How to Develop Your Greatest Asset

So many factors go into making a company successful, but few are more important than developing the right talent internally. It’s interesting that this factor is often overlooked — or at a minimum — underappreciated. Even if you have a team of seasoned leaders, there are significant benefits to continually training, coaching, motivating, and mentoring employees who can be the next to rise to the occasion. Having a team ready to champion a company initiative, wow a client, or live out the culture and principals elevates the company’s public image. And all of these things map back to nurturing your company’s bottom line.

Organizations with leaders who shift their mindset from being “the boss” to being someone who is responsible for motivating and sharing leadership knowledge will see a more engaged team.

Here are a few tips to help you develop your best asset, your employees:

• Provide consistent, candid and balanced performance development feedback, highlighting both strengths and areas where change would be helpful. This dialogue should be done frequently and is typically expected by younger generations. These discussions provide great opportunities to pivot quickly and keep people on a path to success.
• Model positive leadership. Point the way for your team by catching people doing good things, as often as possible.
• Give the team exposure and opportunity to participate in important meetings they might not otherwise attend and solicit their input during these gatherings. This includes both internal meetings and interactions with external vendors, customers and prospects. Again, look to reinforce what they do well and offer guidance on areas of growth.
• Introduce them to the wider community. Get your team involved with associations, networking groups, the chamber of commerce or nonprofits they are passionate about. By meeting and networking with others in your community, they can get a broader perspective on how to tackle challenges while expanding the company brand.
• Provide opportunities for the team to have real decision-making authority. Give them control of a project and then step back and observe how they perform. The hard part is allowing them to fail if their decisions don’t pan out. Some of the best lessons are learned by “failing forward” and prove to be invaluable in the future.

Beyond having a well-trained team, you will reap the benefits of having a more engaged workforce that leads to better retention and strengthened relationships with your employees. Focusing on your people asset will also help uncover potential problems and showcase new ideas that otherwise may have never been discussed.

How do you develop your team? I’d love to hear. Reach out to me at rreinecke@fahrenheitadvisors.com.

Rich Reinecke is the Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Fahrenheit Advisors. He is a 20+ year recruiting industry veteran with a unique blend of large corporate experience and dynamic entrepreneurial spirit. Rich works with every level of business, from emerging growth and middle-market to Fortune 500 companies, and is key in client development and recruiting talent both internally and for clients.