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.

  • 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

  • Do you want to go to timeout?

    THE LAW OF EFFECT LEARNED FROM DISCIPLINING A TWO YEAR OLD

    “Do you want to go to timeout?”  “Do you want a spanking?”  These are two things my husband and I find ourselves saying to our two year old more often than we’d like when he misbehaves.   Of course he doesn’t want to go to timeout and of course he doesn’t want a spanking, but in our misdirected way of discipline, it seems to be the easiest way to try to get him to behave without actually having to follow through on a consequence.

    A dear friend and parent coach Carol Ozier, when asked about how to discipline children, simply responded, “Say what you mean and do what you say.”  If I have no intention of putting him in timeout or spanking him, my words don’t matter and he knows I won’t follow through with my actions, so what does he do? He continues to misbehave. What seems to be the route of least resistance oftentimes ends up being what keeps us beating our head against a wall by behaving the same way and expecting a different result.  Insanity at its finest.

    This dilemma reminds me of a common motivation principle that is emphasized in one of the leadership classes I facilitate.   The law of effect, simply put, states that behavior is a result of consequences.  Consequences can be good or bad. We often associate a negative connotation with consequences, but they are simply an outcome or result. The “law” emphasizes that in order for behavior to change, consequences have to be:

    • Immediate
    • Certain
    • Negative (in the case of stopping the behavior)

    For leaders, this simply means that if you want to increase positive behaviors and diminish the negative ones, then “Say what you mean and do what you say.”  For example, if someone violates a safety rule at work, oftentimes the worst negative consequence of an injury doesn’t occur (thank goodness).  The injury isn’t immediate and it isn’t certain.  However, if you say your company’s first priority is safety, and you don’t make the consequences of following or not following safety practices immediate and certain, then safety really isn’t your first priority.    I have one client, who if a person does not lock-out tag-out (for those of you outside the manufacturing world, lock-out-tag-out is a way to make sure a machine is turned off before you try to fix anything with it or modify it in order to avoid getting hurt) and they have a way of tracking this, it is an automatic three years probation.   Do it again, and you’re fired.  No questions asked.

    But I would also challenge us all to think about what positive consequences we could make immediate and certain that would spur along good behavior.

    Despite my often failure and disciplining my toddler consistently, potty training turned out to be a breeze.   Thanks to the consistency established at his school with his wonderful teachers, potty training took less than a week.  Why?  The consequence of using the potty, established by his teachers, was immediate and certain.  You go number one on the potty you get one m&m (m&ms are powerful at our house- you can read more here); go number two in the potty and you get two m&ms.   We followed suit at home.  The reward for the behavior got progressively more challenging at the teachers’ guidance.  After about two weeks of being put on the potty, you didn’t get an m&m reward unless you told the teacher you needed to go potty or you stayed dry through naptime.    Now, he goes the potty consistently, and usually doesn’t even ask for an m&m anymore.  Going to the potty is just what “big boys do”. And besides, who wants to be wet or dirty anyway?  Just like who wouldn’t want to keep from cutting their hand off in the safety example?

    The path of least resistance is often found with consistency. Once you establish that consistency, you don’t have to keep fighting the battle over and over again.  If we ensure we “Say what we mean and do what we say” through immediate and certain positive and negative consequences, we can all stop beating our heads against a wall or at least stop sounding like a broken record.

  • What Employers Want: Creativity

    What Employers Want: Creativity

    Creativity is a must have in today’s workplace.  Its one of the 4Cs all employers want.  People who can think outside the box are in demand, and always will be.  But I would take it a step further in that people who have the ability to redefine what the box is will always have a job, and many of them create that job for themselves.

    Fast Company featured the 100 Most Creative People in Business last month.  The #1 person was Nate Silver (the Money Ballguy) who is a prime example of what it means to redefine the box.

    He is quoted as describing creativity in two ways,  “pure expression” like in artistic endeavors and “finding different ways to approach and solve a problem.”  Creativity is problem solving at its best.  Silver has redefined the box by matching math and data with creativity to derive  “solutions in an era of information overload”.   An example:  Silver transformed predicting the success of minor league baseball players by looking at data instead of a scout’s opinion.  The things that were important in predicting success were not what most people thought.  He also was successful in calling the 2012 election perfectly (see his fivethirtyeight blog) by analyzing large amounts of data.  He redefined the box of election and pro athlete analysis by taking emotion out.

    What can we do to be more creative?

    •    Engage yourself in activities that are challenging which require you to problem solve.  Take the harder math class, sign up for a class to learn how to code or learn another language even though you know nothing about it.   Tell your boss you’re willing to tackle the tough issue at work even though you have no idea where to begin.
    •  Read about creative people.   What are they doing to help themselves think outside the box or redefine the box? Fast Company is a good place to start this reading.
    •  Talk to creative people.   We all know someone who seems to come with a new idea every minute.  Engage them in conversation to see what sparks their mind to action and problem solving and emulate their behaviors.
    •   Find time to think.  Sometimes we got so caught up in the rat race that we don’t take the time consciously set aside time for higher order thinking.    Want some tips for doing this? Read more here: Art Petty’s blog

    How do you stimulate your creative juices?

  • 2 Tips for Resolving Conflict Wisely

    THE SHORTEST DISTANCE TO SOLVE A CONFLICT DOES NOT TAKE THE PATH OF A TRIANGLE.

    One of the best interview questions to ask, regardless of the position is, “Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with another person and how did you resolve it?”

    This question was asked in a recent interview panel I was a part of and I loved the applicant’s response.  She started by stating, “I don’t practice triangular conflict resolution,” and then proceeded to describe a situation in which she went directly to the person the conflict was with in order to resolve the issue instead of sharing the conflict with a third party.

    I know I’ve been guilty of avoiding conflict with others by not addressing it head-on, which in most cases only makes it worse.  I’ve also been guilty of acting as someone’s third point in the triangle of his or her conflict, getting involved when it was not my place to do so.

    So how can we all help ourselves and help others to handle conflict wisely?:

    1. Demonstrate straight-line conflict resolution.    If you have a problem with someone, go directly to that person in private to solve the conflict.  If you can’t go directly to that person to discuss it in person (not in an email), then it can’t be that big of an issue.
    2. Don’t form the third point in the triangle for people.  If someone comes to you with a problem with another person, ask them if they have discussed the problem with that person.  If they haven’t, direct them to do so.   Don’t get in the middle.

    What has been your best method for resolving conflict?

  • What do employers want? The 4 Cs

    Employers want people who can do the jobs that require their business to be successful, and certain job titles and skills are more in demand than others. However, after working as corporate recruiter and with hundreds of businesses, I have a short list of skills that I think are absolutely sought after by all employers, regardless of the industry or job titles they hire for.

    The 4 Cs

    • Conscientiousness
    • Creativity
    • Collaboration
    • Communication

    Time spent developing these skills is critical to the success of anyone preparing for or in the job market.

    I’ll spend the next few weeks describing what these skills are and provide a list of things to do that can help develop these skills.   Yes, they are developable.  Although some people are born with more innate ability in some of these than others, they all can be defined and developed in concrete ways.

    The First C: Conscientiousness

    Conscientiousness is one of the most noted personality traits that is a predictor of job performance.  It’s also described as initiative.   You can read more about some characteristics and studies on things related to conscientious in this previous post, but I think an example of what conscientiousness looks like through behaviors that a person demonstrates is more helpful.

    An Example

    I’ve recently had an I/O grad student working with me on a community wage survey.   The faculty of the program (where I completed my Masters in I/O) selected her as an ideal candidate for this project, notably because of her interest in compensation.   I also indicated that I needed a self-starter who could stay focused while working on tedious data analysis and have the ability to meet a tight deadline.   AKA a conscientious person.

    Man did I get her!  She was the poster child of conscientiousness!

    Here are some behaviors she exhibited:

    • She arrived early for our first meeting for me to train her on how to do the data analysis.   With a 2 hour drive to get here, she planned accordingly and allotted herself more time to arrive just in case something came up on the way.
    • She asked thoughtful questions when needed in order to make sure she had an understanding of what was being asked of her to complete.
    • She lent suggestions about how to arrive at getting something done when she had a better method, and did so in a polite, helpful manner.
    • She worked remotely and handled her time to complete the project with zero supervision.
    • She was patient with me in my response to her email questions when I was out of town.   When I wasn’t answering a question right away, she moved on to work on other parts she didn’t have questions about instead of letting my absence get her behind.  THIS IS KEY!  Most people do not do this, they use it as an excuse not to complete work on time.
    • She created job aids for herself to remind her of steps that needed to be taken on each data set to make sure she did it correctly and consistently.
    • She clarified specific deadlines.  I told her I needed the completed survey to me on Wednesday, she asked for a specific time on Wednesday.
    • She turned the project in an hour early.
    • She performed every task asked of her correctly.  She followed directions.

    So, what tips can I glean from this to establish conscientiousness for myself so employers want to hire me?

    Behaviors are cultivated through habits.  Here are behaviors, based on this example you need to get in the habit of doing:

    1. Arrive early (and plan ahead to give yourself enough time to do so).
    2. Follow directions.
    3. Before you can follow directions, you have to listen to directions and/or read them!  Do this by eliminating distractions when you need to listen, and writing things down when necessary.
    4. Ask clarifying questions.
    5. Make suggestions in order to help people be more successful.
    6. Don’t wait on someone to prompt you to do something. Monitor yourself in getting work done; don’t rely on someone else to do it for you.   If your mom is always asking you to get your homework done or your boss is always asking for a certain task to be completed, you aren’t demonstrating conscientious behaviors.
    7. Complete work on what you can when you are waiting on information from someone else.  Do not use someone else’s absence as an excuse to quit working.
    8. Create tools that help you remember things in order to do things right the first time and consistently.  Oftentimes, all this needs to be is a checklist.
    9. Turn in assignments early; don’t procrastinate.

    Who do you know that is successful in their job or in school because they are conscientious?  What do they DO to show people they are conscientious?