Mindfulness and Spirituality and not AI alone will transform HR
I have been a follower of mindfulness and spirituality for many years. Reading and practicing spirituality has also helped me follow a career and aspiration that has helped me leverage my human potential to the maximum. Today the challenge for me though is to transpire this understanding and knowledge to HR.
Today we witness many challenges in HR:
1) Lack of employee engagement is in an all-time high
2) Employees seek constant change and movement
3) Employees and HR leaders want to be constantly challenged--both intellectually and professionally. Being challenged intellectually is about learning and growing, growing and learning. Being challenged professionally is about committing oneself to excellence which is a "process." Suffice it to say, today's leaders are astute and smart enough to discern this critical aspect and distinction and can very easily acknowledge and understand the collaborative and compounding effect of "growth in the intellectual and professional sphere"( for both are two aspects of the same coin).
4) Employees and leaders love working as a team but they also want their "individual voices to be heard, praised and respected."
Today when many jobs are threatened to be outsourced or delegated to automation, many employees and workers feel threatened and insecure. Perhaps a further cause for their disengagement. But we need not worry. Why? Because there are solutions and solutions stem from understanding. Let me first posit that "We haven’t realized the true and full extent and promises of human potential: on an individual front and at organizations." And it is the same whether we are based in the East or West. I mean let me assert that the world will continue to witness many geniuses in the future. And the geniuses won't necessarily be machines; rather they'll be humans who will drive those machines.”
Now let's dive into our solutions to the discords described above. They are:
1) Motivating people is motivating organization itself.
What do I mean by that? A principal understanding which is: Bettering the organizations that we work for is an "inside-out" approach. Why? Because there are people behind organizations and it is people, their behaviors and leadership that drives organizations. Thus, let's help people excel in their personal fronts first, success in the Organization will follow. Let them excel in developing personally, in dissuading from the urge to take the "easier route" and indulge in idle gossips and chit-chats. Let's dissuade them from succumbing to the pressures of "easy and available" and lead them on a journey and resolve to a lifelong commitment to learning and growing. Let's help them develop as leaders and leaders, who by nature, are self-inspired to " propel forward."
2) By the same token, let's help our organizations become a “sacred learning ground," a "school of sorts" when it comes to acquiring new or additional skills in myriad sectors: life, leadership and organizational matters for instance.
3) It's always advisable to help employees attain that "space" where they can realign their goals, ambitions and priorities. This "space" can either be a short-term vacation, a leisurely break, picnics and gatherings of co-workers, for instance. These “spaces" or "breaks" help leaders access silence, which then fosters clarity and productivity. They perform better: on an individual front and the organizational. So, short-term breaks are "assets" to co-workers and leaders (and ultimately to the organizations they work for) not "liabilities" to Organizations and stakeholders. In any case, productivity and well-being in a personal sphere can translate to organizations. That's a norm.
4) Now, individuals who succeed in the personal front and their families will naturally help better organizations. Why? Because as my mentor and Thinkers50 World’s number one leadership thinker, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, asserts: "You cannot be one person at the workplace and a different person at home." Likewise, a better parent and spouse and son or daughter can enrich their organizations in myriad ways: through their leadership, vision, balanced, empathic, compassionate and peaceful demeanor on a personal front, “basic grounded nature" and ambition.
Overall, when we acknowledge the positive potential of mindfulness and spirituality we, by rule, acknowledge "leaders as humans." So, letting mindfulness and spirituality lead the way on an individual front will foster lasting successes in the organizations. The positive repercussions and results might not be immediate but they will surely come and when they do they'll be positive, lasting and transformative-both to individuals and organizations.