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…).

  • Innovate or Die? And the Best Places to Work

    Innovate or Die? And the Best Places to Work

    Innovation is a buzzword in business now.  In a fast-paced world where change and adapting is necessary in order to survive in business, innovation seems to be what all people want to point to that keeps companies alive.  “Innovate or die” we hear.   But is it worth all the hype?

    Despite the fact that I often hate cliché words or phrases (don’t ask me about what I think about the word “synergy”, for example), I’m on the innovation bandwagon. I believe in today’s business world it truly is what separates the winners from the losers.   And you can see why in the way that the Business Dictionary defines innovation as “The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay”.  This view of innovation connects it to why it separates the winners from the losers-  it’s the process by which value is created.

    But we often speak of innovation in terms of products or services. While very important, my focus, however, is on how people or human resources/capital innovation takes shape in the workplace and how it contributes that value that translates into dollars and cents.   Interestingly enough, many of the most innovative companies are also labeled as best places to work.   This is no coincidence.

    We are now at Horizon Point self-proclaiming ourselves as “Workplace Innovators” (you can see more on this at our newly designed website),  helping companies and communities hire, grow and lead in an “outside of the box” (there I go again with another cliché) way.  Which happens to help us lead them to be award-winning companies recognized for their people practices.

    After spending a few months delving into the research on innovation specifically from a human resources lens, and talking to company leaders who drive the best workplaces, I will be spending the next few weeks covering what creates innovative workplaces.  These areas will include:

    1. You can hire for fit AND diversity- How the most innovative companies hire
    2. The name of the game is FREEDOM- How innovative companies motivate and retain the best
    3. Rules to preserve freedom and culture- How innovative companies go about rule-making.
    4. Does size matter? How innovation and entrepreneurship grow in all sizes.
    5. What does a HR leader at an innovative company look like?
    6. You can’t innovate without your house in order- Capital Resources, you gotta have them
    7. A Final Word on How to Create an Innovative Organization: Do you believe are people fundamentally good?

    In each post, I’ll make a case of why each thing is vital to an innovative workplace and then give suggestions or a checklist on how to examine your organization against this standard and make revisions or changes to adapt your organization towards these standards for innovation.

    If you’re interested in diving into the details I looked at to draw these conclusions, there will be a number of articles and books linked in the posts. Overall though, check out these must reads that are grounded in research and/or first-hand experience from innovation thought-leaders:

    1. The Innovator’s Dilemma (and many of its footnote references)
    2. The Lean Start-Up
    3. Steve Jobs
    4. Work Rules! (and many of its footnote references)
    5. Drive
    6. Entreleadership
    7. Great By Choice
    8. And one cool tool I discovered in the midst of all this research is http://buzzsumo.com/. It is a content analyzer that shows you, by entering keywords, the top posts by social shares and the top influencers.  Make sure you check these for quality and validity though if you are going to use them; just because it’s shared the most doesn’t mean it’s the best.

    We hope you find our couple of months of hiatus from blog posting valuable as you read more about what we’ve discovered as we intensely researched the topic of innovation in the workplace.

    What do you think makes a workplace innovative or a best place to work?

  • Talent Management Strategy Lessons Learned from T-ball

    Talent Management Strategy Lessons Learned from T-ball

    Guest Blogger: Drew Ward, husband of Horizon Point’s Mary Ila Ward

    If you have ever had a son or daughter play tee ball there is only one word that can describe it…chaos.  After being asked if I would coach tee ball this year my first thought was, “Lord, please give me the patience that I need to help teach the kids the game of baseball.”  My second thought was, “How can we go from chaos to controlled chaos with 11 five and six year olds running around?” Little did I know that a couple of weeks into the season I would be utilizing many of the management skills that I use on a day to day basis.

    One of my favorite things in my day to day work is strategic planning.  I enjoy coming up with a strategy, putting that strategy into play, and then seeing the results of hard work.  Three games into my inaugural season as a tee ball coach we had a record of zero wins, two loses, and one tie.   You could say that I had officially received my tee ball education.  At that point, I quickly realized that it wasn’t a lack of talent or that the kids weren’t trying hard enough, but that I as a coach wasn’t doing what I needed to do to give the team the best chance to be successful.  The first time that I mentioned this to my wife she looked at me with a puzzled looked and said, “It’s tee ball!”

    In our league, we can have a maximum of nine batters per inning and we play a total of four innings.  An inning ends by making three outs or the fielder running and tagging home plate after the ninth batter of the inning.  A few games in, I quickly learned the odds favored getting nine batters to the plate each inning and that an average inning consisted of 6 runs scored.  If you could score 7 or more runs in an inning, or if you could hold a team to 5 runs or less in an inning, the advantage quickly swung your way.

    Our goal quickly became scoring 7 runs in an inning and finding a way to strategically place our batting order to make that happen.  It didn’t take me long to learn the strengths and weaknesses of our kids.  At this young age all kids are in different stages of development, and we have some that can hit the ball to the fence and others that we are lucky if they can hit it past the pitcher.  We have some that can really run and others that we could clock with a sun dial.  I quickly begin to strategize ways that we could turn our weaknesses into strengths and reach our goal of 7 runs per inning.

    We quickly began constructing our lineup with the assumption that we would get nine batters per inning and therefore our stronger hitters were positioned in the lineup so that they became the last batters of the inning.  If one of my fastest players was the leadoff hitter, then I intentionally put one of my weakest hitters three spots later in the fourth hole because the percentages suggest that the fourth batter of the inning is going to come up to the plate with the bases loaded.  I know that 90% of the time this particular batter in the fourth hole is going to hit it back to the pitcher, and 99% of the time with the bases loaded the others teams coach is going to tell his pitcher if it comes to him to try to run and tag home for the force out.  This plays right into what I want him to do since one of my fastest players is on third base who I know that 99% of the time is going to beat that pitcher to home plate and safely score.  We have now taken one of our weakest hitters and turned them into a strength player in our lineup.

    If we have a hitter that pulls the ball to the third baseman no matter how we line them up, then they will always bat behind our player that more times than not gets an extra base hit so that we eliminate the force play at third base that is an easy out for teams to make.  If we have a slow runner then he will be positioned in the lineup to be on third base when we have a stronger hitter at the plate therefore allowing him more time to run home safely.  By strategically placing our batters in a particular order we have managed to turn weaknesses into strengths and over our last five games have reached our goal of averaging seven runs per inning which has also lead to five straight victories. And let’s face it, winning is pretty fun if done in the right way, and even five and six year olds know this.  It’s especially fun when each kid knows that they contributed to the win.  

     

    How is this any different than what many of us do every day in our business life?  Many of us are tasked with putting our employees in a position to succeed so that ultimately the business achieves victory.  Little did I know that this would also come in handy on the tee ball field.

  • How Neuroscience Is and Will Revolutionize HR

    How Neuroscience Is and Will Revolutionize HR

     

    In December of 2014, my then four-year-old son started having seizures. After three of them occurred in a short period of time, we went to see a pediatric neurologist who first did an electroencephalogram (EEG) to begin to identify the cause of the seizures so we could determine a course of treatment.

    Utilizing this technology as well as other techniques, she put our son on a medicine that has controlled his seizures. He hasn’t had one in over a year, and we are thankful for the doctors, the scientific discoveries and the technology that made this a reality.

    Neuroscience has long been connected to understanding neurological disorders like seizures. It is also frequently used for explaining behavior, specifically behaviors tied to clinical diagnosis. However, neuroscience is beginning to infiltrate the workplace giving us the ability to use brain science for talent assessment. The EEG used to understand my son’s seizures is now being utilized to understand a variety of talent management questions, as Dario Nardi points on in his article “Your Brain at Work” in HR Magazine.

    As we move forward into the future of behavioral assessment in the workplace, I believe neurological assessment will begin to gain ground to complement, and maybe even take the place of what is most commonly used now- the self-report assessment.

    Why? Well, because it’s more honest. Self-reports are just that- self-reported. Monitoring brain activity points to a more objective approach to understand who we are and why we behave the way we do. Because of this, brain based assessments can help:

    • Create self- awareness in employees to aid in the understanding of who we are (personality) and why we behave the way we do.
    • Improve team building & talent placement by helping individuals and companies understand how to better work together.  This will help companies answer the question, is there enough cognitive diversity on our team?
    • Build better training programs through customized learning. Neuroscience can help us understand how individuals learn best and cater training and development to personalized needs.

    Whereas brain science and the technology related to it is exciting to see in the talent assessment industry for the same reasons it is valuable in medicine- it aids in diagnosis which aids in better decision making- my family’s example also points to the need for caution in utilizing the technology.

    When we went back last month with our son for his yearly EEG, the results still showed a “discharge”, as the doctor referred to it, in the left hemisphere of his brain. She explained to us that it was happening very infrequently, but because it was still present, there is a likelihood that if he were taken off the medicine, the seizures would begin to reoccur. Knowing that this area of the brain is tied to language, I asked her if we should be concerned about any issues in his language development. She said no. Given the amount of frequency seen, she said, it would have to be occurring 20-30% more than it is in order for there to be concerns about his language development.

    This example points to why I’d be hesitant to utilize the technology (and you see I did not list it above) in selection because of the potential discrimination issues.  It could lead to discrimination in hiring against individuals (like my son, who does have a diagnosis of epilepsy) based on factors that are not tied to an individual’s ability to perform the essential functions of the job. I would hate for someone who isn’t as knowledgeable in the science to see “discharge” on someone like my son’s EEG and assume has language issues, when he in fact does not.   However, given a multiple-hurdles approach to assessment, EEGs could one day be a valuable selection tool as well, just as they are used as one technique among many to determine the best course of medical action.

    So for all you talent development professionals out there or those aspiring to be, take more science classes. No field, even HR, is immune to the need for a strong STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education.

    How do you see neuroscience shaping human resources? Does it excite you or scare you?

    Like this post? You may also like:

    The Psychology Behind Why People Support Certain Presidential Candidates

    and

    Use Your Brain- Both Sides

  • Being a Great Leader Is a Lot Like Being a Standout Salesperson

    Being a Great Leader Is a Lot Like Being a Standout Salesperson

    Through involvement in a community group, I had the opportunity (or drudgery, depends on how you look at it, I guess) to sit through six companies presenting their “solution” to a need. After they were all done, it was obvious which company was the best. And everyone, meaning about ten people, who had heard the presentations, agreed. When was the last time you had ten people agree on something easily? Yeah, that’s what I thought; hard to think of a time when you have, right?

    With this being said, the obvious winner knew what they were doing. But it wasn’t because the salesperson from the best company was the most dynamic or attractive. I think one company thought sending the most attractive and nicely dressed female was going to do it for them. They must have thought she was going to be able to distract us from realizing that their product was inferior… but I digress….

    We often think that winning the award for best leader also involves characteristics like charisma and attractiveness. However, what hit home for me in seeing the round robin of presentations was a clear comparison and contrast of what makes a good sales pitch versus what doesn’t. Turns out, many of these things that make a good salesperson can also be applied to cultivating a great leader:

    1. Know your audience. Who are your people and what makes them tick?  What are their pain points? Adapt your communication and style to address these things.  In other words, canned sales pitches usually aren’t that effective.
    2. To get to know people better, ask good questions to calibrate your audience.  Clarify expectations and needs.
    3. Shut up.  Ask good questions (#2) and then listen thoughtfully. Cater your responses to what you hear (back to #1).
    4. Think like a marketer. People pay attention more when you talk in the form of analogies and visuals that tell a story. Facts are needed, but they are boring.   Appeal to the heart first through storytelling to grab people’s attention and then back up what you are saying with facts to make sure the head gets it.
    5. Your facts should mostly be in the form of results achieved. I was blown away by how the best company framed their entire discussion around the key results factor the group was looking for (#1) and had multiple client examples to prove it.  Most of the others focused on the facts of how they would do what they do, not why to do it. The “what” doesn’t matter if you can’t capture the “why”.
    6. Be authentic. People can spot a phony from a mile away and they can see past the short skirts and the corporate jargon. Being authentic involves:
      • Developing a distinct personality and brand (see #4) that is true to who you are and the company you represent.
      • Telling the truth.The best company was honest upfront about the things about their systems and offerings that weren’t perfect, but provided details on how they are working to address those issues.
      • Believing wholeheartedly in what you do and wanting to tell people about it not to make a sale, but because you know you can meet a need and help.

    Are you a leader who thinks like a salesperson?

  • Why Communities Should Focus on Building Social Capital and How They Can Do It

    Why Communities Should Focus on Building Social Capital and How They Can Do It

    I drive within a 50-mile radius of my home quite often to meet with clients or potential clients. On one particular drive from one town to the next, the highway used to be lined with dozens of nursery wholesalers. Thousands upon thousands of trees, shrubs and plants used to grow along this stretch of the highway and many of the remnants of these nursery farms can still be seen.

    Why would all of these nurseries locate side by side? Wouldn’t that increase the proximity of their competition, thus decreasing their potential sales?

    This small, rural Alabama phenomenon about nurseries can also be said of Silicon Valley. While the companies in this region don’t necessarily compete for customers due to proximity- most of them have a global sales footprint- they most certainly compete for labor, as the nurseries did at one point in time as well. Wouldn’t the competition for labor (and real estate/land) in such close proximity to each other drive the prices on everything up leading to a diminished ability to remain competitive or produce as large a profit?

    Turns out, the opposite is true as The New Geography of Jobs  points out.  The proximity to the social capital of your industry leads to value and competitive advantage, not the other way around.   And it creates a snowball effect.  The more technology companies that locate in Silicon Valley, the higher likelihood that more will come because it creates a community that is desirable and attractive to similar companies and the talent who work for these types of companies.  It creates a “thick” labor market.

    While we’ve been talking a lot about individuals developing their social capital in order to grow their competitive advantage, communities can and should foster the growth of social capital as well.

    But what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do the organizations that create the jobs, thus producing the demand side of the economic equation provide the key to community growth or does the supply side, the people, create the growth?

    Most economic stimulus policies focus on driving the demand or organizational side of the equation. Tax incentives focus on getting companies to locate in a community, and these packages continue to become more and more competitive. Some research even points to the fact that the ROI of many of packages isn’t there.

    By and large, communities do not focus on stimulating the supply side of the equation through stimulus-type measures. Yes, communities work to improve their educational infrastructure and outputs to improve supply, but this doesn’t guarantee an increased supply of labor, especially in high growth or in-demand areas.

    Because of the sheer power of social capital at a community level, stimulating supply side economics should be more of a focus for communities wanting to grow.

     

    Some ideas for doing this include:

    • Pay off the debt of students in high demand skill areas in exchange for them living and working in your community. This has been done for a while in rural communities and medical fields, but we are now seeing communities do this in technical fields like engineering and IT.
    • Pay the best to come to your community and others will follow. If you want a good example of this, check out the Washington University example in The New Geography of Jobs  on page 198-199.
    • Create hubs for collaboration or co-work spaces in your community. This “turns isolated innovators into a real community, a creative ecosystem designed to maximize knowledge spillovers.”
    • Incentivize entrepreneurs to come to your community through business incubation and accelerator programs. Although different, this can play quite nicely with creating hubs for innovation and co-work spaces.

     

    Basically, all of this comes down to bribing people instead of bribing business. Because social capital is the competitive advantage driving innovation today, communities would do well to begin bribing people, not just business. Just make sure you bribe the right people- those with the skill sets and connections to drive innovation and create a multiplier effect of job creation and community growth.