Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Talent Management and Development

We provide full service talent management and talent development consulting services. Read our blogs in this category for stories and best practices from real clients and real research.

  • The Way We Fail at Work with our Words and our Gifts

    The Way We Fail at Work with our Words and our Gifts

    Expressing love at work may seem like a little too much.  But in reality, showing love is really showing people you care.  It isn’t about recognizing people’s accomplishments, it’s about appreciating people for who they are. 

    When we are talking about love at work, we are really talking about how to show people you appreciate them.  We talked about how to apply quality time as a love language at work on the blog last week. Quality time is a love language that is sometimes hard to know how to apply to work, but the love languages that are most and least desired in terms of frequency of those who have completed the Motivating by Appreciation (MBA) Inventory assessment-a tool to assess showing appreciation through the love languages at the office- are two of the most frequently used forms of showing appreciation at the office. 

    But are we applying these two love languages correctly? 

    The most frequently used method of showing appreciation at the office is tangible gifts, yet it is the least frequently desired.  The employee recognition industry is a multi-billion dollar one.  But according to research cited in The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, “Only 6% of employees choose tangible gifts as their primary language, and 68% report it is their least valued appreciation language.” 

    The most desired form of showing appreciation- chosen by approximately 45% of employees surveyed through the MBA– is words of affirmation.  People wanted to feel appreciated by what you say to them. 

    The fact that the most frequently used way to thank people, or to show them appreciation, is the least desired one and that the most desired is so desired one points to what I think may be wrong with showing appreciation in the workplace in general. 

    We go wrong with gifts and we go wrong with words because we don’t do a good job of making them personal.   In fact, we’ve written about the best way to thank employees is to make it personal. 

     

    The Way We Fail at Work with our Words

    The way we make our words of affirmation mean nothing is by: 

    1. Not being specific. Saying, “thank you” or “atta boy” and leaving it at that.  We need to personalize our appreciation with specifics.  What did someone do or how do they consistently behave that you appreciate?
    2. We give our words in the wrong context.  Some people like public praise and some do not.  Making our words personal means knowing the right context to give them in.  Research cited in the The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace notes that 40-50% of employees do not want to receive recognition in front of a large group.  Most of the time though, words of appreciation are given in a formal setting with a large group once or twice a year at company events. 
    3. We only provide words of affirmation when performance warrants it.  Sometimes we need to praise for consistent behavior over time that is actually a reflection of someone’s character.  This still needs to be specific, but often people want to be noticed for who they are, not whether it led to an immediate result or not.  Character, in fact, is what leads to lasting results. 

     

    The Way We Fail at Work with our Gifts

    Tangible gifts are most often given to recognize people, not to show appreciation to them.   We get a watch or a plaque for our years of service, or a gift card for Christmas.  These are the types of things that make the employee recognition industry big business.  But they aren’t the things people desire. 

    Gifts go wrong when: 

    1. They aren’t personal. Does everyone want a watch or a plaque?  I really don’t care to have either myself.  What actually often means the most is when a tangible gift is given that you show you know a person well enough to give them something they want.  Giving someone a gift they don’t want or value actually has a worse effect than giving no gift at all. 
    2. They are lip service to appreciation.  When everyone gets the ham for Christmas every year, do you actually feel any appreciation?  My guess would be no. Especially if you are a vegetarian.  Lip service for appreciation is usually so depersonalized. 
    3. Stuff is the focus instead of experiences.  Gifts often fail to be what people actually want in a tangible gift.  What people often want if they value gifts are really experiences, not stuff.  They want tickets to the sports game, a gift certificate to the spa, or a small getaway.  But again, be sure not to violate number one.  Don’t give me a sports tickets and don’t give my husband a trip to the spa. 

     

    How often do you use words or gifts to show appreciation at work?  Which one do you default to and why? And do you make your words and your gifts personal?

  • Don’t Hoard Your Organization’s Wealth

    Don’t Hoard Your Organization’s Wealth

    “Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.” – Robert Boyce

    Organizations contain a wealth of knowledge. Some organizations spread that wealth, and some hoard it. Those that share the wealth of knowledge maximize their potential success. 

    I’m currently reading The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli and even though my brother and sister-in-law are both former partners (that’s what Starbucks calls their employees), I had no idea just how strong of an emphasis Starbucks places on knowledge at all levels of the organization. From formal training and incentives for completion, requiring partners to sample all core products twice per year, providing every partner with one bag of coffee each week so that they stay familiar with products, and encouraging partners to share their knowledge with customers to help educate them on products, Starbucks understands the value knowledge adds to their business, the partner experience, and the customer experience. 

    Starbucks has over 11,000 locations worldwide, and a level of financial resources for training that most organizations don’t have. So how can smaller organizations help employees share the wealth of knowledge? 

    • Encourage a learning and teaching environment. Studies show that up to 90% of what we learn is through informal training. But most organizations focus their attention on formal training such as classes or certifications, with limited funds to support these efforts. When I chose a career in HR I knew very little about it. I was fortunate to work for a company that encouraged a learning and teaching environment. While I was encouraged to get certified, most of what I learned about HR I learned through those that I worked with. When client issues arose that I didn’t know how to handle, I was encouraged to seek the help of senior team members. As I advanced in the organization, I became that senior team member that others sought out for help. Ask yourself “what is one thing I taught someone this week?” and “what is one thing I learned from someone this week?” 
    • Cross-train and up-train staff. Giving employees insight into other areas of the business has many benefits. One way to do this is through cross-training, giving employees the opportunity to walk in other’s shoes so to speak. It helps create an understanding of the various departments and positions within the organization, encourages communication and collaboration, and increases employee engagement. In addition to cross-training, organizations need to plan for their future and up-training is a great way to prepare employees for advancement. As the saying goes, a leader’s job is to help develop their staff to one day take their place. Too often organizations create a succession plan but fail to prepare employees for advancement. 
    • Utilize internal resources. Training doesn’t have to be costly. A great way to reduce training costs is to use the resources you have within your organization. By providing internal training, an organization ensures that the training is relevant to the organization’s business and employees are better able to relate to the training. A great way to provide internal training is to have employees lead lunch and learn sessions. Employees are given the opportunity to share a glimpse of what they really do and share their expertise with their peers. It’s also a great way to help employees understand how the work of an individual or a department contributes to the overall goals of the organization. 

    While the return on investment may not be measurable using metrics, the sharing of knowledge has many benefits for employees, organizations, and their customers. The sharing of knowledge creates a culture of collaboration, improves employee morale, increases productivity, and contributes to organizational growth. Organizations see an improvement in problem-solving, decision-making abilities, customer delivery, and reduction in the loss of know-how due to turnover. 

    Does your organization share its wealth of knowledge or hoard it? 

  • Leaders, So What Is Skill and What Is Will?

    Leaders, So What Is Skill and What Is Will?

    Related Blog Posts:

    Leaders, Know the Skill and Will of Those You Lead

    The Lactation Consultant For the Love, Leave Me Alone!: How (Not) to Lead When Skill and Will Are High

    Tell ?Show ? Do: Leading when Someone has High Will and Low Skill

    Find Another Seat (or Challenge) or Get Off the Bus? How to Lead when Skill is High but Will is Low

    A Final Thought on Leading for Skill and Will: It’s a Long Term Game, Not a Short One

  • A Final Thought on Leading for Skill and Will: It’s a Long Term Game, Not a Short One

    A Final Thought on Leading for Skill and Will: It’s a Long Term Game, Not a Short One

    I’m on a plane with my third-grade son, traveling to Washington D.C. He is taking a math test beside me.  We are headed up to our nation’s capital for a work conference I have, and he and my dad are along for the ride. 

    He’s coming to actually see some of the things he’s been learning in school about government and democracy.  With the trip being counted as a “field trip” for him instead of an absence, the schoolwork, including tests he’s missing, come with us. He is to complete them and return them for grading the Monday after we arrive home.

    He finishes and says, “Don’t check it, mom, that is Mrs. Armstrong’s (his teacher) job.”

    It’s like he knows I have the temptation to “check it” and justify “helping” him, which he knows is straight-up cheating.  I resist the urge to check it and put it away. Later I do check it, though.  He’s missed one.  And I again resist the urge to give it back to him and tell him, not the answer, but “Hey, why don’t you look at this one again?”  Still straight up cheating, but I’d be dishonest if I acted like the temptation to fix his mistakes and or help him make a perfect score isn’t there.

    And this temptation is also present in any leadership situation.

    The one he missed is an easy one, one that he just didn’t take his time on.  And knowing his biggest struggle in math is not getting the right answer, but taking his time to get the right answer, I silently think about ways to help him take his time without fixing his test so that he gets a 100 next time instead of a 98.

    But, I “allow” him to miss one and in the long run, he will be better for it. The perfect score isn’t nearly as important as him learning through doing things on his own and learning the consequences of not taking his time. And of course, most importantly, the hard lessons won in doing things with honesty and integrity learned through a leader modeling that behavior for him. Or wait, he actually modeled this for me first. 

    As we wrap up our posts on leading through skill and will, I think it warrants a pause in considering leading in the moment for short term gain versus leading for long term outcomes and results. Leading is a marathon, not a sprint.

    We practice leading through skill not to satisfy our own short-term needs, nor the short-term needs and desires of those we lead. We practice it because it is a process that fosters learning.  Learning that isn’t fleeting, but learning that is lasting and transferable across domains and that builds character.

    So the next time you have to diagnose someone’s skill and will and then use that knowledge to lead them, see yourself as their coach and teacher, not their boss (or parent).  

    Hopefully, the learning will come in the form of not just better skill acquisition and motivation but also with growth that lasts, growth that fosters transferable skills and integrity.

     

    How do you foster long-term learning and growth with those you lead? 

  • Find Another Seat (or Challenge) or Get Off the Bus? How to Lead when Skill is High but Will is Low

    Find Another Seat (or Challenge) or Get Off the Bus? How to Lead when Skill is High but Will is Low

    We’ve all seen someone there before.  We’ve most likely also been there before ourselves.  One of the most, if not the most knowledgeable and experienced person in the room.  The one that can do the task or assignment with his or her eyes closed. Possibly the smartest person in the room. 

    But somehow, they are also the most disinterested person in the room.  Whether this disengagement comes from boredom or burnout, you can’t be sure, but it is obvious they’d rather be anywhere doing anything other than what they are really good at doing.  

    You need them to do it, but they don’t want to.  They have high skill and little to no will. And interestingly enough, because they have no personal drive to do it well or with excellence, their skill begins to tank.  

    What do you do? It often comes down to one of two things: 

    1. New Challenge
    2. Rest

    For example, my almost nine-year-old is in the throes of multiplication tables.  This semester, he has to demonstrate mastery of all his multiplication facts by completing a test on each fact family and getting them all correct in less than a minute.  

    He probably could have done this all (except for maybe the nine and twelve fact families) day one.  I’m not sure how he learned them all, but I do know he has a natural ability with numbers (he gets it from his daddy) and he often thinks in numbers, not in words. 

    But, we are required to practice the facts for at least 10 minutes every night and sign off it has been done.   

    Needless to say, he’s so over it.  So, we’ve had to find other ways to challenge him in doing this routine every night.  We skipped ahead, doing harder fact families that he wouldn’t be tested on for a few weeks because he had already mastered the ones he was being tested on next.  Then we went to challenging him to apply the multiplication he learned by multiplying two digits instead of just one, or we broke it down and showed him how he could divide, which is a concept they hadn’t started yet in school.   

    We’ve also engaged him in teaching his sister (in kindergarten) basic multiplication facts, which he loves (and she tolerates). 

    So, we challenged him.   And the same is true of what you should do with someone you are leading that has a high skill level but is so over doing what they are doing.  Challenge them to take it to the next level by: 

    1. Applying their skills in novel or advanced ways
    2. Getting them to teach their skill to someone else

    But something strange happened.  We had been practicing our four and eight fact families and he had mastered them. We went to revisit these facts the night before the test on them just as a brush up on his skills. Well, when simulating the same situation as the test (all thirteen facts listed to answer correctly in less than a minute) he flipped out and said he couldn’t do it. He just froze and it was like all he knew had vanished. 

    Honestly, I think we had beat a dead horse.  He had practiced so much when he really didn’t need to, that he was burned out.  

    So I told him to go to his room and rest.  He didn’t want to, but he did. He came back down about 15 minutes later had made a paper airplane and said he was ready to try again. 

    He answered all his fours correctly in less than 30 seconds and completed the eights correctly with about fifteen seconds to spare.

    He just needed a break. He was burned out.  Much like some of your people who are highly skilled are.  If you see someone’s will begin to wane on something they are highly competent in doing, first challenge them to take their skill to the next level or give them an assignment to teach someone else to do it.  If that doesn’t work, give them a break. 

    I found myself at this high skill, waning will point not long ago.  After a solid spring and half the summer spent facilitating a lot of training that more often than not required travel, I found myself at best bored and at worst burned out.  And honestly, I felt like I had gotten worse at it. 

    I love nothing more than helping other people succeed in leading, but after almost ten years of training and many months training on the same content over and over again, I was kind of over it.   had the experience and knowledge to do it well, but I felt myself not doing it very well because I was bored by it and tired of it. 

    I was also pregnant, so that might have also had something to do with my mood over it all. 

    A break from travel and work being required with the pending arrival of our child, I had to have a plan. And I had to rest.  I took a risk and hired someone else to train. And I am so glad I did. 

    This brings up a third route for leading others (and yourself) well when your will tanks in high skill areas: divest in it. 

    I actually have done all three of these things related to my skill and will with group leadership training.  I handed off the bulk of it to someone who has a high skill and will for it, I challenged myself by beginning to build new training content using my skills, and I’ve enjoyed teaching our new colleague on the unique way we feel like we add value in our training approach. 

     

    What do you do when you or someone you lead is highly skilled but has lost the will to do something or do it well?