Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Talent Management

Read our blogs in this category for stories and best practices from real clients and real research on Talent Management.

  • Training and Developing Growth Mindset

    Training and Developing Growth Mindset

    Two weeks ago, Taylor kicked off our new series on Growth Mindset: what is it?! Today we’re exploring a growth mindset in training & development. 

    The Neuroleadership Institute (NLI) defines growth mindset as


    …the belief that your skills and abilities can be improved, and that ongoing development is the goal of the work you do. However, creating a growth mindset culture isn’t just about having optimistic employees, but creating a space where employees strive to learn, enjoy being challenged, and feel encouraged to develop new skills.

    Let’s look at a case study of NLI’s work with Microsoft. 

    A few years ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella started a revolution from a revelation: the success of the company was dependent upon a culture of continuous learning and a workforce of “learn-it-alls” instead of “know-it-alls”. 

    Training and development became the forefront of the Priorities, Habits, and Systems of the company. 

    NLI’s growth mindset work follows a structure of Priorities → Habits → Systems. In the case of Microsoft, executive leadership adopted a growth mindset as a major priority to be supported through habitual training and learning activities and embedded into organizational systems like performance management and pulse surveys.  

    Microsoft created “interactive online modules with rich storytelling and multimedia” for their employees to learn independently and on-demand about the why, what, and how of growth mindset. Managers were given conversation guides to help drive and facilitate meaningful discussion about growth mindset within departments and teams. When team members exhibited growth mindset habits, they were recognized and positively reinforced.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Graphic: NLI Growth Mindset Case Study Collection

    Training is often thought of as sitting in a room (physical or virtual), facing forward, listening to a facilitator read words from slides. Training doesn’t have to – and shouldn’t – look and feel like that. 

    Our team hosted an interactive workshop this week where participants sat around one large table with the facilitators, everyone facing inward and around at each other. Learning was facilitated through large group discussion, partner discussion, independent work, and even physical movement around the building and the block (we literally walked around the block during a break!). 

    Is your training stale? How can you shift the paradigm to a Growth Mindset in your training and development priorities, habits, and systems? 

     

  • Building the Bridge Between Survive and Thrive in the Workplace

    Building the Bridge Between Survive and Thrive in the Workplace

    Oftentimes getting from one place to another requires a bridge to cross. A connection point between two things that seem unconnected or so far apart they can’t be reached by conventional means is necessary. 

    These “bridges” are often grounded in both sides of what they are trying to connect. They are meaningless and useless if they don’t have two sides for anchoring.  

    So is true of meeting survival needs and getting to “thrive” needs in the workplace. Relational needs are the bridge. Relational needs have roots and support in both survive and thrive and they provide a way between the two.  Meeting relational needs is the bridge. They also may be the linchpin. 

    In her book Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown seeks to map and define the language of feelings and emotions before being able to build meaningful connections. In her section on “Places We Go When We Search For Connection” she seeks to define belonging and connection and contrast it with disconnection and loneliness. 

    In this section, Brown drives home the point that relational needs (belonging and connection) are both about surviving and thriving. She states, “from an evolutionary perspective, connection was about survival, today, it’s what gives purpose and meaning in our lives. Research shows that ‘people who have strong connections with others are happier, healthier, and better able to cope with the stresses of everyday life.’”  

    In contrast, disconnection can “‘actually share the same neural pathways with feelings of physical pain.’ Current neuroscience research shows that the pain and feelings of disconnection are often as real as physical pain.”  (For more on this and the connection to building inclusive workplaces, tune into this Neuroleadership Podcast.)

    We need connection – pun intended – to build the bridge to meet our survival needs that are evolutionary and adaptive, as well as to help us meet our full potential and thrive-to produce meaningful, creative, and purpose-driven work.. 

    So what do we do to meet relational needs and build bridges in the workplace?:

    1. Focus on communication. Communication is an essential part of relationships.  I found it fascinating in our 2021 book of the year, Do Nothing, how author Celeste Headlee emphasizes our need to communicate with voice as a key to meeting relational needs and thriving in the workplace (and in other places) in contrast to communicating through writing. Communicating with voice she postulates, instead of texting or emailing, helps to meet the evolutionary and neurological needs tied to relatedness. Our brains haven’t evolved enough for communication primarily through text, email, and other chat features to meet the lower order survival needs formed through relatedness. We need to be heard and we need to hear others to be successful in meeting relationship needs. She, among other authors, also points to how social media “communication” has largely reduced our ability to meet our relational needs and has fostered a culture of more disconnection and loneliness and the undesirable outcomes (as listed in Atlas of the Heart as “less empathy, more defensiveness, more numbing, and less sleeping”) these states produce. 

    So, in the workplace we need to: 

    a. Puts guardrails around communication almost exclusively done through means that don’t give people literal voice. COVID has made this harder. A simple guardrail would be “cameras on” during a virtual meeting. A larger area of focus would be training leaders on what modes of communication are appropriate given what needs to be communicated and teaching people how to not “hide” behind email and text messaging when difficult conversations are needed. Read Do Nothing  for more practical insights on this. 

    b. Build workspaces that foster communication in person. This doesn’t mean the open office environment, but it does mean common spaces where people can interact formally and informally throughout the work day as people return to the office post pandemic. This could be common break areas for meals and common meetings areas conducive to formal meetings and also informal chats that pop up doing the workday. (Note: Don’t take this to mean we are advocating for a 100% return to the office all day, everyday post COVID.  Research shows that most people want a hybrid arrangement and the research also supports the critical piece autonomy and flexibility play in meeting thrive needs. More on this in next week’s post.) 

    2. Focus on building psychological safety. In  Atlas of the Heart and her other works, Brown repeatedly emphasizes how important belonging is. She says that “true belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.” The best way to foster this type of belonging that leads to meeting both survive and thrive needs is to build a psychologically safe environment.   Here is some more information from us on psychological safety and some tools for building a psychologically safe workplace from Google. 

    When we produce a psychologically safe environment we get over the bridge to the thrive side, thus increasing positive workplace outcomes and diminishing negative ones as found in the research by Amy Edmondson.

    In summation, work by William Patrick cited in  Atlas of the Heart emphasizes our need not for individualism (which we seem to value so much, particularly in western cultures) but from our “collective ability to plan, communicate, and work together.” Our workplaces can’t thrive without these things either. 

    Interested in learning more about how to apply these principles in the workplace? Sign up for our  Illuminate workshop. 

     

  • Learning from K-12 Educators

    Learning from K-12 Educators

    “Naturally, everyone must find a way to earn a living wage, but the paycheck should not be the only motivation. Employees who are confident in their abilities and somewhat comfortable in their workplace can be highly productive. Please note that my sentence said ‘somewhat comfortable.’ We must become a bit uncomfortable to grow professionally.” 

    This is a quote from a K-12 Career Counselor in our latest Continuing Education Class for Facilitating Alabama Career Development: Assessments & Resumes. For the last couple of years, our team has been working with K-12 career developers throughout the state of Alabama, and one big takeaway has been the need for assessment and resume skills that meet students where they are but also challenge them to stretch. As this educator says, “We must become a bit uncomfortable to grow professionally”. How can we support students AND make them a bit uncomfortable…in a good way? 

    In our continuing education class, we test some assessments ourselves, and we review others using sample reports. We explore free and paid tools, formal and informal. Which would you guess our K-12 educators prefer to use? Turns out – all of them! 

    “I feel that in the interest of time – I only focus on interest and do not include values. The more I read and learn – I think I’m going to pick a few assessments for the students to take and send the results to me for meetings…working to complete a portfolio”

    Our educators work with vastly different children with their own wildly different learning abilities and preferences. What works for one may not work for another. What makes one uncomfortable (in a good way) may not be challenging enough for another. Couldn’t the same be said for us grown-ups? Just as educators provide a variety of learning tools for students, HR and Training professionals should and do provide a range of professional learning opportunities that explore hard and soft skills and allow for light to heavy self-evaluation and awareness. 

    “The company that provided our training gave us several personality assessments, skills assessments, and work-based values assessments in an effort to help us learn how to ask questions and determine what was important to our students and how to use that information to help them develop their own plans for success, not only in college but in other areas of their life.  To be honest, at first, I was somewhat skeptical of this, but after seeing this method work in how to approach students and co-workers, I am a believer. I have seen it work MANY MANY MANY times with wonderful results.” 

    So here’s what we can learn from our K-12 educators: 

    1. Be willing to be uncomfortable 
    2. Try formal and informal assessments 
    3. Engage in a variety of learning experiences 

    What steps are you taking to grow personally and professionally, just like our children and teenagers are doing? 

  • 3 Reasons to Give and Take Extended Leave

    3 Reasons to Give and Take Extended Leave

    Today I’ve been back at work for one week. Back at work after four weeks of extended personal leave. I could write a full-length novel about the why, how, who, and what of my semi-sabbatical experience. The short version is: every employer should give extended paid leave, and every employee should take it. I’ll give you three reasons.

    1. We are People First. 

    People First is the single most important Horizon Point mantra. We live it and breathe it every day. That’s how we got here – this place in time where each of our team members is taking 4+ weeks of extended leave for rest and renewal. Our Founder, Mary Ila, took one long look at us during a quarterly planning meeting and saw a team of women who had forgotten that we, ourselves, are People First. The buck stopped there. 

    Our boss got vulnerable with us about her physical, mental, and emotional health (all deteriorating), and we got vulnerable right back. All of us called to the foreground our very real symptoms of Too Much Syndrome. Too much COVID-19 uncertainty, too much schedule changing, too much brain fog, too much or not enough of everything else. In that quarterly planning meeting, we came back to ourselves, saw our very real burnout staring us in the face, and landed squarely on the realization that we are just people. 

    Workplaces are made of People who have basic needs and who will predictably burn out without periods of rest. 

    2. Extended leave clears the fog. 

    On my second day back at work, I attended a Mental Wellness workshop with a local entrepreneurial center that specializes in woman-owned small business creation and growth. This particular workshop focused on the brain science associated with stress and anxiety. Join me on the journey for a moment. How many of these physiological symptoms have you experienced in the last week? 

    • Taut muscles
    • Fatigue
    • Hasty decisions
    • Foggy thinking
    • Negativity 
    • Worrying
    • Irritability
    • Indifference
    • Apprehension
    • Depression
    • Insomnia
    • Restlessness

    As I sat in that room, I thought back to that quarterly planning meeting. I thought back to snapshots of my personal and professional life and saw every. single. one. of these symptoms. That good ole 20/20 hindsight sure did hit differently this time. 

    When I look at this list today, only 2 or 3 resonate. My four weeks of paid leave literally gave me new life. The sun came out, and the fog lifted. I’m a better version of myself, which benefits me personally of course, but also benefits my work team. Giving employees an extended moment to clear the fog breathes life into the organization. 

    3. It’s time for a paradigm shift. 

    Some of you are ready to give and/or take extended leave. You’re willing and able and ready. Here are 6 Steps for Planning and Implementing Effective Extended Leave. 

    Some of you are not. I know that paid extended leave is a luxury. I’ve heard time and time again how lucky I am, how lucky my team is, to work for a company and a leader with such a philosophy. 

    The thing is, we shouldn’t be so lucky. Our company shouldn’t be so different, so unique. This model of People First and the option of paid extended leave should be commonplace. As workplace and community leaders, we can and should shift the paradigm. It has to start somewhere, so why shouldn’t it start with me and you? 

    A month ago, when asked, “How are you?”, I would’ve (not so jokingly) said, “I’m surviving, but not thriving! Haha.” Ask me today, and I’ll tell you how much I’m thriving. How much my mind has healed. How much better I’m sleeping. How much of my personality came back. How much healthier I feel, physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

    Extended leave was a blessing for which I’m immeasurably grateful, and now I’m on fire about spreading the wealth to others. It takes a village. Will you join me? 

     

    If you are an employer, and you want to explore options for incorporating extended wellness leave into your workplace, let’s work together to shift the paradigm. 

     

  • Gender Themes in Assessments: Are women really more organized than men?

    Gender Themes in Assessments: Are women really more organized than men?

    At HPC, we facilitate assessments and coaching with leaders and potential leaders on a regular basis. We work with individuals from diverse backgrounds and with both males and females. Recently, we facilitated Work Behavior Inventory assessments with a group of organizational leaders. We noticed a trend in one component of the assessment – Conscientiousness. More often than not, males scored considerably lower in conscientiousness, which measures achievement, initiative, persistence, attention to detail, dependability, and rule-following. It is worth noting that most males were self-aware.

    This prompted our team to discuss the idea that maybe there are common gender trends in assessments. Pew Research Center surveyed and published some information that was enlightening.

    According to the research, which surveyed the public on their views of leaders, the public is much more likely to see women as being more organized than men, rather than vice versa. Fully 48% say being organized is more true of women than men, while only 4% say this quality is found more in men than women (46% say it’s true of both).

    Women were also seen as more compassionate. The survey also said:

    Women have an advantage over men when it comes to honesty—one of the most crucial leadership traits, according to the public. Some 29% of all adults associate honesty more with women than men, while 3% say honesty applies more to men than women. A majority of adults (67%) say this characteristic is displayed equally by men and women.

    Read more about Pew Research Center’s findings here: What Makes a Good Leader, and Does Gender Matter?

    Regardless if there is a trend or not, we think self-awareness is key for good leaders, both male and female. During our coaching sessions, we discuss trends in strengths and areas for development and work with leaders to create a game plan for development. 

    Do you have leaders or high-potential employees who would benefit from an assessment and coaching? Reach out to us today for more information.