Horizon Point Consulting

Search results for: “productivity”

Passion + Productivity = Give Back (Real Estate)

As I walk into Micor to talk with their Vice President, Dave Ponegalek, about how they demonstrate passion + productivity = give back in the work that they do, there are signs on every door in the building that say “Thank you Ms. Lydia for your 5 years of service.”   When I arrived, I saw “Ms. Lydia” as most affectionately call her, walking over from the other building with a huge cake in her hand. Her anniversary cake. Everyone in the company has been over at the building celebrating her five years of contribution to the company.
Although Dave never mentions celebrating employee anniversaries as a way the company demonstrates a give back mindset (it is just so ingrained in who they are and what they do it doesn’t seem noteworthy to him), it is just one example of the passion, leading to productivity and giving that runs through Micor Industries.

Micor was established in Union Grove, Alabama, by Mike Heath in 2000. In 2002, the company moved to its first location in Decatur, Alabama, and since that time has grown to be a go-to provider of machined parts for a variety of customers. In addition, the company has won the Alabama Emerging Manufacturer of the Year and has grown to 70 employees.

When asked about Micor’s focus on passion, it is obvious the focus is on being a valued partner to customers by being the best in their business. Micor hires and retains individuals who are passionate about machining quality parts and meeting customer needs.

What strikes me the most, though, in the way that Micor achieves its results is through a relentless focus on tracking and measuring performance. In 2013, a focus on establishing an accountability culture was created. Every important factor in the business was set and measured in the form of a dashboard. It is visual, it is reviewed weekly, everyone sees it and everyone knows where things stand. The next step in this accountability culture is driving the visual reminder of the results that need to monitored and achieved through TV screens throughout the company’s two facilities. This focus on the productivity measures that drive profitability lead to increased rewards for all at Micor.

Because Micor knows the focus on passion and productivity is driven by it’s people, the accountability culture is a part of all the team. “If everyone cares about what they are doing, they are going to give more than their all everyday. They will care if the part ships today instead of tomorrow, and care about if the product is right, packed right, etc.,” says Dave Ponegalek.”

This leads to a focus on continuous professional development, rewards in the form of bonuses when profitability goals are met, gift cards given out at random for a job well done and, yes, anniversary cakes.

The focus on being a valued partner extends beyond customer and employee partnerships. Micor sees itself as a partner in the community. This creates a “ripple effect” as owner Mike Heath emphasizes that being involved in the community leads to better results for everyone.

One example of Micor’s focus on giving back comes through their partnership with Decatur Heritage Christian Academy.    Each year, Micor holds a contest for high school seniors at the school.   The students are required to write about what they want to be when they grow up and are then interviewed by a team. The winner(s) get to job shadow with Micor, which includes a trip to Houston to meet with Micor customers.

“We want to spark interest in our industry and create more people with a passion for what we do,” say Dave. The value of seeing first-hand what an industry and a job is like is, unfortunately, not an experience many high school students get to have or try to pursue.   When a passion for what you do leads to giving back in ways that allow others to spark a passion, we all win- individuals, companies and communities.

You can learn more about Micor by visiting their website at:

http://www.micorind.com/

And by following them on Facebook.

December 29, 2014
5 Ways To Find Your Productivity Sweet Spot
Have you already started to think about your 2014 New Year’s resolutions? Before you do, consider how you can be most productive is a good way to frame those resolutions before you attempt to define them and then tackle them with the onset of 2014.

Fast Company devoted much of its latest issue to productivity by highlighting productive people. These people all found their productivity sweet spot in a variety of ways. I could find no consistency in the activities or routines each person established, but there were several insights gleaned from the ways these highly productive and successful people in all walks of life found their sweet spots:
1. Find what time of day you are most productive and maximize it. Find yourself getting the most done before lunch but waning by the time 2 pm rolls around? Get up early and maximize that time. Tackle your most important tasks in the morning. Hit your stride and motivation after dinner? Set aside your big tasks or activities that require the most thinking for that time of day.
2. Eliminate distractions during your most productive times. You are definitely a morning person, but the first thing you do in the morning is check your email and you start your day bogged down before it even really begins. Don’t open your inbox until you’ve tackled what’s most important. Find yourself feeling inspired around 9 pm but your habit is just to sit in front of the TV? Turn it off. Distractions could be as simple as spending too much time making decisions that are simply distractions. For example, one person highlighted in Fast Company said she eats the same thing for lunch everyday. It eliminates the time it takes to get the lunch together and to think about what to eat. Supposedly college football’s most sought after coach does this too.
3. Find what inspires you to be productive and engage in those Activities. Are you fueled by a good workout; a good conversation with certain people who stimulate your thinking or a good read that gets your creativity flowing? Set aside time to do these things. These activities are just as important if not more than getting to those tasks that demand your productivity.
4. Use productivity “tools” to help you maximize your productivity, not as solution to lack of motivation. I’m intrigued by the productivity app Carrot. Apparently (I don’t use it) it lets you load your to-do list, and when you check things off the list, you earn points to get things for being productive. There are also apps and websites allowing people to earn money for losing weight. You pay for the service, and hedge your bets. But guess what? These sites make money. Why? Because most people don’t see their goals through to the end. People don’t lose weight not because the tool doesn’t work, but because the tool doesn’t generate the motivation needed to be successful. So vet your tools wisely. Use them because they help you manage your productivity not motivate it.
5. Be passionate. It’s hard to sustain productivity if you aren’t passionate about what you spend most of your doing. As Joe Berkowitz stated in his feature in Fast Company, “If you love what you do, it’s easy to be productive.” Being productive for the sake of productivity isn’t actually productive. It’s just spinning on a wheel that leads to nowhere and helps no one. Find what cranks your tractor and spend more time on it.
What tips do you have for maximizing productivity as we approach a new year with new resolutions?
December 16, 2014
4 Tips for reconciling the irony of stress and productivity in the workplace
What’s impacting performance in the workplace more than anything else these days? Many people would say it is stress, which is pushing some to the point of full-blown mental health issues.
Consider how Graeme Cowan, author of Back From the Brink, describes this reality in the Fall 2014 issue of Global Corporate Xpansion Magazine:

“In a hypercompetitive global economy, organizations must be ‘on’ 24/7. Yet this scramble for perpetual performance is taking a harsh toll on employees. They relentlessly push to get ahead and stay ahead- working longer days, emailing after hours, taking fewer vacations- often with little acknowledgement for their efforts. The result is a workforce that’s not just disengaged (Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace report revealed that 70 percent of U.S. employees fall into this category), but also stressed and depressed.

And here’s the irony. The constant hustle aimed at increasing productivity and profitability actually decreases both.”[i]

So what should you do as an employer to combat this irony?
1. Assess both the level of stress and the causes of stress in your workforce. Developing and administering an organizational survey to assess the level of stress in employees can help you effectively develop a plan to reduce stress levels at the workplace through policies, practices and programs. You can’t know what to change if you don’t know what the sources of issues are. In addition, if you do put a plan in place, you can’t know if and how you’ve improved if you don’t have baseline measurements to compare.
2. Provide stress management training to your staff. Providing stress management training to your employees can help increase productivity and profitability in the workplace. Hopefully you have committed to assessing the stress level of your organization (see #1) and have a skilled training provider that can take that information and develop a customized stress management program for your organization.
3. Analyze your talent management processes, particularly your selection process. Does it assess people for organizational and job fit? For more reading on this, check out an article I published inHR Alabama– see page 16. If people aren’t aligned with the organizational purpose and the job purpose, stress is bound to ensue, leading to decreased productivity.
4. Design policies, procedures and tools that allow people to work smarter not harder and that put controls in place to keep people from falling victim to the toll that working 24/7 takes.
For more food for thought on this see:

Flexibility to Reduce Workplace Stressors

Should Employers Ban Email after Work Hours?

Stress Leave

Need more help as an employee or employer to manage stress? Download Stress Management: How to Deal with Stress in the Short and Long Term
December 9, 2014
Passion + Productivity = Give Back (Manufacturing)

Making a transition back into the workplace can be challenging for a stay-at-home mom or dad that has been out of the workplace for quite some time, but with a focus on discerning what your passionate about, how that can make you productive and how that leads to you giving back to a cause, community or purpose that you love, the transition is not quite as hard as it seems.
Whitney Clemons, a realtor with Ben Porter ERA did just that.   Trained as an Accountant at the University of Alabama, Whitney spent time in her twenties working as an accountant and auditor at what was, at that time, a big eight accounting firm and then Intergraph. Although she learned a lot in these roles, she wasn’t passionate about the work.

After her first child turned one and another one soon on the way (followed by a third several years later) Whitney and her husband made the decision for her to stay at home with their children.   It was the best thing for a family and a decision she doesn’t regret, but when her oldest turned 15, she began to realize that she didn’t want to be sitting at home when all of her kids were off at college without a plan and a passion.

“I love properties and houses and helping people with major life decisions,” she says. In addition, although the experience she had as an accountant and auditor didn’t lead her to love either of those roles, the components of those positions in reviewing legal contracts, multi-tasking and organizing were all things she enjoyed. She found that real estate was an avenue to weld these things together.

Although not certain this was a full-time route she wanted to take, she pursued and got her real estate license anyway. “Act.” she says, “Even if you aren’t 100% sure it is what you want to do, move forward and see.”

And with this advice, what was part-time became full-time within 12 months and what has lead Whitney to be a $7 million producer annually, coming in as the number two producer for all five North Alabama offices including offices that serve a much bigger market than the one she primarily serves.

But her focus is not on the production number, but the passion behind the productivity and the focus on giving back. “My first and really only measure of productivity is a satisfied customer,” she says.

These continual satisfied customers have led to referrals, repeat business and even an appearance on House Hunters for Whitney, but the revenue and the TV appearance never were the goal. Satisfied people were and continue to be.

In addition, giving back to her community is a focus. Throughout her adult life Whitney volunteered with the schools in her community and the hospital, among other things. She realized that she could continue to promote the community through marketing and selling homes, and in fact, this could potentially be the best way for her to give back and make the most impact to promote her community.

She said, “The hospital is important for the vitality of the community, the schools are important, beautification is important, but so is getting young families to live in the community in order to support and grow all of these things.”

Your passion doesn’t have to be separate from the way you are giving back, and neither should your vocation or career.   All should be interwoven.   Thanks to Whitney for reminding us to weave them all together and focus on productivity through people not numbers or dollars.

October 15, 2014
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.

July 24, 2014

More posts