Horizon Point Consulting

Category: General

Horizon Point writes about dozens of leadership, career, workplace, and workforce topics. Sometimes we write whatever we want. Read this category for general blogs from the HPC team.

  • I was about to go on a rant… but then there was one…

    Over the last few weeks, I’ve been talking about what employers want in employees. (The 4 Cs of conscientiousness, creativity, communication, collaboration).

    After today, I feel like the things I talked about led me to jump to point C when I should have started at point A.   Why should I be talking about these 4 Cs when most people don’t even do the basics like showing up?

    You see, I teach a Work Skills class at the local community college.  It’s a 1 hour credit course designed to help students with resume writing, interviewing, workplace topics, etc.  Basically, it’s the tactical stuff of getting a job.

    Although it is not a required component of the course, students are allowed the opportunity to sign up for a mock interview to practice.  They come to my office outside of class time, and it gives them the opportunity to actually apply what we discuss in class about interviewing.

    6 signed up for a mock interview today.

    2 called and canceled.  (And I will give them credit, at least they called and one had a legitimate reason or not being able to be there.)

    3 didn’t show.

    1 showed.

    Yep, that’s 1 for 6 or about 17%.

    At 2:30 when the first 3 had either not shown or canceled, I was about to go on a rant, but then there was one….

    The one student that showed up

    -Arrived 15 minutes early

    -Was dressed appropriately

    -Had a good handshake

    -Answered my mock questions by providing specific examples

    -Was humble in his approach

    -Thanked me for my time

    I told him he was the only one that had shown up so far, and I told him how much I appreciated his effort.  He in turn, said that he just really appreciated the opportunity.

    He will get a job, and I will be doing everything I can to help him get one. There are good people out there.   Thank you, for being the one that does restore my hope in this next generation and in humanity.  This may seem a little dramatic of me to say, but as I have constantly gone to bat in defending my generation against all those people who say we are no good, I was about to agree.  1 out of 6 showed?

    What do employers want?  People that see an opportunity, are thankful for it, and take advantage of it.  Just show up, regardless of whether or not you’ve cultivated the Cs, you’ll be better than 83% of the population I dealt with today, which should lead to good job prospects.

    Want more on the game of just showing up? You may like these other posts:

    Usefuleness

    Planned Happenstance

  • Leadership Lessons from Moses

    Our church is doing 90 days with the Bible challenge.  This is where the congregation is engaged in reading the entire Bible over the summer.   I’ve struggled my way through Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy but found that reading the entire account of Moses through in a few days has revealed several leadership lessons from his life that I never noticed.

    Lesson 1:  Get a wingman.    Aaron was Moses’.  A wingman is someone who complements you so that two end up being better than one.  Moses had a stuttering problem and Aaron was a good speaker. They worked together to accomplish many things. (Exodus 1-15)

    Lesson 2: Delegate; don’t go it alone. Moses found himself overwhelmed.   He gave leadership responsibility to others to deal with the day-to-day people issues Numbers 11) used people to scout out Canaan (Numbers 13), and gave people meaningful work to do (Numbers 3).

    Lesson 3: Leadership isn’t easy.  People are prone to complain and forget how they have been blessed (Numbers 11, 20), but having someone to vent to can help with this.   God was this for Moses and should be for us all.

    Lesson 4: Humility makes leaders more effective.  Moses was a “quietly humble man, more so than anyone living on earth.” (Numbers 12)

    Lesson 5:  Advocate for your people.  Even though the Israelites were grumbling about not having any meat, Moses advocated for his people by asking God to provide meat for them, and He did (Numbers 11).  He also asked God to forgive them (Numbers 14).

    Lesson 6:  Even leaders make mistakes and are human.  Moses’ temper was “white hot” (Numbers 16) and he lost his trust in God (Numbers 20, Deuteronomy 32), which cost him the opportunity to lead his people into the Promised Land.  It is how we handle these flaws and their consequences that matter.  Its never stated that Moses complained about the consequence of his lack of trust, and he controlled his temper.

    Lesson 7:  Have a protégé. Leaders make more leaders.Moses’ was Joshua (Deuteronomy 31, 34).  Leaders should always be training and teaching others and should entrust others with important tasks.  Joshua was entrusted with leading the Israelites into the Promised Land,

    Moses sought God’s guidance in all that he did, which led to many of the lessons learned through him.

    What Biblical or historical characters have you gleaned leadership insight from?

  • Want to get job? Foster Collaboration

    The First 2 Cs that all employers want-conscientiousness and creativity are about individual contributions.  However, the second two, one which we have already discussed, communication and our final C, collaboration focus on how we interact with other people.   I would argue the final two are more important. They, also, help people be more successful at the first two, creating even greater gains in your marketability as an employee.

    Consider a recent article, by George Anders that stated that empathy would be the number one sought after skill in the workplace is 2020.    Empathy, or the ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes, is the foundation of working with others collaboratively.

     

    An Example

    Where I worked as a recruiter at one time, computer programmers acted as a service department so to speak to other departments in the company that needed their help.   So, their primary job, beyond programming was interacting with people in various departments to determine their need, find a solution and produce that solution.   Communication was key and their ability to collaborate by being empathic to the other person’s needs and who often did not speak their (computer) “language” was critical to their success on the job.  And it was hard to find.   The collaborative mindset was harder to find that the programming skills.   We could replace someone who could program, it was much harder to replace someone who could work well with others.

     

    How to Foster Collaboration

    Dale Carnegie offers much better advice to foster positive interactions with other than I could every come up with.   His book,How to Win Friends and Influence People lists several ways to improve our ability to work with others.  These are my favorites:

    •  “Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.”
    •   “Give honest and sincere appreciation.”
    •  “Become genuinely interested in others.”
    •   “Smile”
    •   Learn and use people’s names.  To that person their name is “the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
    •   Listen
    •   Make people feel important
    •  Avoid arguing
    • Admit when you are wrong and apologize

    What have you done to foster or practice collaboration in your home, your school or your workplace?

     

    Want more?  This post on Working Girl gives a good example of what collaboration looks like.

  • Why I Hate Employee Handbooks

    Why I Hate Employee Handbooks

    I don’t do employee handbooks.  Wait, I made an exception for a wonderful client and just finished up an employee handbook a few weeks ago.   But I don’t do employee handbooks, or maybe the better thing to say is, I don’t like them.  Here’s why:

    • Most of the content in them these days implies that you can’t trust your employees.
    • Most of the content in them these days implies that you think your employees don’t remember the lessons they learned in kindergarten.
    • Most of the content in them these days is written for the exception rather than the rule.  In other words, a policy is written for the one bad performer instead of the 10 good ones.
    • Most of the content in them these days tells employees nothing about how to be star in the workplace.
    • Handbooks or policies imply that you can make a rule to regulate every bad behavior.   News flash: this is not possible.

     

    Better idea?  Make an “Orientation to Succeeding at our Company” manual.

    Want to help people be successful at your company? Make the “manual” and introduction to the company with how to succeed.

    A lot of the content in the handbook I just completed was this.  Such as, answering questions like, what benefits are offered to me as an employee?, what are the designated holidays?, etc.   It’s pretty dry, but I would take it a step further and encourage employers to make employee handbooks that look more like this one:

    Valve Employee Handbook  Don’t you just love the graphics in it?

     

    What is the value of a handbook like this? 

    You get the information out to your new employees that needs to be shared, but without all the overbearing rules.  You also, right of the bat, establish the feel of the company culture by giving someone a document like this, instead of something that looks like the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament.

    Want to read more on getting away from policies and handbooks?

    From Fistful of Talent: Minimalist HR

    From upstartHR: An open letter to HR on policies, regulating and training

     

    image source: http://blog.equinix.com/2012/02/rewriting-the-rules-for-financial-trading-infrastructure-learning-a-new-rule-book/

  • What is Your Smart Phone Teaching You about Communication?

    What is Your Smart Phone Teaching You about Communication?

    In the leadership classes I teach, I get more complaints about Generation Y’s communication skills than almost anything else in the class (other than possibly their apparent lack of motivation).  Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about the 4 Cs that are a must have to employers, and communication is one of them.

    Apparently, the generation that has, for the most part, always had a cell or smart phone in their hand, is lacking in communication skills.  We all are lacking in this area, but the smart phone is an easy scapegoat.  A prime example of the shift in communication that smart phones have caused is when I heard that at a middle school dance the boys stood one side of the room and the girls stood on the other.  They didn’t dance together or talk face-to-face, they just texted back and forth.

    As a young person, you can distinguish yourself by putting down your cell phone and actually having a real conversation with someone.

    Turn away from what your smart phone has conditioned you to do: 

    1. If you wouldn’t say it to them in person, don’t “say” it at all. Don’t text it, tweet it, Facebook it or email it.  Don’t SnapChat or Instragram a picture of it.  Also fitting with this, if you wouldn’t say it to them in person, don’t say it to someone else.
    2.  You have two ears and one mouth.  Which should be used more?  (Personal disclaimer: I struggle with this).
    3.  Spelling and grammar matter in a professional setting.   Don’t talk or write a professional email or document like you text.

    I do think, however, that the world of personal communication devices has lent some positives to communication.

    Turn toward what your smart phone has conditioned you to do:

    1.  Keep it simple.  If it’s too much to fit in a text or in a tweet, consider revising for simplicity whether in written or spoken words.  As Norman Vincent Peale said in his book The True Joy of Positive Living, “much can be said in a few words, provided those words are well chosen.”
    2.  Delay important communication if your mind is occupied elsewhere.   The one thing that you can do with a phone is chose to answer it or not. Same goes with replying to a message.    If you need to have important communication with someone and your mind is elsewhere, your emotional, or tired,  “call them back.”  Think about it before you respond. The worst communication mistakes I’ve made are when it was not the proper time to discuss something in the first place (or I fell victim to my mouth instead of using my ears).

    What is the worst communication blunder you see in the workplace?

     

    Want to read more about the other Cs employer want?

    Conscientiousness

    Creativity

    Coming up next:  Collaboration.  Want to start thinking about collaboration aka teamwork?  See how it’s linked with communication.

     

    image source: librarysciencelist.com