Investment

How is Investment related to leadership, talent development and employee engagement and commitment? From our perspective, it is another of the key pillars to success

Investment is living the statement that your people are your most valuable asset. It means supporting the development of careers and personal growth objectives, but even more, it is about actions that clearly demonstrate the belief that people are an asset that leads to a return, not simply a cost to be managed.

Valuable long-term assets are things that you continue to invest in during bad times as well as good. Many companies still treat employees as costs to be minimized, even more so in a difficult market.

An ever popular meme on LinkedIn is the following quote:

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Richard Branson

This gets posted probably hundreds of times a day in various forms and always generates lots of “likes” as do similar quotes from other business luminaries. But how many businesses and leaders actually live this value? How many really believe it? I think for many it is one of those nice things to say you have as a core belief, then when the going gets tough, it goes out the window. Excuses will be made, “we had no choice!”. But there are always choices. Often they happen months or years before the crisis hits.

Investment is not only a monetary act. Spend time with the people you serve. Trust; Praise; Credit; Coach; Learn; Listen and Act.

Whenever you have a choice, invest in people first, it will always provide a return. Help your leaders grow, help them grow those they serve. Achieve More.