Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Beyond Work

Beyond Work is our line of resources for people and community leaders looking for something new and innovative outside, be it a new job, career change, or personal development outside of work.

Making Passion a Priority in Work
I recently wrote a blog about “People First” and I how I feel we do that well at HPC. You can check it out here: People First.

Of course, as with anything, there is always room for improvement. One company value that I personally would like to improve upon is “Passion”.

Passion. We believe passion should be a key driver in the workplace. Therefore, we demonstrate passion in the work we do, hire individuals who are passionate about the work our organization engages in, and strive to help our clients discover, develop and maximize their passion through career and talent development processes. In order to help drive passionate decisions, we foster a value for creating self-awareness, developing personal and professional mission statements as well as values that govern mission.

Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague who shared she had experienced a form of burn-out which is always a result of a catalyst. As our conversation continued, we discussed getting organized in our home offices and going through recredentialing processes and the pains that go along with such. Her epiphany on how “just getting organized” made a difference in her outlook completely resonated with me.

As I’ve shared before, I enjoy my work and the work we do at Horizon Point. However, sometimes, the day-to-day rush of work mixed with life can lead us to forget why we do it all in the first place. So, I have thought through some steps to help when we feel like we are “in a rut” and are forgetting what why we do what we do (our passion):
1. Organize one file, process or space in your office each week. Within a couple of months, you will be so glad you did!
2. Keep your mission statement in a place where you can see it daily. Mine is in my office right above my desk. Don’t have a personal mission statement? Check out my blog about developing one here: Developing a Personal Mission Statement to Prevent Stress & Burnout.
3. Schedule downtime every week. At least one day per week, I try my best to not schedule any appointments or calls. This a great way to build in catch-up time.
4. Set goals, work towards those goals, and have an accountability partner to help you. Check out The Point Blog for goal setting tips.
5. Make continuous learning a priority. Allowing yourself time to learn and grow can often times feel like a break from the rat race. Attending a short conference can do the trick, and if you happen to schedule one close to the beach, you get a mini-vacation – BONUS!
Is passion a key driver in your workplace? If not, contact us at Horizon Point. We would love to help!
May 8, 2018
Top 10 Quotes on Authentic Leadership

As we continue to explore authenticity, I think it’s important to focus on how to actually be an authentic leader. One of the best ways to learn is to pay close attention to the authentic leaders you know in real life and those who are doing the work publicly and sharing their experiences. We always look for research and subject matter experts to inform our work, so here are ten authentic leadership quotes we often reference:

10) “Authentic Leaders are not afraid to show emotion and vulnerability as they share in the challenges with their team. Developing a solid foundation of trust with open and honest communication is critical to authentic leadership.” – Farshad Asl, The “No Excuses” Mindset: A Life of Purpose, Passion, and Clarity

9) “Authentic leadership is the full expression of “me” for the benefit of “we”.” – Henna Inam, Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead

8) “Authentic leadership is revealed in the alignment of what you think, what you say, and what you do.” –Michael Holland, Founder & President, Bishop House

7) “Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet — thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing — consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.” – Lance Secretan, The Secretan Center, Inc.

6) “Authenticity and knowing who you are is fundamental to being an effective and long-standing leader.” -Ann Fudge

5) “Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.” – Stephen Covey

4) “It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.” –Zig Ziglar

3) “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” – Andy Stanley

2) “A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

1) “A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes.” – John C. Maxwell

To read more about Authentic Leadership, visit my blog post Authenticity and Authentic Leadership.

May 3, 2018
8 Ways to Display a People First Mindset
We’ve been working on training to help people implement tactical ways to demonstrate a “People First” or relationship-driven mindset. It started out as something to meet a need for a retail client and has turned into a professional development topic for an entirely different industry.

In a world where every business is trying to figure out a way to distinguish themselves and create a competitive advantage, treating people like people is a good a place as any to start.

To do this, the critical piece is to identify and meet needs.

To create an environment where this can be done:
1. Make eye contact.
2. Smile. Making eye contact and smiling at someone invites them to engage with you. This is step one in opening the door to identify and meet a need.
3. Open-ended questions. Ask questions that don’t solicit a natural “yes” or “no” response. For example, not “Can I help you?” but “What can I help you with today?”
4. Let people take ownership. In the case of a retail business, one of the distinguishing advantages to buying in a brick and mortar store instead of online is that a person can see and touch the actual product. Let people take ownership of the product. Give it to them and let them hold it (but only if you know it meets their need, not to force it on them). In a situation where there isn’t a product to take ownership of, let people take ownership of their experience so they can guide and mold the experience to meet their need.
5. Learn and say/repeat name. We aren’t naturally very good at remembering people’s names because when we meet people for the first time and ask them their name, we are subconsciously thinking about the next thing we want to say, not focusing on remembering their name. Being conscious of listening to and recalling someone’s name can be a game changer because most people don’t do it. When you address a person during your second interaction with them by using their name, they remember it because it is often novel for that to occur. They are more likely, then, to engage with you to express their need(s).
6. Break the rules. There are policies everywhere you turn. When you break the rules to be able to meet a need, people remember it. As long as you aren’t putting more people at a disadvantage (see number seven below) by breaking the rule for one, break the rule if it meets someone’s need.
7. Stand your ground with respect. Sometimes putting people first means politely but forcefully correcting bad behavior. This could include “firing” some customers, employees, etc. When we cater to the vocal and negative minority, we aren’t putting people first. We’re being a coward.
8. And finally, DWYSYWD. Read more about that here.
How do you put people first?
May 1, 2018
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

April 26, 2018
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?
April 24, 2018