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…).

  • A Tale of Two Employers: Workplace Appreciation

    A Tale of Two Employers: Workplace Appreciation

    “Employees don’t quit their job, they quit their manager.” How many times have you heard that phrase? Have you ever identified so much with it, thinking its origin may in fact be you for how well it resonates with your experiences? Well, I have. 

    I worked with a large company for almost 3 years, holding 2 different jobs within that time, searching for a position that would maintain my attention and highlight my skills coupled with a manager who would invest in me as both an employee and a person. In those 3 years, I found neither of those things and they were the longest 3 years of my life. I was continuously in a state of #OpentoWork, applying for positions well under my skill and experience level simply to be taken out of the toxicity that was my daily 9 – 5. But let’s unpack the situation further. 

    I was continuously in a state of #OpentoWork, applying for positions well under my skill and experience level simply to be taken out of the toxicity that was my daily 9 – 5.

    My first position with this company looked amazing on paper. The interviews highlighted efforts and initiatives that drew on my favorite aspects of my past positions and experiences and I was eager to get started. Once I did, I struggled with the management style I was receiving, communicating my needs only to consistently be met with unmet expectations. That, coupled with a difficult culture and internal resistance to what I was tasked to work towards, made it difficult to enjoy the work I was doing, but I persevered. I don’t believe in giving up when the going gets tough, but rather plowing through the difficulties and making the best of any situation. That is, until that situation bears no further potential. 

    The pinnacle of toxicity in a large organization comes to light with the vocalization of one word: re-org. Having never worked for such a large company before, I was naïve to what was to come. Long story short: my manager left their position, leaving me to be a team of 1. Their position was also eliminated as a result of the re-org, so I now had no growth opportunities. I saw the writing on the wall and knew I had to make a move and I had to make it fast. 

    So I transferred internally to a different team that, from the outside, seemed even more exciting than the first. Travel opportunities, engaging with high level internal and external leadership, autonomy over my work and…future growth opportunities! It was like the light I had been searching for at the end of the tunnel. Spoiler alert: it was not. 

    This new opportunity was worse than the previous, but for different reasons. The person I directly reported to was all but nonexistent. I communicated with them maybe once per month, and even then it seemed our short-lived conversations were meant only for them to check a box. No communication on how I was doing in the role, any help I may need or feedback I may have – nothing. The individual responsible for training and day to day oversight of me was the living embodiment of the phrase “hostile work environment”. I often left conversations thinking to myself “am I stupid?” because that’s how they made me feel. 

    The person I directly reported to was all but nonexistent. I communicated with them maybe once per month, and even then it seemed our short-lived conversations were meant only for them to check a box.

    While my first position with the company hadn’t been what I was looking for, this second position was quickly soul crushing. It traded my self-esteem and value for anxiety and a state of constant fear of reprimanding. There was no appreciation. Toxic behaviors like working 12-15 hour days, working weekends, sacrificing sleep – these were praised. Suggestions on process improvement or seeking genuine autonomy were met with hostility to the point where I stopped making suggestions. 

    I found myself once again searching for the right position. I was determined not to settle, knowing I had settled in the past, but I couldn’t seem to find anything. My determination was no match for the vibrant and competitive workforce that exists in North Alabama. Opportunity after opportunity drifted by and I was beginning to think I was never going to find the right position. Worse even, I was beginning to think that perhaps the problems I was facing weren’t the managers, but rather it was me. Were my expectations too high? Did the “right position” I kept dreaming of even exist? 

    Worse even, I was beginning to think that perhaps the problems I was facing weren’t the managers, but rather it was me. Were my expectations too high?

    And then one day, I got an Indeed message…about the position I was dreaming of getting into…with a small business, an environment I was desperately eager to return to. And the stars aligned and EUREKA, I got the job! There aren’t words to describe the trepidation I had walking into this new role. I had been sold a bill of goods not once, but twice before. I was not going to walk into another position with rose colored glasses on. 

    My first few weeks were great, I was learning so much and I was being exposed to multiple different facets of the company. I was introduced to the CEO and VPs within my first week, I was on a first name basis with the highest levels of leadership in the company and they truly seemed to listen to me when I talked to them. 

    At the end of my first month with the company, I went on business travel with the CEO, one of the VPs, and the Founder of the company – not only was it my first travel experience with this company but it was also with some of the most important people at the company. Unsurprisingly, I was nervous. Surprisingly, the trip was amazing. 

    I got to engage with leadership on a more personal level and they truly cared about what I had to say. The conversations I had on that trip are still referenced today and I am so thankful to have gone on this trip so early in my career with this company. I’ll never forget what was to me the most significant part of this trip. Following an employee engagement event we hosted for our local employees, we were heading back to the hotel and the CEO asked me “Do you know what your love language is?”. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Of course I knew, I’m a words of affirmation girl through and through. They noted this is something that my manager may struggle with as they’d not been great at it historically but they would keep that in mind. And they’ve kept that promise, to this day. 

    I got to engage with leadership on a more personal level and they truly cared about what I had to say.

    My manager, supposedly not historically superior with expressing their appreciation verbally, has had no difficulty in coming to me with praise. Any time they have feedback, they ensure it is being received correctly, something people struggle with on an interpersonal level, let alone a professional one. To put it simply: they care about me as a person first and an employee second. This has been the biggest differentiator between my new company and the previous. 

    I love my job, but on paper, I was slated to love my 2 previous jobs as well. The difficulty I was consistently faced with was my management, or lack thereof, and the environments I was trying to succeed in. It was like planting a petunia in a desert – I was destined to wilt from the start. 

    It’s been 6 months now and things are great. I’m not naïve enough to believe I will never have trouble with work – that is a part of life. But I know that I am supported by management and a team of some of the best, most kind hearted co-workers, and that knowledge makes the hardest of days that much easier to navigate.

    This blog was written by Guest Blogger Teddy Smith, a friend of Horizon Point.

    If you like this blog, you might enjoy these others related to Workplace Appreciation:

  • Open the Door to Vulnerability and Courage

    Open the Door to Vulnerability and Courage

    Last week Emily complimented me in her blog post when she spoke of the struggles I have faced in the last year and my ability to persevere through them. (Thanks, Emily!) And she’s not wrong. I have been that way for as long as I can remember; not letting anything stop me or get in my way. My dad taught me to have determination and I am so grateful that he did. But that determination and perseverance go hand in hand with the ability to be vulnerable. And this is where I used to fall short, very short. It wasn’t until I joined the Horizon Point team that I learned it was okay to be vulnerable, to ask for help, and to let others handle the load when you can’t. And during my health struggles in the past year, they have helped carry the load, without hesitation. 

    Vulnerability isn’t a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. It’s the ability to acknowledge when you can’t do it alone, when you made a mistake, or when you fell short. As Brene Brown puts it “(T)he definition of vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. But vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our most accurate measure of courage.” 

    I had to learn to be vulnerable, and here’s what I have learned:

    1. If you show vulnerability, others will follow. If leaders allow themselves to be vulnerable with their teams, it creates a culture of trust and in turn those employees will learn that vulnerability is acceptable, encouraged, and expected within the team. 
    2. Being vulnerable takes practice. It’s not easy to be vulnerable. As Brené Brown says, it takes courage to expose your fears, mistakes, and emotions to others. You don’t know how it will be received and you don’t know what others will think of you. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. Start small and work your way up to the big things if you need to. And sometimes it starts with being vulnerable with yourself. 
    3. How you respond to the vulnerability of others is make or break. As a leader, you need to encourage and accept the vulnerability of others. How you react to the vulnerability shown to you can build trust or destroy trust. Allow for mistakes and use them as learning opportunities. Encourage employees to seek help when they are overwhelmed, be someone that they can vent to if needed (without negative repercussions). Understand that they have emotions and while you may not understand or agree with those emotions, acknowledge them. 
    4. Vulnerability in leadership leads to better, more productive teams. By allowing and encouraging vulnerability and modeling vulnerability to your team, it creates a team that is psychologically safe, that is comfortable raising concerns, mistakes, and ideas, that has a growth mindset. And research shows that teams that are psychologically safe are the most productive teams you can have. 

    I have a wonderful team at Horizon Point that I can be vulnerable and courageous with, that I can go to for help when I need it, can share ideas and concerns with without fear of repercussion, and that I can vent to when I’m having one of those days. And I know that they have by back, and in return, they know that I have theirs. 

    How have you as a leader shown vulnerability and courage to your team? And how have you responded to the vulnerability shown to you? 

  • Open the Door to Growth, Grit and Yourself

    Open the Door to Growth, Grit and Yourself

    A few weeks back, we introduced our series related to our theme for the year, open the door. As usual, when I have a blog post to write, the universe gives me lots of opportunity to practice. What’s on the menu for this week? Opening the door to growth, grit and yourself.

    Currently, my level of frustration due to lack of “rest” is on an 11 out of a 10 point scale. I feel like I have been around the world and back, and my soul needs a good ole sabbath. My workout this morning took every ounce of effort that I had, and I don’t feel like I have done anything well. Those are all of my personal things, but they spill over into my work. At Horizon Point we are all about work-life balance and this week I have felt anything but balanced. But…you know what? I don’t like that feeling and to know that is to have awareness and that my friends is growth. 

    What does it mean to have a growth mindset for your organization? In Jillian’s blog, Training and Developing Growth Mindset, she says that

    The Neuroleadership Institute (NLI) defines growth mindset as
    …the belief that your skills and abilities can be improved, and that ongoing development is the goal of the work you do. However, creating a growth mindset culture isn’t just about having optimistic employees, but creating a space where employees strive to learn, enjoy being challenged, and feel encouraged to develop new skills.

    I am sure that we are all too familiar with the term that nothing grows in its comfort zone. I have immense respect for a leader who creates space for each of us to stretch the limits on what we “think” we can do. That dreaded phone call we need to make? Mary Ila gives us a little nudge to take that step and when we take a step she is there to guide and encourage us along the path.

    In order to grow, there has to be a level of determination or grit. I was driving past Grit Fitness Alabama the other day and took a look at their website to find this spot on definition of grit.

    Grit-a diligent spirit; the nagging conviction that keeps pressing on when it’d be easier to give up.

    In this article from Harvard Business Review about Organizational Culture/Organizational Grit they share that it isn’t just about having a gritty leader but developing a gritty team. The two traits that are suggested to look for in selecting those individuals are passion and perseverance. As part of Who We Are as a company, Horizon Point places a heavy emphasis on passion. I would say that each team member displays an above average level of grit. For example, Lorrie on our team has faced setback after setback this year with health issues and surgeries, and guess how many times I have heard the woman complain? If you guessed zero, you would be correct in your assumption. Do you know when she was back to work? Later that day. That is my definition of perseverance.

    Would you like to gauge your level of grit? 


    Source: Organizational Culture/Organizational Grit


    Mary Ila also does a wonderful job of helping each of us within the organization lean in to who we are, and she supports us in any action we need to help us better ourselves. Before I started work for Horizon Point, I had already taken a DiSC assessment. The DiSC helps build self-awareness to understand our personal work styles. How do we create space as an organization to open the door for employees to tap into themselves? At Horizon Point, we Grow People and offer trainings to foster an environment of growth, grit and getting to know yourself.

    Want to read more about Growth and Opening the Door? Read here: 

    What is Growth Mindset?
    It is What It Is, or Is It? How to Shift from a Fixed to Growth Mindset
    Effective Delegation: Closed Doors Lead to Open Ones
    Open the Door- Literally
    Open the Door to New Perspectives
    Open the Door to Communication, Encouragement & Relationships

    For the one who stayed home, who stood by, who persevered through the darkness. Blessed are you, the one who is growing right where you are, the one who is still here. Hello to growing into yourself in the middle of your regular week. Hello to the rhythm of your right-now, everyday life, the one you keep showing up for. The one that continues without a spotlight or a toast. The one that hasn’t much changed.

    Source: The Quiet Collection by Emily P Freeman

  •  Open the Door to New Perspectives

     Open the Door to New Perspectives

    The President of ATD Birmingham (and my friend) recently shared insights on The Leadership Pipeline with a room full of talent development professionals. I’m sure he said many, many great things, but the one thing I remember (and have talked about nonstop since then) was the idea that the first rung on the ladder of leadership is the hardest to climb. 

    The first time you shift from being an individual contributor to being a manager is like putting on a pair of glasses that no longer work. We know an upward move in our careers means upgraded responsibilities, but we don’t usually also upgrade our gear (glasses). So, even though we’re doing a new job, we still see our old job. 

    This got me thinking about other ways this metaphor applies to life. For example, if we are supposed to be brainstorming, or coming up with creative solutions, but we’re wearing the wrong glasses, we won’t even be able to see the new possibilities.

    We talked earlier this year about armored leadership versus daring leadership, and I think the same concepts apply here. Being a knower and being right is a totally different mindset (pair of glasses) from being a learner and getting it right.

    I think what I’m trying to say is it’s not so straightforward to shift from being a doer to being a learner, or getting stuff done to developing new ideas for how to do it. With our open the door theme this year, what I’m most excited about is opening the door to curiosity. Opening the door to new ways of working. Opening the door to different perspectives. Trying on new glasses. 

    Just last week, I talked with a group of HR professionals who are studying for the SHRM-CP exam. Our topic was learning and development in the context of an HR functional area. We spent a good amount of time defining a learning organization. Here’s a good overview via LinkedIn Newsletters written by Roopak Jain:

    According to Peter Senge, the five characteristics of a learning organization are:

    • Systems thinking: The ability to see the system as a whole
    • Personal mastery: A commitment to continuous learning
    • Mental models: The ability to challenge common assumptions held by individuals and organizations
    • Shared vision: A common vision that is committed to and shared by everyone in the organization
    • Team learning: The drive to continue the process of enabling the capabilities to deliver results as a team

    Source: The Learning Organization – An Agile Perspective

    Individuals, organizations, and communities can all benefit from getting new glasses. Or inviting someone to the table with a different lens. If we only see things the way we’ve always seen things, how will we know what’s possible? 

    This ties in with all DEI initiatives, because we do have a history of lack of representation at the highest levels of decision-making and influence. If we study who has been represented in Fortune 500 CEOs, U.S. presidents, down to state governors,  mayors, school board superintendents, small business owners, etc., we see how communities without diverse representation are less likely to thrive. At the core of many civic and business issues is a lack of perspective. It’s a great, big, complicated, beautiful, terrible, amazing world, and we all experience it differently.

    At Horizon Point, we try every day to keep the door open to perspectives or experiences that are different from our own. We challenge our clients to do the same. We ask questions. We remain curious about the world around us and the lives and needs of our neighbors. We volunteer and support community organizations that are trying to improve where we live, where we work, and where we play.

    If your door is already open to curiosity and new perspectives, how are you bringing others with you?

    If you are realizing that you need to take the step and open the door, there’s no better time like the present. If you’re not sure where to get started, take a look at What We Do, and maybe we can help.

  • Open the Door. Literally.

    Open the Door. Literally.

    It is 5:34 in the morning, and I am opening my front door to welcome a 17-year-old from Costa Rica.  She’s seen her parents and brother off at the airport to return home, but she is staying. She will be living with us for almost three months.  

    We first met her when she was a sweet seven-year-old who spoke better English than I will ever speak Spanish. Over the course of ten years, we’ve grown to love her family and the prison ministry work they do in Costa Rica. On our trip to Costa Rica last summer to visit, she mentioned she was interested in studying psychology, and I told her she was welcome to come stay with us and see some of our work at HPC before starting college in the Fall.  

    When I share with others our plans to have her live with us, I typically get one of two very different responses.  One: “That’s great!”  or Two:  “Why would you do that?”  The gut response most likely speaks to the person’s level of openness to experience or some other personality trait.  And I appreciate the candidness. 

    And if I’m honest, I feel both of these responses all at once as I literally open the door to my home-This is going to be great! Right along with, What the heck are we doing? All before the sun even comes up. 

    I think she feels the same things too. All at once. 

    And I think such is the way of opening the door to anything worth doing.  Worth learning from.  Opening the door takes effort.  There will be good and bad.  Mistakes and joys.  Excitement and exhaustion. All at once. 

    As we chose “Open the Door” as our 2024 theme at Horizon Point, we were trying to point to just this. The duality of so many things.  Each one of us will spend the next month writing a blog about what this theme means personally.  But I think we all agree opening the door is the way to let light in. And we are all about some light at HPC.  It is who we are and who we strive to be. 

    So today for me, opening the door literally means opening the door.  No metaphor, no hypothetical gesture.  Plan action. 

    And what a pretty morning it was, as the sky opened to light a few minutes after the door was opened. 

    Who or what do you need to open the door to today?