Employee Productivity Post from upStart HR
This is a great posting from Ben Eubanks from upstartHR that summarizes some research on a manager’s impact on employee productivity. Be sure to click the links at the end of the post to see the original source of the info and the YouTube video.
The leaders you need may already be in your organization. They may not have a formal leadership title yet. They may be individual contributors, project leads, experienced team members, or newer employees who consistently show initiative, influence, curiosity, and trust. The challenge is not always finding leadership potential. Often, the challenge is recognizing it early and developing it with intention.
Too often, organizations wait until there is a leadership gap before they start thinking about leadership development. Someone leaves. The business grows. A team needs a new supervisor. A high-performing employee gets promoted because they are great at the work. Then, almost overnight, the job changes. Success is no longer just about technical skill, individual productivity, or personal drive. Now, success depends on the ability to influence people, communicate clearly, coach performance, handle conflict, and make decisions that shape culture.
That transition can be tough, especially when employees are expected to lead before they have been prepared to do so. Harvard Professional & Executive Development notes that emerging leaders need core management skills to drive organizational goals, foster innovation, build trust, and adapt to change. That is not just professional development. It is a business need.
At Horizon Point, we believe leadership development starts by looking within. When organizations learn how to identify leadership potential and develop emerging leaders from within, they create continuity, strengthen culture, increase engagement, and prepare for future growth. They also send an important message to employees: we see your potential, and we are willing to invest in it.
In our work with organizations across industries, we see this over and over again: generic leadership programs rarely create lasting change. Organizations need leadership development that connects to their real business challenges, values, people, and future goals.
For one organization, leadership development became a key part of succession planning. Horizon Point partnered with senior leaders to identify the competencies needed at different levels, clarify the talent pipeline, and equip current leaders to become more intentional career developers for others. The goal was not simply to “train managers.” The goal was to help leaders become active developers of talent throughout the organization.
This aligns with guidance from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which describes succession planning as a systematic approach to building leadership pipelines, developing potential successors, and focusing resources on talent development. Leadership development is not separate from workforce planning. It is one of the ways organizations protect continuity, capability, and future performance.
We have also seen the impact of customized assessment and coaching work. In one engagement, Horizon Point helped design a customized 360 assessment aligned with organizational values and leadership competencies. The assessment data became the foundation for individual development action plans and succession planning decisions. Participants received coaching to understand their results, identify strengths and gaps, and create clear improvement plans.
That is the power of a well-designed leadership development process. It provides both insight and action. Data without development can feel like a report card. Development without data can feel unclear. Together, they give organizations a practical way to grow people with purpose.
The Center for Creative Leadership emphasizes that effective leadership development should connect to business strategy, include real-world application, and be reinforced over time. We see this in practice every day. The best programs give leaders space to practice, reflect, receive feedback, and apply what they are learning in real situations.
One of the most thought-provoking questions we ask emerging leaders is simple: What environment do you create?
Leaders may not be able to motivate people directly, but they can create the conditions where motivation, ownership, and growth are more likely to happen. They can clarify expectations. Build trust. Connect work to purpose. Give feedback in a way that develops instead of discourages. Manage different personalities, communication styles, and conflict responses. Make people feel seen, challenged, and supported.
That is why leadership development must begin from within. It starts with self-awareness. Emerging leaders need to understand how their own habits, values, communication patterns, and assumptions affect others. From there, they can build awareness of the people they lead.
Every organization will face transitions: retirements, growth, restructuring, new markets, changing workforce expectations, and evolving customer needs. The question is not whether leadership gaps will appear. The question is whether the organization is preparing people now to step into them.
At Horizon Point, we create and customize leadership development programs that help organizations grow leaders from the inside out. Sometimes that means designing a full leadership development or succession planning process. Sometimes it means facilitating existing curriculum locally with excellence and care. Sometimes it means assessment, coaching, train-the-trainer support, or workshops focused on the skills new leaders need most.
Because when organizations develop emerging leaders with intention, they do more than fill future roles. They build stronger cultures, more capable teams, and workplaces where people and performance can grow together.
To learn more about developing emerging leaders and building a strong leadership pipeline, explore these related blog posts:
From Manager to Coach: Coaching Leadership That Builds Teams
6 Steps for Choosing Leadership Training Content and 7 Recommended Frameworks
Interested in developing emerging leaders within your organization? Explore our newly revised Leadership Development webpage to learn how Horizon Point helps organizations build leadership capacity, strengthen succession planning, and prepare leaders for future success.
Strong managers are essential to organizational performance, employee engagement, and workplace culture. Yet many organizations face challenges when supervisors are expected to address performance issues, manage employee concerns, and drive accountability without the skills and support needed to do so effectively. Horizon Point’s Manager & Supervisor Development programs help organizations build leadership capacity by equipping managers with practical tools to lead teams, navigate workplace challenges, improve communication, and foster a culture of accountability that supports both employee and organizational success.
Strong managers play a critical role in translating organizational goals into day-to-day performance. They influence employee engagement, productivity, accountability, and retention across every level of the organization.
Yet many organizations promote high-performing employees into management roles without providing the leadership skills, tools, and support needed to effectively manage people and performance.
As a result, organizations often experience:
When managers are not equipped to lead effectively, the impact extends beyond individual performance. It affects team effectiveness, workplace culture, employee retention, and the organization’s ability to achieve strategic goals.
Investing in manager development helps create consistent leadership practices, strengthen accountability, and build a workforce that is better positioned to support long-term organizational success.
Managing people requires a unique set of skills that directly influence employee performance, engagement, and retention. Yet many organizations find that managers are expected to lead teams without consistent training, clear expectations, or practical tools for managing workplace challenges.
As a result, organizations often encounter:
Left unaddressed, these challenges can affect team performance, employee engagement, retention, and overall organizational effectiveness.
Horizon Point helps organizations strengthen leadership capability by providing managers with the skills, confidence, and practical strategies needed to lead effectively and support organizational success.
Effective manager development goes beyond delivering training. Organizations need solutions that address their unique leadership challenges, reinforce organizational expectations, and create lasting behavior change.
That’s why Horizon Point partners with organizations to design manager development experiences that align with their culture, goals, workforce needs, and leadership expectations.
Every Manager & Supervisor Development program is customized to reflect the realities of your workplace and the challenges your leaders face. Rather than relying on generic content, we focus on practical strategies managers can immediately apply to strengthen communication, improve accountability, address performance concerns, and lead with confidence.
Our approach is designed to create measurable impact—not just increased knowledge. Through facilitated workshops, cohort-based learning, coaching, and practical application, we help organizations build leadership capability that supports employee success and organizational performance.
Strong leadership influences employee engagement, accountability, communication, and performance. Hear how Horizon Point partnered with TARCOG to develop leaders and strengthen organizational effectiveness.
Every Manager & Supervisor Development program is customized to the organization’s goals, culture, and leadership challenges. While content is tailored to each client, programs often focus on key leadership capabilities that support accountability, employee engagement, and organizational performance, including:
These practical leadership skills help managers make better decisions, communicate more effectively, and contribute to stronger organizational outcomes.
One of the most common leadership challenges organizations face is helping high-performing employees successfully transition into management roles. While these individuals often excel in their technical responsibilities, leading people requires a different set of skills and expectations.
Doer to Leader is designed to help organizations prepare new and emerging leaders for success by building the confidence, skills, and mindset needed to effectively lead others.
Participants develop practical leadership capabilities, including:
Through practical application and real-world scenarios, Doer to Leader helps organizations strengthen leadership readiness, improve manager effectiveness, and support long-term organizational success.
Learn more about the Doer to Leader program.
Every organization faces unique leadership challenges. That’s why Horizon Point customizes manager development programs to align with organizational goals, workplace culture, and leadership expectations.
The topics below represent examples of the leadership development solutions we frequently deliver to help organizations strengthen manager effectiveness, improve accountability, enhance communication, and support employee performance.
Basics of Leadership for Managers
Leading with Emotional Intelligence
Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace
DiSC: Understanding Yourself & Others for Managers
Organizations that invest in manager development often experience meaningful improvements across their workforce and operations, including:
Effective managers do more than supervise employees—they influence engagement, productivity, accountability, and organizational success. By strengthening leadership capability, organizations create a foundation for sustainable growth and long-term performance.
Effective managers help create accountability, improve performance, strengthen employee engagement, and support organizational success.
Let’s talk about your leadership challenges, organizational goals, and how Horizon Point can help develop managers who drive results.
Many people have stepped into management because they were great at doing the work.
They were strong individual contributors. They solved problems quickly. They delivered results.
So when they become managers, they often continue doing what worked before. They direct tasks, answer questions, and step in to solve problems.
But this approach can create an unintended challenge.
When managers remain the primary problem solver, team growth can stall. Over time, employees begin to rely on the manager for answers instead of developing their own solutions. The leader becomes a bottleneck rather than a multiplier.
This is where the shift from manager to coach becomes powerful.
Instead of focusing primarily on directing work, coaching leadership focuses on developing people.
When leaders develop people, teams become stronger, more capable, and more engaged.
Research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) highlights that coaching leadership strengthens employees’ problem-solving ability and builds long-term capability rather than reliance on direction from their manager.
In other words, coaching leaders do not just solve today’s problem. They help employees learn how to solve the next one. Over time, this shift creates stronger and more capable teams.
Research summarized by the National Institutes of Health indicates that supportive leadership and developmental feedback are linked to higher employee engagement and improved performance.
Similarly, research shared through the American Psychological Association connects regular feedback and developmental leadership practices with improved workplace well-being and productivity.
1. Ask more questions than you answer. When employees bring a challenge, ask questions that help them think through the issue and build ownership of their work.
2. Focus on development, not just performance. Make space for conversations about strengths, growth opportunities and future goals.
For more ideas, see Horizon Point’s 4 Ways to Get Unstuck with Professional Development
3. Provide feedback regularly. When feedback is clear and timely, employees learn faster and gain confidence in their progress.
4. Create opportunities for reflection. Ask employees what worked, what could improve and what they learned from the experience.
The goal of coaching leadership is not just stronger performance today. It is building developmental teams where people continually grow their skills, confidence, and leadership capacity.
Managers get work done through people. Coaches develop people who can get the work done.At Horizon Point, we help organizations strengthen leadership capability through leadership development programs, coaching engagements, and organizational consulting.
We develop leaders who create other leaders. Through training, coaching, and team development, we help leaders become workplace innovators and champions for inclusive, high-performing cultures.
We strengthen talent strategies that drive engagement and growth. From succession planning and assessments to engagement analysis and talent mapping, we help organizations build and sustain strong talent pipelines.
We support workforce systems that attract, retain, and engage people. Our work includes compensation and total rewards strategy, effective hiring practices, and HR structure and compliance support.
From public agencies and nonprofits to healthcare systems, manufacturers, and quasi-governmental entities, we partner with teams across industries that want their people, leaders, and workforce strategies to work better together.
While our clients span many industries, our approach to HR and Talent Development Consulting is always the same: people first.
Click the logos below to read case studies of our work with these organizations.
We start by listening. We take time to understand your people, your goals, and your constraints. From there, we design practical, people-centered solutions and stay engaged to ensure they work in the real world, not just on paper. Our HR and Talent Development Consulting is fully customized for you.
Since 2011, Horizon Point Consulting has partnered with organizations across the country and across industries to strengthen leadership, talent, and workforce strategies—always with a people-first approach.
Our work is led by a multidisciplinary team with deep, real-world experience. Team members hold HR and career development certifications, advanced training in labor and employment law, and backgrounds in industrial and organizational psychology. This blend of expertise allows us to design solutions that are not only strategic and innovative, but practical, compliant, and grounded in how people actually work.
Known for thoughtful partnership, outstanding service, and results that last, we bring years of hands-on experience to every engagement—earning industry recognition and the long-term trust of our clients.
“Horizon Point’s talented staff helped our team create our agency values, which were then translated into measurable goals for all of us to commit to achieving! Their training approach with our supervisors was not only informative in every way – it was also aspirational and Impactful!” – Michelle Jordan, Executive Director, TARCOG
“Horizon Point provided excellent service and expertise in developing our custom skills gap analysis. Their work was professional and they even finished the project earlier than originally planned. They were a pleasure to work with and the presentations Mary Ila delivered were extremely informative and tailored toward the big picture, for our regional workforce council, and to the specific needs of the Shoals Chamber’s executive committee. We will certainly call on Horizon Point again in the future as the need arises for such information.” – Shoals Chamber Representative
People First • Productivity • Passion • Continuous Learning • Giving Back
Our values shape how we partner with clients, develop leaders, and strengthen organizations.
We believe strong workplaces are built through shared learning, community, and meaningful relationships. Whether it’s a conversation, a virtual meeting, or coffee if we’re nearby, we’d love to connect and explore how we can support your organization and strategic goals.
Horizon Point Consulting, Inc. is proud to be an accredited member and trusted service provider of the Better Business Bureau of North Alabama.
