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…).

  • Leaders Start with Gratitude

    Leaders Start with Gratitude

    We have a bedtime ritual with our four year old:

    1. Brush teeth
    2. Practice letters/numbers
    3. Read a book
    4. Say one thing we are thankful for from that day
    5. Prayer

    Although all of them are important for various reasons, number 4 seems to be the one that never gets left out. Sometimes we are all tired and don’t want to practice letters or numbers or read a book. Sometimes we even forget to brush our teeth (maybe that goes back to being too tired) and even pray, but regardless of where we are, what time it is, or how long of a day it has been, our 4 year old will not let anyone go to bed without us all answering the question “What are you thankful for?”

    This ritual started out one November, when giving thanks was on the brain and we had a Thanksgiving countdown calendar hung in his room where we decided to fill out a thankfulness card every day.   The concept stuck.   And although the answer to the question “What are you thankful for?” vary, we’ve seen from the lense of a pre-schooler that expressing thankfulness or gratitude is just about the best way to end a day.

    I wonder how often leaders stop and think, “What am I thankful for today?” Taking the concept a step further, how many leaders express that gratitude to others? We often find that our thankfulness list isn’t made up of things or events (although our little one does throw in a thankfulness plug to his new Paw Patrol toy or his trip to the ice cream store every once in a while), it is usually people or something a person did.

    As a personal leadership habit, I’d like to challenge us all to do two simple things everyday:

    1. Identify one thing/person/event you are thankful for
    2. If a person is tied to what you are thankful for, tell them that day that you are grateful for them and why and consider how you might uniquely express your gratitude based on what holds value to them.

    Just like any good behavior, if we do it often enough to make it a habit, it ends up rubbing off on others. You can’t make members of your team or those you lead establish an attitude of gratitude, but you can do it yourself. And when you establish this personal leadership habit, I’d venture to guess others around you will start doing it too.

    Our four year old won’t let my husband and I go to bed without ending the day by saying what we’re thankful for and it is all because he won’t let himself go to bed either without expressing his gratitude too.

    What are you thankful for today?

  • Leadership lessons from a 4 year old

    Leadership lessons from a 4 year old

    A friend shared with me the struggles she is having with her pre-schooler’s behavior. Been there, done that. The good thing is, there always seems to be a leadership lesson in the raising of children. In fact, I’ve even written about the leadership lessons learned from our then two year old’s biting bent.

    My friend said she is dealing with some pretty intense temper tantrums, talking back, lashing out, and yes, she even is throwing things.

    After asking my friend about why the issues seem to be arising, and they seem to be happening at school more and more often, I came to the conclusion that the child may just be plain bored. She’s bright, very bright in fact, and I think ahead of her peers in her class. She’s getting into mischief because mischief isn’t boring. It gives her something to do, and in fact, sometimes mischief can be more of a stimulation and challenge than many other things, even if results in negative attention. She is still getting some attention at least.

    As I was thinking through how we should and could mold our behavior to help our misbehaving kids, I read an excerpt from The Leadership Challenge that sparked my attention:

    “Consider what people report when we ask them to think about the worst leader they have ever worked for and then to write down a number representing the percentage of their talents that this leader utilized. Our research results (displayed in Figure 12.1 ) show that people report that their worst leaders generally use only about a third of their available energy and talents. Those few who reported a higher percentage than the average, when referring to their worst leader, clearly noted and voiced their resentment about how they had to do so much more than was really necessary because of their boss’s ineptitude.

    This percentage is in sharp contrast to what people report when they think about their most admired leader. For these folks, the bottom of the range is typically higher than the top of the range for the former group. Many people indicate over 100 percent, and the average is around 95 percent. Bottom line: the best leaders elicit nearly three times the amount of energy, drive, commitment, and productivity from their constituents compared to their counterparts at the other end of the spectrum.”

    When we engage others- kids and adults- in something that excites them and occupies their time in a way that is meaningful and productive, we get better results. Challenge is a good thing.

    Parenting is hard, and leadership is too. I in no way want to imply that the best way to lead adults is to treat them like children, but I am saying the best way to lead all people is through some basic principles of humans, regardless of the age.

    Want to keep bad behavior from entering your workplace? You can start with making sure that challenge is present which will produce an environment where boredom has no place to enter. Engage people in challenging work and a lot will take care of itself.

     

    If you liked this post, you may also like:

    Are you employees on the border of boredom and anxiety?

    Bored as a gourd, not an ideal employment state

  • Be Aware, Be Very Aware: Why “Healthy Paranoia” is Killing HR

    Be Aware, Be Very Aware: Why “Healthy Paranoia” is Killing HR

    As a part of a subcontract I work on, I just sat through a 30 minute plus online compliance training video. If you want to leave yourself paralyzed to make business decisions, I’ll send you the clip. It will leave you questioning the world in general.

    I know we live in a world of terrorists, computer hackers and people who want to do harm, but the video left me thinking that their approach to business was to scare the living daylight out of every employee thinking that this would help prevent mishaps, lawsuits and wrong actions.

    Although I can appreciate what I’m sure are good intentions behind why the company sees this as a need (I bet they have born the brunt of a lawsuit or two) I question whether or not it is going to make them any safer as an organization from the ills it is trying to combat. And, is having every employee, contractor, vendor, supplier and subcontractor (basically everyone the company does business with) spend over half an hour doing this the best use of thousands of people’s time? Will it make the company more profitable? Will it make anyone better? And will watching it keep the people who want to do harm from doing it? Doubtful.

    When we paint a picture that everyone should “be very, very aware” and have a sense of “paranoia” (these are specific terms from the video about conducting day-to-day business like sending emails) we leave people paralyzed to make decisions, which does not make individuals or organizations better. It leave them scared, or wanting to scream.

    Instead, why don’t we ask employees to ask themselves two questions before making decisions or acting:

    1. Is doing this/not doing this going to advance my company and myself in an ethical manner?
    2. If I do this/don’t do this, what is the worst that could happen?

    Or better yet, spend half an hour teaching them about values of your organization and treat them like adults who are capable of living out those values through their actions. Explain the big picture why instead of giving a detailed list of don’ts.

    What other questions do you think we need to ask ourselves that keeps us from needing compliance videos that scare and detract?

  • Realistic Job Previews

    Realistic Job Previews

    3 Reasons to Make Realistic Job Previews a Part of Your Hiring Process

    What’s the best way to determine if a person is right for the job? What’s the best way for a job candidate to know they are accepting the right job? Traditional methods for employers tell us to screen resumes, interview candidates and make a decision. In the case of hiring recent college grads, traditional wisdom tells us to look at their G.P.A. and their major to predict success. That’s the way most companies do it; it must work.

    For job seekers, traditional wisdom tells us to take any job (a still recovering economy tells us this), and if you have multiple offers, pick the one that pays the most.   And make sure you strive for a 4.0 if you are in college and want job prospects.

    But data tells us that the traditional methods aren’t producing results for the employer or the employee. Recent employee engagement statistics indicate only 13% of the worldwide workforce is engaged at work and data shows G.P.A. and major don’t predict job performance. Just ask Google.

    Is there better way to hire where both employer and potential employee benefit?

    Yes. Do a Realistic Job Preview

     

    Why Do A Realistic Job Preview or Request One as Candidate

    Although realistic job previews may not be, well realistic, for all industries and jobs, they are extremely helpful to both employer and potential employee because:

    1. They tell you if the candidate can do the job/if you’ll like the job.   Quite simply, it demonstrates whether or not the candidate can perform the tasks for the job and if you are the job seeker, it helps determine if you would actually like doing the tasks of the job.
    2. They tell you if the candidate has the “soft” skills to succeed/ if your potential boss is someone you would want to work for. Things like time management, communication, problem solving, etc. are hard to measure in an interview even though behavioral based interviewing is the best way to do so. Giving assignments, setting deadlines and leaving people to do the work gives a true picture of these soft skills. Realistic job previews also help you as the candidate understand how your potential boss communicates and if you would like to work with their style of leadership and personality.
    3. They tell you if there is “fit”.   We all have different values and priorities.   Employees are more engaged on the job and therefore more successful when the values and priorities of the organization align with personal values.  These aren’t right or wrong values, they are just preferences and personalities that people (and organizations) have. The better we are at matching individual values to organizational values, the better match we create which leads to higher job satisfaction, engagement, productivity and profitability.
  • Why interviews aren’t the best way to hire right

    Why interviews aren’t the best way to hire right

    We’ve had two young men as career coaching clients lately. Although pursuing different types of opportunities, they are both in their early to mid-twenties and are having a hard time finding a job in their respective fields- both of which, by the way, are in demand.   Both have been getting called for interviews, but something seems to fail in the interview every time and they haven’t been offered jobs.

    So, we’ve been working with them to help improve their interviewing skills. Both of these guys are technically minded. They are smart, good, hardworking people. But they are introverts. Situations like interviews are not their strong suit. In reviewing the little bit of feedback they have been given by those who have interviewed them, they get comments like “You need to be more animated.” Or “You need to be more excited and passionate.”

    I’m all for finding people who are passionate about the field they are pursuing, but I sometimes want to say to employers, come on, you are hiring an engineer, not a sales person.   Do they really need to be Mr. Personality or do they need to be technically competent and, yes, personable enough to get along with others, but couldn’t being introverted actually be something that is desirable for a role like an engineer?

    While we need to help people become better at conveying who they are and why they would be a valuable asset to an organization, I think we rely on interviews entirely too much when making hiring decisions. Yes, they are necessary, but I think we establish a certain set of criteria for interviewing that seems to always judge people on their gregariousness or lack thereof and of course a person’s physical appearance instead of what is actually needed for success in a role.

    In light of this, we are going to look at some innovative ways and tools to make screening better in order to hire right:

    1. Implement a pre-screening assessment that assesses people for organizational fit. You automatically screen out those that would not fit with the organization’s values and culture, because as we wrote about previously organizational fit is more important than job fit. There is more here on how to select the right screening assessment.

     

    2. Implement a mechanism to see if the person can actually perform the job like a skills-based assessment, in-basket exercises, assessment center techniques or a realistic job preview (more on this next week). Many of these tools also involve some type of interaction with organizational stakeholders that gives you an idea of how well they will work with their potential team. A cool company that is combining many of these tools is Shaker Consulting Group and it’s virtual job tryout.

     

    3. Consider if competition based recruiting could be a viable option for your organization or certain types of positions within your organization.

    More here on this new trend:

    Contest Recruiting

    Competition Based Hiring Whitepaper

     

    4. Improve your interviewing tactics.

    Some innovative tools for this: Hireology and Hirevue

     

    Some other thoughts on improving your hiring process: Hire Slow

    What have you found to be the best hiring practice?