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6 Tips to Help You Unplug for Your Vacation
With 4^th of July being the unspoken week of summer vacations, it’s time to consider- does anyone every really truly go on vacation now days? By a true vacation I mean no work is done. None. No emails, no voicemails, no finishing up a project, starting a project or even thinking (and therefore procrastinating) on a project.

In a world of constant connectedness, I’d venture to guess most people don’t actually unplug completely from their work. According this article, more than half of Americans plan to work while on vacation.

But if you are headed on vacation or on vacation now (wait, does reading this count post as “working”?) here are some tips for unplugging while on there:
1. Get your stuff done before you leave. Practice productivity before going which will eliminate the need to work while away.
2. Schedule time when you get back to catch-up. Block your calendar for a day or two after you return with no meetings or scheduled activities to eliminate the pressure of having to get through 987 emails when you return with no time to do it. Post-vacation laundry can be a beast. Don’t forget to schedule time to catch up on the household items that need to be attended to as well after returning from vacation.
3. Eliminate the temptation to check in with work. Don’t take your computer with you, go where there is no internet connection (is there such a place now?) and if you have a phone dedicated just to work, leave it at home.
4. Set clear expectations with colleagues/clients before departing. Tell them how long you’ll be away and establish that you will not be checking in via email, phone or text. Ask that they respect your vacation time and reciprocate by respecting theirs. Set up automated out of the office responses with a date of when you will be able to get back in touch. Date it at least one day after you return.
5. Take for pleasure reading with you and schedule for pleasure activities. Take that novel you’ve been dying to read (or movie you’ve been waiting to watch) or that cooking magazine you’ve been trying to look at for the past three months and haven’t ever gotten to. Book the massage you’ve been wanting. By taking time for pleasure reading and scheduling for pleasure activities, you’ll eliminate the desire to turn to business reading and/or checking emails. You simply won’t have the time or desire to do it when you are enjoying something else.
6. Realize that vacations are more often than not a time connect and build relationships with those closest to you. Most of us don’t take our vacations solo. If you are venturing out on a vacation this week, more than likely family member(s) or close friend(s) will be with you. Vacations are a time to rejuvenate as individuals, but also a time to rejuvenate the relationships that mean the most to us but may have been neglected somewhat by competing work demands. You’re on vacation, so don’t let work get in the way of relationships (you shouldn’t ever let this happen, but that that’s a topic for another day). Don’t let your spouse or your kids define the time away by the number of hours mom or dad spent checking email.
How are you unplugging on your vacation? Tell us how you do it and we’ll reward you with a $50 Starbucks gift card to help you unplug (or replug) more! We’ll pick a winner on Tuesday, July 8th.

Some of the ways I’ll be unplugging while taking a little 4^th of July sabbatical:
May 30, 2023
4 Workplace Innovations on Repeat
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to serve on a panel discussing workforce and skills challenges created by the automotive industry’s shift to electric vehicles (EVs).

I’m no expert on EVs. I’m no expert on cars.

But I drive one. And it broke down at the end of last week.

I got off the interstate from a work trip, headed into my hometown on a highway connecting the interstate to my neighborhood. When I went to accelerate on the highway, the RPMs jumped way up, and it did not want to shift gears for me to accelerate effectively. Luckily, I got home going about 10 miles per hour, not trying to force the car to shift into second gear.

We had it towed to the dealership where I was told that the issue was “probably the transmission.” I was then told it would take two weeks to get a technician to diagnose it. Then, if it was the transmission, it would be about two months before they could get to it.

I took a deep breath (I’m in my car A LOT, I’m not quite sure how to go without a car for a day, much less two months) and asked, “So is the challenge you all are dealing with because you don’t have enough labor?”

He breathed a sigh of relief- I think he was afraid I was going to bless him out- and proceeded to tell me in great detail about all the labor challenges they have. Namely, that they had the only transmission guy in our county and that it takes two to three years to train someone effectively to fix transmissions. He also told me there were 40 cars in front of mine if it was, in fact, the transmission that needed to be replaced.

We have a workforce shortage with the current labor skills needed to make and fix cars. If we can’t handle the current challenges, how can we expect to handle future ones? The good news is EVs don’t have multi drive transmissions, I have learned :). Do we have people trained to work or gearboxes (my understanding of what replaces a transmission)? I doubt it.

This is not just a phenomenon in the automotive industry, it is in almost all of them. As we innovate products, services, and technology exponentially, we’ve also got to continuously innovate our workplaces through people practices. And, unfortunately, we are lagging behind here, thinking that what worked yesterday will work today. It won’t. The labor force is telling this loud and clear.

We also need to capitalize on the opportunities brought about by innovation that can help us rethink the workplace and how work gets done and in what types of cultures it can succeed.

I think we could all take a good look back at the automotive industry and how Henry Food transformed it approximately 100 years ago to help pose us well for the next 100 years:
1. Early Exposure Matters: Henry Ford showed that early exposure to a variety of skills and work opportunities need to be widespread and that skills in one industry are readily transferable to another. For example, Ford grew up on a farm. He taught himself to fix watches and this helped him learn basic mechanical skills. These skills, no doubt, helped him in creating “horseless carriages.”
2. Learning by Trial and Error: This tinkering also shows that Ford learned by trial and error. By doing. Failing. Trying again, and again, until it worked.
We need to be applying these truths in our homes and schools. Exposing kids at an early age to a variety of domains and subjects and ways of thinking and giving them tools to “tinker” with is necessary for them to learn by trial and error. I would also postulate that time to be “bored” fosters this tinkering too. When kids are over scheduled, they don’t “play” and therefore they don’t “tinker.”
1. Compensation Matters: Ford’s company was plagued by very high turnover rates. According to The Henry Ford Foundation, “Turnover was so high that the company had to hire 53,000 people a year to keep 14,000 jobs filled. Henry responded with his boldest innovation ever—in January 1914 he virtually doubled wages to $5 per day.” Ford realized that he needed to pay people a premium for the repetitive work they were doing, and that doing this would help lower costs, not raise them. He also was very clear that the people he employed needed to be able to afford what they were producing.
2. People don’t want to work all day, every day. They are more productive when they don’t. Ford is largely credited with the creation of the 40-hour workweek (although union pressure may have led him there). He changed the workweek from six days to five without changing compensation. We are now in a world largely talking about the value gains in a four-day workweek. As innovations increase productivity, should people be able to take advantage of these gains to work less with the same pay? Or should we at least provide people with autonomy to decide how to do the work in order to produce the results that are needed? I think these are discussions of merit.
Innovating is not just about creating something from scratch. It also includes recycling the old to create the new.

How will you innovate your workplace through old lessons learned?
April 27, 2023
Top 10 List on Space & Abundance

My first thought of space and I think of stars and galaxies, but what does it mean as it relates to Leadership, Career, Productivity and Purpose? Space is defined as a continuous area or expanse which is free, available, or unoccupied. It is also defined as the distance from other people or things that a person needs to remain comfortable. Some words used to describe space are boundless, vast and infinite. What does it mean to take up space or to hold space for others? Our 2023 theme is an abundance of space. Here are our top 10 quotes related to the two.

10. “We can’t be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion; cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for what’s new. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing.”-Margaret J Wheatley

9. “When we are at ease, our bodies work efficiently, our minds settle, and space opens up for us to connect to our intuition, creativity, and sense of connectedness.”-Tara Stiles

8. “Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘you’re not alone.’”-Brene Brown

7. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”-Viktor Frankl

6. “Hobbies make space. They remind us of something beautiful and that good can come from nothing.”-Annie Downs

5. “Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” -Lao Tzu

4. “Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.” -Wayne Dyer

3. “There is no passion to be found in playing small — in settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living.”-Nelson Mandela

2. “An abundance mentality springs from internal security, not from external rankings, comparisons, opinion, possessions, or associations.”-Stephen Covey

1. “When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” -Tony Robbins

To read more about our theme for 2023, read here.

March 14, 2023
Who Will You Be in 2023?

The idea that “The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be” has been coming up as a theme in my life these past few months. First in the form of a children’s book by Joanna Gaines, given to my son Wyatt by his Honey. Then, when Mary Ila hired me, and gifted me with a wall hanging that says the phrase. I think the Universe, God, Spirit, may have been conspiring to write that on my heart. Well, jokes on me! It has worked. I often think of the ways my past can serve me in my future. How can I develop professionally?

As a 38 soon to be 39 year old… Just starting out working in my field after taking the road less traveled for many years, I have plenty of dreams/goals for myself. One of those goals was set in my first one-on-one with Mary Ila, where we discussed the Leaders As Career Agents Worksheet. It is to get my SHRM-CP this year. The credential is for people who perform general HR and related duties; or for those pursuing a career in Human Resource Management. There I said it, I put it on paper, so I have to pass, right? Can you sense the apprehension? There have been quite a few years between my departure from Auburn and beginning work in HR. One thing I’ve learned through life experience is that it is never too late to begin again, to be like a phoenix and rise from the ashes.

One of the things that I love the most about working for Horizon Point and with the Team of ladies that I work with is that they practice what they preach. Does the World value values anymore? Well, Horizon Point does in 2023. “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.” Mary Ila invests in us and works hard to ensure that we are equipped with what need to be successful in our field.

How will I embrace who the world needs me to be this year, you ask? I will be working towards goals in my career, but also putting those goals into action in all areas of my life. I want to be a lifelong learner with no fear of failure or beginning again. How do I do that? Through action and my first step was signing up for UNA’s SHRM CP Prep Courses. To find out more about the courses and to join me this semester, click here: https://www.campusce.net/una/course/course.aspx?C=5&pc=5&mc=13&sc=0

January 31, 2023
Leading with Emotional Intelligence
It’s Okay to Be Angry

The last few weeks have been stressful ones in my house. My oldest son turned nineteen. My middle son competed in a district-wide theatre competition, his school’s first time ever competing. He also got his driver’s license. My youngest son turned thirteen, participated in his first Academic Team competition, and had a science fair project he had to get underway. And in the midst of it all, I was going through testing to find out if I had Leukemia. The great news is that I do not! The not-so-great news is that the doctors have yet to figure out what I do have, so I continue to go through testing.

I’m the mom, but I’m also the leader of my family. And I knew that how I handled this situation, this potential crisis, would be so important for my children. I believe in being transparent with my kids and felt that it was important for them to know what was happening, so I sat down with them and made them aware of the situation and have kept them informed each step of the way. With each test result that has come back, we’ve talked. We talk about what the results mean, what next steps are, and how they’re feeling. I want them to know that their emotions, whatever they are, are normal and are okay to be feeling. Even if they’re angry with me. During the two weeks it took to get the initial test results back, we talked a lot, even if it was just a quick check in.

As leaders, it is so easy to get caught up in our own emotions and to a degree we need to in order to be able to help those we lead. For me, it was when my kids weren’t around. I’d allow myself to sit with my emotions. Was I scared? Absolutely. My grandmother died from Leukemia. By allowing myself to understand my own emotions it both helped me understand the emotions my kids may be feeling as well as ensure that I have my emotions under control when I’m communicating with them. As a parent, the last thing I wanted to do in this situation was let my fear show through in how I communicated with my kids, I wanted them to know and understand that regardless of the outcome, we would get through it together.

Research shows that leaders who possess high emotional intelligence – the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you – are more successful leaders.
- Productivity increases by 20-25% in organizations where employees are connected. (Inc.)
- Leaders who show empathy perform 40% higher in coaching, engagement, and decision making. (DDIWorld.com)
- Workers who have managers with high EQ scores are 4x less likely to quit than those with managers who have low EQ. (Linkedin.com)
- Employees with high EQ are favored over employees with high IQ for a promotion 75% of the time. (Careerbuilder.com)
Leading with emotional intelligence isn’t just for those times of crisis, it’s for those every day moments. It’s knowing that an employee who made a mistake is beating themselves up enough and needs a leader who will use the opportunity as a teaching moment instead of as an opportunity to rake them over the coals. It’s knowing that how you as a leader react to a situation can make all the difference in how your employees view the situation. And it’s being aware of the fact that your emotions and awareness of those emotions impacts how you build relationships. And sometimes it’s knowing that you need a few minutes alone to get those emotions under control before you communicate with your team.

Want to know how emotionally intelligent you are? Take this free quiz from IRD Labs.
November 15, 2022

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