Aspiring Leaders and Well-being
Leadership development is an essential function for most organizations. Without the ongoing efforts to identify, train, and develop a leadership pipeline, organizations may be unable to achieve their corporate, talent management, and engagement goals.
During the pandemic, I was asked to be a speaker in a leadership development program for a large financial services organization. Over the course of planning the program, the learning and development team become keenly aware of the amount of stress the group of leaders were under. They wanted to acknowledge it and support them by including content focused on well-being.
Leadership development programs an ideal place to embed elements of well-being. After all, well-being in an organization starts with the leaders.
Leadership development programs create the opportunity to instill knowledge, skills, and behaviors that create a thriving workplace and provide fulfillment to the leader. Here are a few ways well-being can be incorporated:
Recognize the importance of self-care. When an organization acknowledges and encourages self-care, it creates a culture that values well-being. This can be embedded into leadership development programs by doing something as simple as taking frequent breaks. But it can also go much deeper to acknowledge stress, burnout, and challenges in work/life integration.
Create psychologically safe workplaces. When leaders create psychologically safe workplaces, everyone thrives. This is a multi-faceted topic that includes instilling shared purpose, communications, and trust-building. When leaders create psychologically safe workplaces, well-being is enhanced.
Create awareness for mental well-being. Mental well-being has been a ubiquitous topic during the pandemic. A leader’s ability to acknowledge their own mental well-being and to be a support to others on this topic, goes a long way to support everyone’s well-being.
Teach empathy and compassion skills. Empathy and compassion are essential leadership skills today. Leadership development programs provide the ideal opportunity for leaders to improve their skills and creating a culture that cares about the employees.
Today’s leaders required new skills and behaviors to support the workforce of the future. Using well-being as a foundation will help create thriving people in a thriving organization.
