What the Dentist’s Chair Can Teach Us About Leadership

What can a trip to the dentist teach us about leadership? A lot, it turns out. In this blog post, we explore how creating psychological safety—just like a great pediatric dental team does—can boost motivation, trust, and performance at work. Learn why safety and healthy conflict go hand-in-hand, and how vulnerability and structure help teams align (even when they disagree). If you’re ready to build a culture where people feel energized, engaged, and empowered to speak up, this one’s for you.

5 Tips for New Managers

At Horizon Point, we’ve guided many managers and navigated our own leadership journeys. Success in management isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about building relationships, self-awareness, and continuous learning. We often share practical tips with new managers, things we wish we knew when we started. Here are five that we find particularly valuable.

Nourishing Nyad: Growing a Startup, a Team, and a Mission

This special guest feature from the team at Nyad explores what it truly means to nourish a startup, a team, and a mission. Founders Virginia and Chris are tackling water pollution with AI-driven wastewater treatment, but their journey goes beyond technology—it’s about leadership, resilience, and fostering a culture of growth. From refining their vision through customer feedback to building a strong, mission-driven team, they’ve learned that success comes from continuous learning and community support. As they grow, they remain committed to nourishing innovation, leadership, and the world around them.

March 2025 Leadership Development Carnival

Welcome to the March 2025 Leadership Development Carnival! Horizon Point is excited to host the carnival this month, featuring  posts from leadership experts from around the globe on the topics of communication, development, engagement, motivation, productivity, team building, and more.  The Framework for Organizational Excellence by John Spence Excellence isn’t accidental—it’s built with purpose. My new Organizational Excellence Framework brings together the key elements of success: purpose, culture, strategy, innovation, and simplicity. Read to see how it all comes together. How To Build a Better Relationship with Your Difficult (Icy) Boss by Karin Hurt  You know the type: the difficult

Are You Leading or Just Managing? Let’s Find Out

The terms manager and leader often get used interchangeably, but should they? “Leading versus managing” is a common search phrase. At HPC, we don’t really think it’s a “versus” situation. You can be a good manager without being a great leader, but you can’t be a great leader without strong management skills. So, what’s distinct about them, and why does it matter? Let’s break it down.  You Manage Time and Tasks Management primarily involves managing things that largely impact people, but it does not seek to influence people like leadership does.  It’s hard to lead others well if you can