Dr. Alex Jones, Ph.D. in Leadership. CEO of National Leadership Association. Corporate Trainer, Speaker, and Coach. Author of DISLEADERSHIP.
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Sustainability is a focus of many nations and organizations around the world. In fact, it has become a key topic of conversation today. The general understanding of sustainability is "the preservation of natural resources and ecosystems to preserve human life on Earth." It is fantastic that we are now paying attention to this concept.
However, I believe we have become so focused on the environmental aspect of this concept that we forget the most important aspect of human sustainability, which is the sustainability of minds. The latter focuses on developing the soft skills of individuals across many disciplines.
The sustainability of the mind is of key importance to our societies today. Yet, it is often neglected. We tend to forget that sustainable minds lead to sustainable nations. The two are intertwined concepts that need immediate attention.
Seven Steps Toward Sustainable Minds
There are seven steps that we all need to take toward achieving sustainable minds in an organization.
1. Soft Skills Training
The pillar of talent development in organizations is training employees. Make sure you focus on developing the talent in your organization through both hard and soft skills. Soft skills have evolved beyond what they used to be—communication skills, time management, etc. Now, the foundation of any soft skill training is leadership and more specifically, sustainable leadership. There's been a paradigm shift that inspires employees to truly learn instead of just taking training because they are required to.
More soft skills that are included under the umbrella of leadership, specifically sustainable leadership include resilience, agility, well-being, work-life balance, motivation, employee recognition, emotional intelligence, innovation management, creativity in the workplace, team development, executive mentoring, effective communication, multigenerational workplace management and the new concept of disleadership (as featured in my recent book).
2. Quality
Choose the best in the field of training and never compromise on quality. The market is becoming challenging, and coaches and trainers who offer "anything and everything" are on the rise. I see a problem with this lack of specialization.
Determining quality should rely on qualification in the field of claimed specialty, certifications, books written, professional affiliations, knowledge, tolerance, adaptability, measured human capital returns on investment, empathy, understanding, patience, knowledge of psychometrics, speaking experience, regional and national recognition and, most importantly, the willingness to create a long-term partnership with the organization.
Make sure to focus on quality instead of quantity. That should be the goal of each and every organization.
3. Sustainable Career Paths
Engage with a trainer and/or a consultant to develop a sustainable path of growth for your employees. In other words, work on creating an individual development plan (IDP) for the training of each individual in your organization. Focus on developing a solid 12-month plan that emphasizes learning.
4. Assess
First and foremost, analyze employees' skill levels before engaging them in any training. Each trainer has a specific way of guiding employees to the right path. Hence, work collaboratively to implement your trainer's preferred assessment regardless of any previous assessment, evaluation or psychometrics. Past evaluations are not necessarily applicable to the method and approaches of a newly hired trainer or consultant. Become aligned with your current coach or trainer by working collaboratively.
5. Gap Analysis
Identify the knowledge and skill gaps of each employee. In addition, identify the overall gaps in the organization. Focus on both past and present gaps. This will give you a full insight into all gaps in your organization.
6. Train Everyone
Make sure to engage all employees in the training path, instead of solely providing it to mid- and senior-level employees. A very common mistake organizations make is focusing on top-level executives while ignoring the need to train their teams. Provide all levels of employees similar, if not the same, training provided to top-level employees. That will help your managers across different levels better understand each other as well as increase the organization's performance overall.
7. Coaching
Similarly, incorporate coaching for all employees across different levels in the organization after each training provided. Coaching is needed today more than ever, due to the increased challenges facing organizations. You would be amazed how coaching can take your employees and organization to the next level—you'll see increased performance, a higher satisfaction rate, a higher retention rate, lower turnover and increased productivity.
Final Thoughts
I hope by now you have realized the importance of training and coaching in organizations, which contribute significantly toward creating sustainable minds. And these, in turn, will create sustainable nations. I firmly believe that no nation can truly be sustainable unless it develops sustainable minds.
Following the seven steps above is going to take you to the next level of creating and developing sustainable minds, which can lead to a sustainable future.
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