We’re talking about measuring leadership here at Horizon Point this month. In an increasingly prove-it-to-me through data world, one of the things that we don’t do a good job of measuring, and I wonder if we ever really will, is leadership. It’s so complex. I think part of the reason we have trouble measuring it is because we have trouble defining it. What is leadership? What is great leadership? Most people will tell you that leadership is some form of influence. It’s getting work done through others. True, but what do we want to accomplish because leadership is at work?
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
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
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
Remember the wind chime, the umbrella, the party, snacks and bonus check in our last post? Well during the corporate foray of employee rewards and recognition efforts, everyone in the department, regardless of their level of involvement in the project, got the wind chime and the umbrella and the party and the snacks and, yes, the bonus check. In addition to the one size fits all approach whether earned or not, although an umbrella at some point is going to come in handy, and the wind chimes do actually still hang in my backyard almost ten years later, no one