The Mental Health Benefits of Continuous Executive Learning
How does continuous learning protect an executive's cognitive health?
Engaging in cognitively stimulating professional development during midlife drastically reduces the risk of dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment. Executives must prioritize their long-term brain health by committing to learn one new professional topic and one new personal skill outside of work every single quarter.
“Ugh, I have a training I need to sit through.”
Ever felt like this?
Training and development can often solicit eyerolls and “is this required?” responses.
Something we may not have considered until recently, however, the positive impact learning does to our brains.
Did you know workplace learning can be important for our mental well-being?
Brand-new research says “People with a history of cognitively stimulating occupations during their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s had a lower risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment and dementia older than 70 years, highlighting the importance of occupational cognitive stimulation during midlife for maintaining cognitive function in old age.”
The good news is, in the public relations profession, no two days are ever the same. The opportunity to take on new projects, work with new clients, and in new practice areas are almost infinite. Add on the influence of artificial intelligence, and it’s an imperative for us to constantly learn.
But broad messages mean nothing if you can’t take intentional action on next steps.
What this means for you:
1. Make a commitment to learn something previously unknown to you in the business world at least once per quarter. PRSA is the perfect start for members and offers a multitude of resources available. And if there’s a topic not covered, use the PRSA Open Forums and Member Directory to ask. You will receive quality responses!
2. Learn something new outside of our profession at least once per quarter. One of my favorite offsite exercises I run involves team members learning not only what they want to learn professionally, but skills for their personal life. Instead of cheesy ice breakers, discover what you can learn from one another, and schedule some internal team development sessions and share tips on how to cook, garden, find cheap flights, or whatever is your passion outside of work. You’ll learn from one another and bond in a practical way and will feel good by learning and impacting others.
3. Add addendums to “must do” trainings. The perception of training and development can be one of “check the box, just get it done.” This is typical of compliance training, for example. Rarely is the content designed exclusively for the organization, so if you can influence consider adding in an additional component that invokes discussion across your workstream to contextualize what you learned.
4. Identify a career path in leading and development. If you have responsibility or influence on training and development in your organization, this is a great way to impact the well-being of your employees. One of the biggest challenges of leadership and development is simply the communication of 1) its existence, 2) its relevance to the company and most importantly, 3) the relevance to employees. This is where our strengths in designing and executing strategic public relations plans separates us as trusted advisors.
Above all else, make sure these are experiences you enjoy, make you feel positive and accomplished.