first thought would be, you don’t even know me at all do you? Taking the time to know people on a personal level communicates to them that they matter and you care.

    If you are going to reward people, make sure what you are doing is actually rewarding. This means that giving the same reward to everyone company-wide, is oftentimes not rewarding to most.   A ham at Christmas is nice, but do all your employees like ham?

    And before you go saying, well money is rewarding to everyone, just give everyone money as bonus, stop and think about that for a minute. I just had a conversation with someone that is willing to take a pay cut for more flexibility at her job. Money isn’t rewarding to her, the flexibility is.   She will work harder for the boss that gives her more flexibility in getting her work done than she will the boss that pays her more.

    How do you personalize your rewards? When you do, what results do you see?