Horizon Point Consulting

Search results for: “productivity”

  • New Years Resolutions 101: Don’t put the cart before the horse

    New Years Resolutions 101: Don’t put the cart before the horse

    It’s a new year. Have you set your resolutions or goals?  Most of us do, but then give up on them by the end of January.

    One key reason I see people fail at goal setting in the leadership and career coaching we do (and for myself as well) is because we put the cart before the horse.  We set a goal and don’t have any method put in place for measuring progress towards it or achievement of it.

    Maybe a couple of examples will help:

    1.  I’m so guilty of this, so I’ll use myself as an example first.   In 2013, I set a goal for my family to sit down at the dinner table and eat together on average four times a week.  And as you can read about in this post, in 2013 this goal was a total flop.   One of the main reasons it was a failure was because I put the cart before the horse.  I didn’t put in place a way to track it and therefore my progress towards it, which lead to no motivation and no results achieved.

    I reset this goal in 2014, with a plan to track progress towards staying on track for this effort because I felt like making dinner together as a family a priority and a habit is important to my family’s health in so many ways.  Thank goodness for my mother-in-law and one of her Christmas presents to me at the end of 2013.  It was a simple weekly calendar booklet that had a magnet on the back.    I set out to plan our weekly meals on this, design a grocery list around it and then simply check off the days we had achieved a meal at the table.  It was stuck to the refrigerator as a visual reminder all year.

    As you can see here, the “5” at the top is the number of days we ate together.  Not all weeks were this good, but overall, the goal was met.  More importantly, I’ve established a habit that will hopefully keep this priority going without setting a goal for it (and hopefully my mother-in-law knows how much I love this simple tool and has another one waiting for me this Christmas).

    IMG 0952-2

    2.  One of the clients I love working with went about establishing an accountability culture in 2013, and created a performance dashboard to track their progress.

    M Chart2

    You can read more about their story as a company here.  As I now work with this team coaching their managers, I love setting goals with them because they have already established ways to measure performance.   It is not uncommon, when setting goals with companies and individuals for one of the goals, or sub-goals of a large goal, to first put in place a way to measure and track performance towards the desired outcome. With this company, the horse is already there and it helps pull the cart.

    If you are looking to set your New Year’s Resolutions or make sure they are achieved, don’t put the cart before the horse:

    1. Put in place a mechanism for tracking goal progress and attainment.
    2. Make the tracking mechanism visual and put it where you see it ALL the time.
    3. Monitor and record performance toward the goal with your mechanism at least weekly.
    4. Recalibrate if your mechanism is creating more work, thus decreasing motivation. Don’t get rid of the goal, just find a more efficient way to track it that leads to synergies in other areas.

    If you need help doing this, our goal setting worksheet, which includes a section for “measurement” of each goal may help you.

    How are you measuring your goal(s) for 2015?

  • 3 Questions for Balancing Empathy and Expectations as a Leader

    3 Questions for Balancing Empathy and Expectations as a Leader

    Quite a while ago, I wrote about the “Es of LEadership” with empathy being one of them.  Not included in these essential “Es” was “expectations”.   And as the article on empathy points to, sometimes managing expectations and having empathy seem to be in direct conflict.

    Setting, communicating, monitoring and maintaining expectations is a critical skill for leaders.  We must maximize performance of others through effectively setting expectations high and constantly pushing others to reach higher.  When we do so, we provide meaningful and challenging work, which has been shown to increase worker satisfaction leading to higher productivity (and profits).

    Yet also as leaders, we always need to put people first, realizing they have demands both inside and outside of work.  People are our greatest asset, and we must be able to put ourselves in others’ shoes to lead effectively.  In other words, we must establish an empathetic approach to leading with a genuine interest in the whole person.

    So what do we do when “e” of expectation seems to be in direct conflict with the “e” of empathy?

    For example, say you have an employee that is not performing their job satisfactorily.  You are aware that this employee is dealing with several difficult personal issues.  He/she is in the process of getting a divorce, has a mom that is suffering from cancer and has recently brought a troubled teenager into his/her home to support.

    You take off your shoes and walk around in his or hers for a bit to establish empathy towards them.  You feel for this person, yet they are not maintaining performance standards at work.  Do you talk to them?  Do you ignore the issue?

    Bottom line, when do you lower your expectation bar for the sake of empathy??

    Here are three questions to consider for how to respond when empathy and expectations seem to be in conflict:

     1.  Is the need to compromise expectations for empathy an established pattern or an isolated event?  In the above example, has the employee had an issue with performance before this set of personal issues arose or has the person been a star performer in the past? 

    2. Does acting in empathy enable a continuation of bad choices? As a leader, our job in not to take ownership and responsibility for bad choices others have made either inside or outside of work and their subsequent consequences.  If you ignore expectations or lower them, will it enable the continuation of bad choices that impact not only your business but also the person?  You may have heard parents call this “tough love”.  And tough love is still love and empathy is a component of love.  Maintaining expectations may actually be an act of empathy.

    3. Does empathy for one cause you to be lacking in empathy towards the whole? If we let someone’s performance suffer and it causes others who do a good job day in and day out to take up the slack that shouldn’t be their responsibility, then we aren’t acting as a leaders.  When we do this, we are communicating to those star performers that it is okay not to meet expectations. We are actually giving the person who seemingly needs empathy the green light to NOT act in empathy towards their team.  Realizing that our actions have consequences that impact the greater whole is important both for us and for conveying this message to others.

    If you walk through these questions and realize a person needs a break from responsibilities of the job in order to resolve situations and come back better able to perform and meet expectations, then my hope is that you allow that flexibility in your company policies for a leave of absence.   As Workforce magazine points out in its feature article- “A Monumental Problem” from the August 2014 issue, mental health, stress and burnout is a major issue in today’s workplace.  Sometimes the best thing to do is allow people opportunities to regroup and come back better for having that time.

    However, if you walk through these questions and realize that you are just avoiding confrontation with empathy as your guise, become the better leader by tackling the difficult issue of refusing to lower the bar.  Often, when we lower our expectations that we know are fair expectations given the person’s skill level and expertise coupled with what is needed for the job, lowering the bar is potentially the inverse of empathetic.   It sabotages putting trust in people and empowering them to do a great job. And at our core, we all want to be valued and trusted.  When we take that away from people by avoiding difficult issues, we aren’t acting as leaders and we aren’t being very empathetic.

  • Impacting the performance of employees when you just want them to show up, do their job and not complain

    Impacting the performance of employees when you just want them to show up, do their job and not complain

    “I just want them to show up and do their job and not complain,” said one burned-out manager to me not long ago.  He was struggling with how to motivate the performance of several members of his staff, and in his exhaustion to try to be a leader, had adopted a mindset of something far from leadership.

    So how do leaders influence and impact the performance of employees when sometimes we just want them to show up and do their job and not complain?

    1.  Adopt a Leadership Mindset. First, a mindset of leadership needs to be present.  Leadership is grounded in seeing people as assets and realizing that the greatest responsibility of the role is to invest in people to drive their performance.   This means spending most of our time as leaders with those we are trying to develop, not wishing they would disappear into the oblivion get their work done and not bother us.  My manager client is never going to be able to drive performance in his employees long-term if his mindset about what his role is doesn’t change to one of leadership.

    2.  Get over your own burn-out. You can’t motivate performance if you’re burned out yourself.  My client was tired.   On top of dealing with employee issues that were unpleasant, he was trying to run a business, meet client needs and juggle a never-ending myriad of tasks.    The personnel issues were just another thing that he was barely spending enough time on to be able to see any results, and his people know from his actions that they are being seen as just another annoyance in a never ending cycle of being hopelessly behind and burned-out.  If you aren’t working smarter, not harder, why would they?  Part of a leadership mindset is setting an example.  If you are burned out and annoyed, you’re probably complaining and that’s why they are complaining too.

    If you are burned out:

    1. Take some time to regroup; get away if you have to and unplug.
    2. Manage your time. Consider how you can kill two-birds with one stone by empowering your people through delegation.
    3.  Get rid of stuff that doesn’t matter- say no.  And saying no to investing time your employees shouldn’t be one of the no’s on your list.  Saying no to things that aren’t important leads you to be able to say yes to your employees, who are important.

    The bottom-line is leaders impact the performance of their employees by the example they create.   If you want people to show up, do their job and not complain, then do the same.  Adopt a leadership mindset and find ways to get over the burn-out and negativity you may be experiencing.   If you can’t, then maybe you’re in the wrong role.

    You’ll find that if you empower employees through your positive mindset and results, you’ll get much more than just a group of non-complainers who do their job.  You’ll get a group of people who are engaged in their work and drive productivity. Start with yourself and it will rub off on those you seek to lead.

  • 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!

  • Get a best friend at work and other tips on work and life wellbeing

    At the recommendation of the Alabama Society of Human Resource Management’s Wellness Director, I downloaded a copy of Wellbeing:  The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter. The book describes the five essential elements of wellbeing (in order of importance) to be: 

    Career

    Social

    Financial

    Physical

    Community

    The authors emphasize how each element is intricately interwoven with each other.

    Here are some tips for maximizing work wellbeing by seeing wellbeing from a holistic perspective:

    Don’t be a workaholic.  “While you might think that people with high career wellbeing spend too much time working, they actually take more time to enjoy life, have better relationships, and don’t take things for granted.  They love what they do each day.”

    Get a work best friend.  “Our research revealed that just 30% of employees have a best friend at work.  Those who do are seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs, are better at engaging customers, produce higher quality work, have higher wellbeing and are less likely to get injured on the job.” 

    Salary matters, but it isn’t everything.  “Generally, those who have a lot of money can do what they want when they want to do it.  Money can increase short-term happiness by giving us more control over how we spend our time, whether that means a shorter commute, more time at home with family or additional social time with friends.”   And “What we found was that financial security- the perception that you have more than enough money to do what you want to do- has three times the impact of your income alone over overall wellbeing. Further, the lack of worry about money has more than double the impact of income over wellbeing.” 

    Being engaged in your work leads to giving back to the greater community.  “In one organization we studied, workers who were the most engaged in their jobs donated 2.6 times more than those who were not engaged in their careers.”  We agree.  Read more at Passion + Productivity = Give Back 

    How does your work wellbeing impact other areas of your wellbeing?

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