Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Give Back Stories

Give Back is one of our top five operating values at Horizon Point. We like to feature other individuals and organizations that have a Give Back mentality to support our communities. These stories are about those who Give Back.

  • BEYOND Thrilled to Welcome Taylor Simmons to our Team!

    BEYOND Thrilled to Welcome Taylor Simmons to our Team!

    We are BEYOND thrilled to have Taylor Simmons begin work with Horizon Point as a Career Consultant.   Taylor has a background in human resources and workforce development, most recently serving as the Director of Education and Workforce Development for the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.

    Taylor’s education, experience and skills will bring tremendous value to Horizon Point as we seek to grow passion and productivity in the workplace, but most importantly, Taylor embodies the Horizon Point Values of People First, Passion, Productivity, Continuous Learning and Improvement and Give Back.

    Taylor’s Passion + Productivity = Give Back mindset begins with her focus on helping students, professionals and companies maximize their talent. Taylor says, “Passion means a love of what you do. It’s fueled by the desire to do your best. It’s demonstrated by helping others achieve their career, personal and organizational goals. Passion leads to productivity and results are evident through achievement of personal goals as well as success.”

    In relating passion to productivity, she says, “I believe passion does increase productivity. If you are passionate about something whether it is work, children or hobbies, you will be more productive.”

    Mary Ila Ward, owner of Horizon Point says, “Taylor has demonstrated her productivity fueled by passion in previous roles, always going the extra mile to help others and see programs and people succeed.  She is skilled in taking programs and projects to the next level, and puts people first with her ability to listen and follow-through on anything she commits to doing.”

    Taylor’s desire to give back is grounded in the principles of servant leadership.  “I believe leadership development is essential in developing people to be passionate and productive in the work they do.  Servant leadership is a great way to develop those around you.  Servant leaders focus on helping others, and in turn, build better organizations. This is the ultimate way to give back. Your time, efforts and energy are always focused on others,” she says.

    This mindset, she says, stems from, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35

    Taylor lives in Hartselle, AL with her husband Chris and two children, Lydia and Porter.

    Taylor Family

     

    Taylors giving spirit will help take Horizon Point Consulting to the next level in our quest to drive passion in people by helping them connect and grow in careers while helping organizations build a fully engaged workforce that drives productivity. She will be focused on delivering group and individual career coaching services to our clients.

    Reach out to welcome Taylor at tbs@horizonpointconsulting.com!

  • 3 Introverted leaders and the leadership lessons we can learn from them

    3 Introverted leaders and the leadership lessons we can learn from them

    We used to think leaders were born, not made. Now we know through training, coaching and mentoring the skills needed to be an effective leader can be learned.  However, there are certain leadership situations, company cultures and team dynamics lend well to certain types of personality traits (“born” characteristics) that individuals possess that make a person more effective in their leadership role. 

    One of the most common personality continuums discussed today is introversion/extraversion.

    A rundown of the dynamic can be seen here: 

    Orientation of energy

    E     EXTRAVERSION

    Energized when you are with people 

    Talk out your ideas

    First you live it – then you understand it

    Enjoy the interaction

    Breadth of inter

    INTROVERSION    I

    Energized when you are alone

    Reflect on your ideas before vocalizing

    First you understand – then you live it

    Enjoy the concentration

    Depth of interest

    Unfortunately, there is still an “extravert ideal” that surrounds leadership, especially in western culture.  Whereas some situations and roles demand someone who is energized by others, outgoing, gregarious and people oriented, some leadership roles and situations are served better by the leaders who are thinkers, driven by ideas and oftentimes driven by solitude or small, intimate relationships, otherwise known as the introverts among us. 

    Consider these three introverted leaders and how their disposition made them more effective: 

    Moses.  As the leader of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land, Moses (especially the movie portrayal of him) may imply that he was an outgoing orator with the skills to fire up his people and move them forward.  However, Moses spoke with a stutter and utilized his more extraverted wingman, Aaron, to speak to the people (Exodus 1-15).  His introversion is also seen in his humility. Numbers 12 accounts that he was a “quietly humble man, more so than anyone living on earth.”

    Introverted leadership trait seen in Moses that is needed for today’s leader:  Humble and reflective

    More on leadership lessons from Moses

    Stephen Wozniak. When you hear Apple, most immediately think of Steve Jobs as the leader. However, Apple most likely would have never existed without Stephen Wozniak, the brainy electronics geek and consummate nice guy that designed the circuit boards that created Apple’s first computer. He co-founded the company with Jobs.   In the early years of Apple, Wozniak was the worker bee and genius that drove the creation of the personal computer. 

    Introverted leadership trait seen in Wonziak that is needed for today’s leader:  Innovation through concentrated hard work and depth of knowledge

    Rosa Parks:  As one of the icons of the Civil Rights movement, Rosa Parks was a small, unassuming woman. Her refusal to give up her seat on the bus to a white person may portray her as confrontational person, but that she was not. And because she wasn’t, her impact was far-reaching. Just think, would a gregarious, outspoken extravert have made the same impact on the bus that night by refusing to give up their seat? 

    Introverted leadership trait seen in Rosa Parks that is needed for today’s leader:  Determination and quiet resolve. 

    Know an introverted leader?

    How does their introversion make them a better leader?

    Other introverted leaders you should learn more about: Eleanor Roosevelt, Warren Buffett, Al Gore, Gandhi, Einstein, Stephen Spielberg, Larry Page

  • Passion + Productivity = Give Back

    Passion + Productivity = Give Back

    “Rarely are there ever great achievements without great expectations.” 

    A mid-sized manufacturing firm in a small Alabama community demonstrates the give back mindset through their passion and productivity. This focus has transformed an almost bankrupt company into a thriving and profitable business. Not only that, their passion and productivity prompts them to give back to the community in which they live and work. 

    The company’s mission statement reads, “We are passionate about resolutions that positively impact our customers.” With this mission, the President of the Company states, “We have products and solutions that can help make customers more productive, save money and keep people safe. Why would we not want everyone to know this? We can help enrich the lives of others by what we do. Because we believe this, we can approach our work with not just hard work by an element of intense emotion. This type of enthusiasm is contagious. The longer people work in this environment the more infected they become.”

    Their work does not stop with “intense emotions”. It extends to a focus on productivity as well. “Productivity is a measurable activity. Every week we get together as a team and review a couple dozen key indicators to be certain that we are meeting our internal and external standards. The bottom line of how this is demonstrated is letting our yes be yes and our no be no. Our vision is to be the trusted source for tough mining and industrial rubber solutions. We will bend over backwards, increase productivity, to make certain we keep our promises to one another and to our customers,” states the company President. 

    The focus on passion and productivity extends beyond the walls of the organization and into the community. 

    “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” 

    The company seeks to spur more passion and productivity in the community by partnering with organizations, churches and schools that impact individuals. 

    Through the Partners in Education Program in their community, the company works with high school students to help them maximize their potential by providing college scholarships, hosting a parent night and providing one-on-one career coaching to students at the school. The combination of these programs helps the school with resources that are not readily available otherwise. The company hopes that these efforts will help students form a plan, create goals and reach their potential in order to become productive citizens. 

  • Moving BEYOND WORK- Our Company Values

    Moving BEYOND WORK- Our Company Values

    Our challenge this year as a company is creating a scalability framework that can help us drive growth. Beginning this process in 2014 has helped us realize the value of values and of getting them down on paper. We help our organizational and individual clients do this on a regular basis, but have been behind the curve on practicing what we preach!

    Our company values that will drive our growth and services are:

    People First. We believe people are a company and community’s greatest asset. This is why we work to foster passion and productivity in people. We realize that in all our decisions, relationships come first and we help our clients act as leaders by cultivating and building relationships that help drive passion and productivity.

     

    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.

     

    Productivity. Along with passion, we believe productivity should be a key driver in the workplace. We believe passion and productivity go hand-in-hand and also drive quality and results. We demonstrate productivity by saying what we mean and following through on what we say we will do. We think strategically and act on that strategy through setting goals and helping our clients to do the same. We work to foster goal success through proven, behavioral based techniques and tools. We deliver work on time and in a quality manner and put processes in place when necessary to drive consistency in delivery of quality services and products.

    To help drive passion and productivity, we don’t care how or where work gets done, just that it gets done in a way that meets client needs. This coincides with our desire to people first by allowing them the autonomy to make decisions based on their personal preferences. We believe this stimulates passion and productivity.

     

    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.

     

    Give Back. We strive to create passion and productivity, not for selfish gain, but because when we are at our best, we help others be their best self as well. We firmly  believe that by letting our light shine, we give others permission to do the same. When people are engaged in meaningful and fulfilling work the community is impacted in a positive way. Because we believe in giving back and in being good stewards of the faith that our clients put in us, we support organizations and causes that work to create passion and productivity by putting people first. This includes educational, entrepreneurial and workforce development initiatives with proven results which improve the lives of individuals, therefore improving the results of companies and the prosperity of communities.

    What are your company’s values? What about your personal values? How do they drive how you think and how you act?