Continuing on with the series of the 13 pillars in our National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the workplace, this post addresses Growth and Development. The Guide to the Standard defines a workplace as “A work environment where employees receive encouragement and support in developing their interpersonal, emotional, and job skills.”
Some of the hallmarks of organizations promoting growth and development of their employees are:
- providing ongoing employee feedback that supports understanding the specifics of how to improve
- supervisors are supported to foster continuous growth and development, from resources both internal and external
- the organization encourages their team to take on new challenges and be innovative
- employees are provided with opportunities to develop their soft skills and emotional intelligence. This will result in more effective teams that are highly invested in the organization’s success.
Taking a closer look at feedback, to be effective in supporting employee growth, the information must be provided in a format the receiver can best process. This means using a couple of different formats to deliver the message. Providing written comments on what was done well and where there is room for improvement is often the best way to start. This information should then be reviewed privately and encourage a discussion where the employee has a chance to clarify and request additional tools, resources, or information on how to undertake the steps to improve. Note: this requires the supervisor to have adequate people skills and a high level of emotional intelligence to provide growth focused feedback.
Another aspect is supervisors must support the growth and development of their whole team. Good supervisors know that their success depends on supporting their team. Insecure supervisors who become envious of the success of their team are shortsighted and this will be a detriment to them in the long term. In contrast, those who nurture their team members’ growth will succeed in the long term. A mindset of supporting the growth of others provides wins in all areas: the employee, the supervisor, and the organization.
As outlined above, encouraging team member to take on new challenges and strive for innovation benefits everyone. Organizations are always looking for ways to streamline processes or develop new solutions for their customers. This can only happen in a culture supporting the growth and development of their team, allowing for the creative and innovate processes that benefit the organization’s bottom line. Even if the results were not entirely successful, there is new learning to be integrated and shared. Thinking creatively and growing in new areas must always beneficial.
All of these activities occur within an organization that has people with well developed people skills and a high degree of emotional intelligence. Feedback and encouragement to take on new challenges have to be conducted in a supportive culture. If not, the results will be increased work stress for everyone and damage to the resiliency of the team. Emotional intelligence and communication are fundamental to success in all aspects of work life. Organizations that invest in the growth and development of these skills can reap the rewards of staff teams resilient to workplace stress that experience less absenteeism and turn over. Having effective staff teams invested in the company obviously improve the organization’s financial circumstances.
Community Healthcare Consulting provides proven methods to increase the growth and development of staff teams. For more information on how to support growth and development, or improving the people skills of our teams in the current work world, contact Community Healthcare Consulting for an initial discussion, or book a session and get started supporting your team’s resiliency to workplace stress.
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