Adopt a ‘back to school’ mindset and grow your skills this September
Opinion
It can be tempting to feel worried about the busyness that lays ahead for the rest of the year. But opening your mind up to learning new skills will serve you over the autumn and beyond.
September is a month that will always bring a fresh back-to-school feeling, even for those of us who left school longer than we care to remember.
After a relatively relaxed August in the industry, and some time off for those of us able to take it, we return to our desks ready for a full few months until — dare we say it — Christmas.
It can be tempting to feel some worry about the undeniable busyness that lays ahead. That’s natural, especially if you’ve been lucky enough to escape from it in the summer.
However, as September makes its way towards us, I encourage you to adopt a “back to school” mindset — in a positive way. This means opening your mind up to learning new skills that will serve you over the autumn and beyond. It also means leading the way for your teams, showing that you’re still learning and that, in doing the same, they will also benefit from developing themselves.
Every day’s a school day
Learning a new skill is hugely beneficial for mental wellness. It gives a person so much more than the acquisition of the skill itself. In fact, learning is so intrinsic to mental wellness that it was listed as a key action for boosting mental health in the NHS Confederation paper Five Ways to Wellbeing.
If you are feeling any heaviness about being back at work after the break, consider the excitement of something fresh and new — ie. a good training programme — and anticipating putting your new learnings into practice. This sense of having something new to look forward to can help smooth the way as you get back into your otherwise usual routine.
Engaging in group learning is key, as this gives people a mood boost from being in community. As Bruce Daisley, the workplace culture expert, describes brilliantly in his interview on the Nabs Podcast, research demonstrates that when people come together in community for a shared interest or learning, the benefits of being in that community are incredible.
As a leader, there’s yet another benefit to reap in offering training and development programmes to your team. Your team will feel as though you’re investing in them — and that in itself can help to build their motivation, mood and engagement.
Plus, of course, with their new knowledge in place, your team will contribute even more to the success of your department and overall business.
Focus on managers
So, the question is: what to learn once we’re “back at school”?
Nabs’ All Ears community consultation (October 2023) revealed five key findings where the industry needs more support. A good starting point would be to look at these and see which particularly resonates with your team or business requirements.
One crucial area that we’re focusing on is managers. We investigated at length the squeeze under which managers are placed, particularly those in their first management roles as well as middle managers. Today’s managers are often expected to support the mental wellness of their teams without adequate training on this core skill. We recommend Nabs’ Mental Wellness Conversations workshop, which can help managers foster team atmospheres in which everybody feels welcome — and, in doing so, set the foundations for robust emotional health within that team.
More cohesion and understanding
Thinking more broadly, All Ears also revealed the “lived experience” gap, with industry employees at senior and junior levels prone to making assumptions about each other.
One way to foster more cohesion and understanding could be to hold training sessions attended by people working at both levels. Spending time in a room, learning with and from each other, can go a long way towards increasing mutual understanding.
Whatever training course you choose for yourselves and your teams, I wish you luck for the “new school year” and all of the achievements and opportunities that lay ahead.
Visit here to find out about Nabs’ full calendar of training programmes.
Uzma Afridi-Gardiner is principal business psychologist at Nabs
