With the much-needed move towards a greater emphasis on the importance of good governance, business leaders should rightly expect their conduct to be under scrutiny; both in the boardroom and in the way that they interact with employees. Business continues to evolve and – increasingly – the once accepted ‘iron fist’ of leadership is becoming a thing of the past.

Sometimes overlooked, the ability to master soft skills in a senior management position stands any business leader in good stead for effective and successful leadership. Where organisational culture can be key to combating mental health and wellbeing challenges in the workplace, the importance of soft skills should not be underestimated.

Wellbeing and why soft skills are important

Soft skills that include things like interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and communication are key to building and sustaining a healthy and inclusive culture in any organisation whatever the size or sector. And a healthy and inclusive culture is good for both individuals and the organisation. Crucially, relating to the topic of mental health and wellbeing, soft skills can also enable leaders and managers to more effectively identify wellbeing issues in the workplace early on, either for individuals or for teams.

Leaders and managers without the right soft skills are frequently the cause of wellbeing issues in the workplace, potentially giving rise to mental health challenges further down the line. Many people leave organisations because of people. Often difficult relationships with whoever manages them and/or a breakdown of understanding and communication can leave employees feeling disillusioned and isolated. This can often lead to stress, feeling undervalued or even, in some cases, feeling bullied.

In many organisations it is common for there to be a mismatch of belief and understanding relating to the organisational culture: for example, whether the organisation operates a safe and open culture without blame or bullying, whether employees feel valued and motivated at work, whether the culture encourages and facilitates open conversations about problems and challenges and if there is a positive and collaborative approach to resolving issues.

Armed with developed and finely tuned soft skills business leaders and managers can create good leadership and the supportive relationships that are key to building and sustaining healthy and productive working lives. Any potential wellbeing issues can be identified early for individuals or teams, leaders can intervene early and provide the appropriate levels of engagement and support to achieve a positive outcome.

My top tips for honing soft skills as a leader:

Get to know your people

• What motivates them
• What are their personal triggers for stress
• What are their personality traits and how do they relate to you and other members of the team
• Create a sense of belonging with meaningful feedback, giving praise not just criticism and being prepared to really listen

Develop and build on your own soft skills

• Learn how to be more aware of others including being able to spot often subtle signs of issues or tensions
• Recognise when there are subtle changes in individual employees or amongst teams including changes in behaviour, lack of focus and interaction or perhaps an individual becoming more detached from the rest of the team
• Have the confidence to identify and address issues

Have those ‘difficult conversations’ sooner rather than later

• Understand the ‘story’ or what has happened
• Listen to understand their perspective
• Agree together on problem solving with options that address both sides concerns and interests

Leaders and managers without the right soft skills, can often actually be the cause of wellbeing issues in the workplace. Many people leave organisations because of people, often difficult relationships with whoever manages them and/or a breakdown of understanding and communication. This can often lead to stress, feeling undervalued or even feeling bullied. Inmany organisations there is often a mismatch of belief and understanding about the organisational culture for example: whether it is a safe and open culture without blame or bullying, whether employees feel valued and motivated at work and are there open conversations about problems and challenges. Not having strongly developed soft skills can also be a problem in identifying wellbeing issues in the workplace either with individuals or teams.

Armed with the appropriate soft skills leaders and managers can create good leadership and the supportive relationships that are key to building and sustaining healthy and productive working lives.  Any issues can be identified early for individuals or teams,  leaders can intervene early and provide the appropriate levels of engagement and support to achieve a positive outcome.

Here are a few areas to focus on:

• Get to know your people
  • What motivates them
  • What are their personal triggers for stress
  • What are their personality traits and how do they relate to you and other members of the team
  • Create a sense of belonging with meaningful feedback, giving praise not just criticism and being prepared to really listen
• Develop and build on your own soft skills
  • Learn how to be more aware of others including being able to spot often subtle signs of issues or tensions
  • Recognise when there are subtle changes in individual employees or amongst teams including changes in behaviour, lack of focus and interaction or perhaps an individual becoming more detached from the rest of the team
  • Have the confidence to identify and address issues
• Have those ‘difficult conversations’ sooner rather than later

If you’d like to know more please reach out to:

mcoulson@ricordaconsultancy.com

07557 803012

Corporate wellness is so much more and there has been an increased focus upon corporate wellness or workforce wellbeing in recent years, however, our understanding is that many organisations still have a limited approach. So in reality have things really changed that much?

Considerable effort by some businesses has been made to provide workplace benefits, for example corporate recognition and promotion of national events such as National Stress Awareness days. Another common approach is to provide direct services for staff in the workplace, free massages & fresh fruit by the front door etc. Such approaches are not without benefit but these are often short lived and in some cases may not be entirely appropriate for the particular workforce

On closer review many organisations that recognise and embrace this philosophy often fail to embed the fundamental concepts of corporate wellness and workforce wellbeing into the very fabric of the organisation’s business model. This exposes them to the risk that their efforts to support staff are interpreted as tokenistic or paying lip service. Key factors for businesses to address are prevention and long term sustainability.

The diversity of the workforce in modern organisations means that businesses need to adopt a bespoke approach to delivering meaningful wellness & wellbeing programmes if these are to succede. Organisations must be clear about what they need to achieve from their wellness programmes, key ambitions need to be set out in a strategy and include ambitions to maintain health and wellbeing, prevent ill health and enhance workplace presence and performance.

Are you clear that you are using the right approaches in your organisation and meeting the diverse needs of your own workforce? And is it fully embedded into your business model?

It is a challenging time for most organisations in the private and public sectors, particularly with the recent uncertainty of Brexit, rising economic insecurity and wider global pressures. This is alongside the less obvious challenges, for example, contradictory demands by different generations of employees e.g. many Millennials (born early 80’s) feel their current organisations are not making full use of their skills. But it is possible to find opportunities in this period of change and a “culture of wellness” can support organisations in maximising these by getting the best out of employees, attracting and retaining the best staff, improving performance and quality and providing good ‘customer’ service.

Many organisations have some corporate wellness initiatives but these are not always an integral part of their business model, linked to a “culture of wellness” where employees can find their purpose in the company as well as finding their wellness peak. Many programmes are developed and implemented in silos, and not linked to wider organisation development or functions. There is a real opportunity to implement a new, more innovative approach to corporate wellness and a ‘culture of wellness’ that will have a positive impact on organisational performance.

Wellness needs to work and be relevant for employees and the employer:

• More employers are facing the reality that the welfare and productivity of their companies are intrinsically linked to the health of their workers.
• Employees need to see the value of and proactively engage in a ‘culture of wellness’. Often employees will state that the barriers to them improving their wellness is time and money but common barriers can be overcome within a culture of openness and communication

Developing a ‘culture of wellness’ is not necessarily a quick fix but does have a number of established benefits:

• Employees better able to adapt and cope with change
• Improved individual and organisational performance
• Improved ability to attract and retain the best employees
• Improved ‘customer service’
• Reduced absenteeism and presenteeism

Can you afford not to reap the benefits of corporate wellness and a ‘culture of wellness’?

The personal resilience of individuals working in today’s environment is clearly important in order to cope with constant change and pressure. Leaders at all levels of organisations set the tone, culture and expectations for the workforce. As well as having personal resilience they should be able to create and sustain a healthy working environment that enables people to work hard, feel great and cope effectively with day to day working. They have a key role in relation to the wellbeing, engagement and performance of their teams. So they need to understand the impact of personal resilience but also that of others. They need to get the balance right between challenge and support for their teams. After all most organisations will tell you that more people leave because of the relationship with their ‘leader’ than for any other reason.

In understanding the importance of resilience, particularly in today’s environment, I have reflected on my own personal journey of improving resilience. I have had a long and varied career having spent over 18 years working in the NHS before moving to consultancy over 9 years ago.

I have always been a resilient person, but I had to learn to develop that strength further and improve my coping strategies as I moved into new roles throughout my career. The stresses and stressors have changed over the years which reinforces my belief about the importance of resilience both in my personal and work life.

I have supported people in a number of organisations in building their own resilience and understanding their roles, particularly as leaders, in the resilience of teams. I have also developed programmes that support building resilience.

Because of my own experiences and that of others it is important to me that I continue to support people in understanding the importance of resilience in the workplace and the ways of creating and sustaining a healthy, productive working environment. After all it’s what most people and organisations want isn’t it?