Personal Discovery

As an L&D expert, I understand that while training budgets have been slashed, there is an urgent need for investment in your most important assets, your workforce. I work in several blue-chips and with a few SMEs and all are facing the dilemma in terms of what type of skills to invest in and how might this pay in terms of ROI. I’ve highlighted the three key skills and workplace development areas I think will become more important over the next couple of years and the reasons why.

Firstly, digital skills are going to be commonplace in every organisation as globalisation continues to feed a 24/7 culture. SEO skills and the ability to connect with your customers through the use of chat services are essential to your sustainable marketing strategy. As four and possibly five generations come together, (as Gen. Z appears in the workplace very soon), there are choice opportunities to provide in-house coaching by those who are more tech-savvy that their counterparts. Business is tough enough as it is! Those companies who cannot connect with and obtain feedback from customers via social media to help continuously improve their products and services, will lag behind their digitally-embracing competitors.

I was intending this to be a short blog, but now I’ve started…!

Competing demands for time, attention and increased stress in our ever-faster, want-it-all society means that depression is on the increase. The World Health Organisation has revealed that more than 300 million people live with depression – up 18 per cent between 2005 and 2015. Helping employees to become resilient must be on the development agenda. Supporting your people to cope with demands, including money, work/life balance, etc., is often seen as a “do I really dare to go there” conversation, but those emotionally-intelligent organisations who offer workshops to help build resilience, or offer a link to a support service, are more likely to help employees deal more effectively with their issues. As the first few steps, review your own working practices to remove obstacles, respect work/life balance, and nurture a culture of being ok to talk about issues. Put links/posters to mental health charities on noticeboards too. See the Olark example and how a progressive-thinking and caring CEO supported an employee who needed a time-out. http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-happened-when-employee-took-mental-health-day-off-2017-7?r=US&IR=T

I love the idea and practice of a personal mission statement. Not only can it help you to be less distracted by hassles, and energy-wasters, it really does focus your efforts on what’s really important to you and why. I’m sharing my diagram to help others to create their own statements; to help them to live and play by their own values. Mine is simple: 

“I like to realise potential, by providing insights to guide and develop others, to help them to shape their own success!” Cheryl