The Growth of People Can Lead to Business Growth

Businesses are nothing more than a collection of people working toward a common goal. It’s easy to see a business as some kind of entity separate from the people – but, of course, that’s simply not true. Without the people, the business doesn’t exist.

Every business owner and manager says that they value the people who work for the company. Few act in a manner that demonstrates any truth to that statement. I believe that businesses who genuinely commit to the growth of their people in a real, authentic, and yes – financial – way will have a big competitive advantage in the marketplace. 

Treating People As People

You can’t expect a business to grow if the people within it are not allowed, and enabled, to do the same. The problem is that people do not grow in the same way that businesses grow. To grow a business in terms of marketing reach, for example, you can simply direct more resources toward your advertising efforts, and your reach will expand. 

It’s not so simple with people. Sure, you can invest in their growth through things like education and training, and those are worthwhile endeavors. But people also need emotional support, time to spend on things away from work, and the opportunity to make mistakes. With people, growth tends not to be linear. Rather, it comes in waves, with big breakthroughs often happening after long periods where it didn’t seem like much was happening. Understanding, and accepting, the human realities of your teams will make you a better leader and better able to facilitate real growth. 

The Value of Building Skills

When a business doesn’t have someone in-house that possesses the right skills for a task, it’s always tempting to simply go out and hire someone that can do the job immediately. Or, when in the hiring process, you might narrow your field of candidates right from the start based on hard skills. 

This approach is sometimes required, but don’t overlook the possibilities of building skills within the current members of your team. Someone who is already in the organization has an understanding of how the business works and how the skills they learn can be used in practical application. Helping someone grow into the position that you need to fill might wind up being a better approach than looking outside the organization over and over again. 

Playing the Waiting Game

It’s true that helping your people grow is unlikely to lead to an immediate boost in revenue. But that doesn’t mean you can afford to skip this piece of business development. In fact, I’d argue that no good business that expects to thrive into the future will do so without developing its people as a top priority. 

The reality of the process is that you will have to wait for your commitment to helping people grow to pay off financially. You need to trust that your systems and processes are good enough that the growth you foster will create a powerful organization that can take a leadership position in your market sector. The waiting isn’t always easy, but it will be worth it if your growth mindset allows the future version of your business to exceed all expectations.