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…).

  • What are Company Values and How do you Create Them?

    What are Company Values and How do you Create Them?

    We’ve been spending some time here at The Point Blog highlighting some of our company values. 

    But what exactly do we mean by company values and how do you form them?  Many people, I believe, misinterpret what organizational values are and should be. This leads leaders to stay away from setting them, limiting their ability to drive organizational competitiveness through a common company language and culture.

    So, organizational values are: 

    1. Not moral in nature. They aren’t right or wrong in a universal sense.  
    2. They are however, right or wrong for your organization.
    3. They should be guiding principles that govern behavior.  They should be able to help people discern do this/don’t do this by calibrating against one or more company values.
    4. If done right, the values should lead to a competitive advantage for an organization. 

    So if you need company values, how do you create them?  Here’s the process we use with our clients: 

    1.  Case Studies.   We start with a case study process.  Based on the size of the leadership team charged with coming up with the values, we ask small groups (of no more than four people per group) to create a case study of two great things that have happened in the organization and two total fails.   The groups then report out to share their case studies.   If you would like a copy of the worksheet we use to get people to develop the case studies, email me.  

    2.  Behavior identification and classification.  The case studies are shared by each group and someone from our team listens.  On flip charts we begin to map out key behaviors indicated through the case studies.  We take the negative case studies and ask them to identify or state the opposite, positive behaviors so that everything is mapped out in a positive framework. 

    Once participants begin to see us doing this, they catch on to the process and begin providing us with words for the behavior map usually without even being prompted.   We then take these phrases and words and ask people to identify trends.  Many things come together to actually mean basically the same thing, and we combine or strike out words and phrases to generate themes.   

    3.  Value Emergence. What emerges are values that create an environment that allows for certain kinds of behaviors and  prohibits others. The themes more often than not distill down to 3-6 value words or statements.   We ask participants to take this list back with them and reflect on them. After about a week we regroup and finalize the values.  

    4.  Drive company culture through values. Most often, we then set goals and people-based initiatives off these values, creating a culture driven by values.  

    The goal of this entire process is to identify common ways of working and a common language through values that drives competitive advantage for an organization.  The values are already there and/or a sought after state for the organization, we just pull them out and define them so initiatives can be designed around them.  

    We’ll spend some time on the blog over the next few weeks giving examples of how people practices and programs are designed around values.   We’ll show how they come to life for an organization.  

    What are your company values?  

  • Company Values: Are You Learning?

    Company Values: Are You Learning?

    During a recent workshop with junior high students, one topic we discussed was becoming an apprentice for life. Now, more than ever, continuous learning is relevant regardless of your industry (or your age). At Horizon Point, it is one of our core values, and it is one of my favorite things about my career and the company I work for.

    Continuous Learning. We believe continual learning is a key driver in creating passion and productivity in life and in work. To that end, we invest in the personal development of our people because we know that people are a company and community’s greatest asset (People First). We work with clients who believe in continuous learning and take steps towards continual self-improvement in order to maximize their passion and productivity.

    Soon, HPC will be having a quarterly planning meeting. Unlike most meetings, it’s not something we dread. We look forward to sharing successes, checking in on our annual goals and determining priorities for the upcoming quarter. One item that is always on the agenda is continuous learning (or professional development). Again, this isn’t something we dread, we select our own professional development and as long as we keep the budget in mind, we always get the “go-ahead” to do it!

    This is yet another way we live out our company values. We also incorporate this into the work we do with companies and individual clients. Is continuous learning part of your career? Check out these reads to learn more about continuous learning:

    How to Plan Time for Self-Learning

    Lifelong Learning is the Key to Career Shifts

    5 Reasons to Create a Culture of Learning in Your Organization

  • How to Move Your Goods to Greats

    How to Move Your Goods to Greats

    Our previous post, “Leaders, Focus on Moving Your Middle – Play Offense, Not Defense”, emphasized the importance of focusing on moving your middle majority to high performers.

    But how do you do that?  How do you get your good players, or your B players, to become A players?

    They all can’t be converted, but those who have usually have a leader that:

    1. Sets high expectations.   This comes in the form of setting challenging goals and holding people accountable to them.

    2. After high expectations are set, the leader then provides Assurance and Confidence.  This involves saying things like,  “I know we’ve set challenging goals, but I know you are capable of achieving what we’ve set out to do.  This is why I’ve given you responsibility to do this.”

    3. Finally, Direction and Support is provided. This involves:

    • Being approachable and available when needed.
    • Providing stretch assignments to help the individual grow.
    • Creating exposure to risks and failure. As a leader, you should expect failure and help people be comfortable with it coming.  This could include asking people when you meet with them regularly about how they failed during the week.  This shows you expect it and you want to know what was learned from it.

    When a leader can successfully set high expectations, provide assurance and confidence as well as direction and support, it leads to increased self-awareness for an individual.

    This then allows for authenticity to be shaped through hard work, determination and challenging assignments.

    Finally, and most importantly, you’ve then done what leadership is all about.  You’ve modeled how leaders create more leaders – completing the full circle of equipping someone else to move others (not just themselves) from good to great.

    How do you grow people to become star performers?

  • Continuous Learning.. Are You Cheating Yourself?

    Continuous Learning.. Are You Cheating Yourself?

    I was recently presented with the opportunity to start hosting a monthly event that brings HR professionals together to discuss issues we are facing and to learn from each other’s experiences. I volunteered for the opportunity without hesitation, knowing that my co-workers would both be excited for me in my new endeavor and support me in any way needed.

    Continuous Learning. We believe continual learning is a key driver in creating passion and productivity in life and in work. To that end, we invest in the personal development of our people because we know that people are a company and community’s greatest asset (People First). We work with clients who believe in continuous learning and take steps towards continual self-improvement in order to maximize their passion and productivity.

    At Horizon Point, continuous learning is in the forefront of everything we do. We learn through meeting with new clients and assessing their HR needs, researching HR issues to help better assist our clients, and sharing articles and books that help us become more authentic leaders. We are encouraged to attend conferences, workshops, and networking events that feed our passion for HR and we are given the flexibility in our schedules to do so. We also pull from each other’s strengths, taking the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise.

    While we strive for continuous learning within our organization, we also strive to provide continuous learning opportunities for our clients by helping them strengthen their HR foundations, providing leadership development training, assisting with talent management, and assessing and addressing employee engagement issues. Through these learning opportunities, organizations are able to strengthen their leadership teams, improve employee morale and retention rates, and ensure that they are meeting the needs of their employees and their organization through sound HR policies and procedures. We share our expertise at workshops and conferences, through The Point Blog, and through our monthly Workplace Innovation and CDF newsletters.

    “If you are not learning while you’re earning, you are cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation.” – Napoleon Hill

    Are you cheating yourself?

    Join The Point Blog: Sound Advice for Career and Leadership Development mailing list here.

  • People First

    People First

    People first is one company value that I feel we do right at Horizon Point. As I prepared to step on the treadmill last night around 5:30pm, my phone rang. Knowing it was a work-related call that might take a few minutes, I answered it anyway. The person on the line was in California and seeking guidance on a credentialing application. Working with individuals across time zones means, we often get calls that aren’t in our “scheduled working hours”, but it allows us to make a difference in a much larger circle, even if we are conducting virtual training at 7:30am for a group in another country.

    People First. We believe people are a company and community’s greatest asset. This is why we work to foster passion and productivity in people. We realize that in all our decisions, relationships come first, and we help our clients act as leaders by cultivating and building relationships that help drive passion and productivity.

    Working in the realm of development, we are tasked with helping companies and individuals grow. To that end, “People First” truly is a priority. Here are just a few ways we strive to put people first:

    1. As HPC employees, our families always come first. Whether it’s a sick child, or a co-worker’s, we ensure our priorities are in order and lend a helping hand (for work or family) whenever we need to.
    2. Sometimes we realize Horizon Point might not be the right choice for a client, and we refer them to another organization that can better serve them. In the long run, clients appreciate placing their needs above making a sale.
    3. To touch on another company value, “Give Back”, another way we put people first is to volunteer in our community. Sometimes that means serving on a board or conducting a pro bono career coaching session to help someone who has been through a rough patch and needs guidance. This is personally my favorite way to put people first – by offering to help.

    As I came on board with Horizon Point, I developed a personal mission statement that I feel fits nicely with our people first value. It reads: I will strive daily to present the best version of myself to clients, family, friends and others. I will work to empower others and help them in their journey to lead better lives.

    To read more about our company values, check out Moving BEYOND WORK – Our Company Values.