Why you should schedule a “Think Week” to begin 2016

I was away at a SHRM Leadership Conference in DC the week before the Thanksgiving week. Although I miss my husband and my kids fiercely when I’m away, man I can get stuff- tasks, thinking and planning- done when I am free of the distractions from home and the office through plane rides and quiet hotel rooms. All while there for two and a half days that included doing what I was here for- attending the conference- I’ve still managed to: This may seem trivial, but what piles up in my inbox is stuff I want to read to help

The Best Books of 2015

We, at Horizon Point, love a good book or two. Here are our recommendations for you to consider for your 2016 reading list and/or ideas as gifts to give this holiday season: Mary Ila’s recommendations: For help shaping your New Year’s resolution: Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith. Goldsmith, one of the best executive coaches in the world, helps you understand that most of self-improvement isn’t necessarily about starting something, it is about stopping something. He gives a simple method for analyzing and measuring our daily behavior in order to see positive habits form which lead to results.We use this process in our leadership

A personal account of performance management that works… and doesn’t

My take on performance management is quite different than it was 10 years ago. I once worked for a company that basically rewarded all employees for their continued employment, and performance was not really taken into consideration when we all received a 5% raise. Regardless of how fabulous of a job I was doing or how not-so-fabulous my co-worker in the cubicle over was doing, we both received the same reward. This was not motivating me to be a better employee nor was it motivating for my mediocre colleague. Fast forward well over a decade. Not only has the world

Basic Feedback/Feedforward Stuff

One of the best ways to improve and sustain great performance at work is to ask for feedback and to give it, freely, continuously and in the spirit of driving better performance. Here are some posts to help you out with this quest: 6 Steps for Maximizing Feedback Through Feedforward Drop Lots of FYIs to Communicate Effectively Goal Setting – Feedback 3 Steps for Driving Employee Engagement through Personalization

How to Handle Mental Health Issues in the Workplace

I had a reader send me a suggestion for a blog post a little over a month ago. It said: “With the terrible shooting in VA yesterday, maybe an article on how HR can better handle identifying, coaching, counseling & later termination of disgruntled employees if coaching is not effective. I am sure HR departments are concerned about their own employees. Just thoughts.” With all our content written for the month, I told him I’d add it to the roster even though this shooting would be old news. The sad thing, though, is that I silently thought there will be