In a previous blog, I asked the question, “Who Can Afford Leadership Development?”. The real question is “Who can afford not to develop their leadership skills or those of their organization?”.

There are three key reasons for this:

• In today’s dynamic marketplaces, if leaders are not learning and growing then they and their company are at a competitive disadvantage
• The job market today is strong for job seekers. Organizations need to invest in leadership development to keep their current leaders and develop future ones.
• Back to the job market, the #1 reason people leave a company is their supervisor. Turnover is costly on several levels. Great leaders retain top talent

Skilled Leaders Get Recruited Away

I have heard the argument, “If we invest in developing our people, don’t we risk losing them to other companies stealing our talent?”.

The answer is YES! And that is something to be celebrated.

Let’s first consider the flaw in that concern. The opposite of development is stagnation. Do you want people who have skills that may have been good yesterday, but haven’t evolved to handle today’s challenges? Fear of losing an employee because you developed them too well is saying that “we want people on our team who are okay workers, but not too good”.

Let’s say you develop people so well that they are recruited to another company. A loss to your company? Maybe. But, consider the value you got from that employee while they were growing in your company. Think about the positive impact they had on others on the team. Consider the good will that they, and others, will spread in the marketplace about the organization that genuinely wants what’s best for their people.

And, there is always the chance they will come back, with new skills and experiences to be even more successful as their career continues to grow.

It’s good business

The benefits of developing people are many. Of course, presumably, you will improve the skill levels of individuals and teams. But you will also demonstrate that you see value in people by investing time, resources and maybe even money into their personal and/or professional growth.

You also build TRUST throughout the organization. TRUST that the organization believes in its people, TRUST that employees know the value they are receiving from their company and TRUST that everyone is in it together and leadership is demonstrating their part by developing their leaders.

Stay Competitive

So, to be competitive and to have long-term success, companies and individuals need to invest in development. The average tenure at a company is around 5-years. Today’s job market is transitional. People move on regularly and it is in the best interest of organizations and individuals to continually grow and develop their skills. The top companies find the time and resources.

TRUST is the foundation of all great organizations. Click here to receive a short guide entitled “The TRUST Success Model” to see how you can create a TRUSTing environment that can transform your team and increase engagement, productivity, and profitability.