Diversity & Inclusion is important not just for organisations but for society. You can say much the same about Emotional Intelligence. These two areas which are now polarised as being important factors in organisational success makes me wonder if it is thought that previously no one cared about these issues.
Diversity & Inclusion and Emotional Intelligence is a holistic approach to people management in my view. Both needs to be considered when dealing with people within the organisation from the cleaner right up to the CEO.
Currently there are many providers offering training in these areas and I believe there are exams you can take to specialise in both. It is of course a good idea to have people who can focus on these areas in an organisation albeit a consultant such as myself being invited for a short period of time to support a pending strategy or someone already within the organisation who will champion these areas to ensure that everyone becomes ‘mindful’.
We can as humans overcomplicate things. What I mean by this is, shouldn’t we all have these skills in our human tool kit? OK maybe I am being idealistic. The world is diverse which makes for a challenging situation when coming to people. Some people are naturally aware of Diversity and Inclusion and Emotional Intelligence and how this really should be a day to day consideration. I have throughout my career been a champion of Diversity & Inclusion and Emotional Intelligence before these words had even been uttered amongst the business community.
We need more champions of Diversity & Inclusion and Emotional Intelligence not just to train and coach but to embedded into practice. If we do not embedded the practice these important areas will just become lip service. We need to learn from organisations such as the NHS who not only have this on their agenda for learning they are embedding good practice. They are continuously recognised as Diversity champions. It makes me wonder why companies such as Apple, Facebook et al have issues improving their diversity states and CEO’s are still cited as having limited or no Emotional Intelligence.
Many studies have already shown the positive benefits of a diverse organisation and the importance of Emotional Intelligence. Both give organisations a competitive edge and improve employee engagement.
If you have decided to embark on training/coaching in Diversity & Inclusion and Emotional Intelligence make sure you have a budget for embedding the process. The organisation must believe in the process at all levels and ensure that the management team champion ‘mindfulness’ with all it positive attributes.
