The President’s Most Important Job (Developing) part 3 in a 4 part series

In my last blog (part 2 of 4), I outlined the importance of attracting the right talented people to your company.  You cannot develop talented people if you do not first attract them to the organization.  For more on attracting talented people to your organization, please read part 2 of this blog series.  Now let’s move on to developing the talented people in your organization.  Before I begin sharing some of the things I have learned, let me make something clear:  Only in the past few years have I begun to see some significant progress in this area; before that I was headed nowhere on this subject.

When you have the right talented people on the team, managing and developing them is pretty easy.  Give them vision and mission, encourage them, set objectives with them, strategize with them on achieving those objectives, resource them, and GET OUT OF THEIR WAY!

Vision & Mission:  Proverbs 29:18 (NASB) states that “where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.”  If you look at your organization and it is a bunch of people running around confused and scared with no sense of direction, there is a good chance there is no Vision!  Your vision as an organization answers this simple question:  “Why are we here?”  “What is our purpose?”  This vision provides clear organizational direction and is foundational to developing a unified effort.  Your mission answers the question: “What are we doing?” and “Where are we going?”  The following is the Vision andMission at Box Insurance, which may help you in crafting your own if you have not done this already:

Box Vision:  To bless and prosper our owners, our employees, our clients, and our carriers while using our resources to advance theKingdom ofHeaven.

Box Mission:  To grow in protecting our clients, to derive satisfaction and enjoyment from our work, and to operate profitably and efficiently.

Encourage Them:  Hebrews 3:13 says “encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  We want our employees to work with passion and with all their heart.  If we do not encourage them, their hearts will harden towards their work, which leads to apathy.  Have you ever looked at one of your employees and said “Man, that person is so talented yet they have no passion and are apathetic towards their work!”?  When I start to think this way about a person, a question I ask myself is this:  “Am I encouraging that person?”  Usually the answer is NO.  What does it mean to encourage someone?  Quite simply, it is this – Give them Courage!  When you pour courage into people, they go forth courageously.  I want people in our operation to go forth with courage and passion in their daily work.  Let us build people up by letting them know who they are in Christ, how capable they are, and acknowledging their important role in our organizations.  Do this as often as you can with a goal of doing it daily and watch what happens in that person as well as their work.  I personally am weak in this area and have had the good fortune of being able to vastly improve in this area (mainly because I had nowhere to go but up).  My nature for a longtime has been very critical, which comes with a driven perfectionist mentality.  If you have ever had to work for a driven perfectionist, I am sorry.  Working for a person with this mindset is not uncommon because they are often very successful and thus end up at the top of organizations.  They rarely enjoy their work and it is very difficult for people under their supervision to enjoy their work.  However, we can change as leaders and “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” 

Set Objectives & Strategize with them:  These high caliber people that you have attracted need to know what you expect from them and what you want them to accomplish.  It is important to have clear short term and long term objectives that they have a part in setting.  Once the objectives are clear then encourage them to develop strategies for achieving these objectives.  If you are strong in the area of strategy, then schedule some time with them to strategize on how they can achieve their objectives.  I love strategy and there are few things I enjoy more than rolling up my sleeves and developing a strategy to achieve certain objectives.

Resourcing Them:  It is frustrating for a talented person to not have the tools and resources available to them to be successful.  When you make the investment to attract and hire the right talented people, make sure you are prepared to invest into the necessary resources for them to be successful.  Whether it is sales or operations, we make it an objective to provide the best technology, support, and staffing in order for our people to succeed in the marketplace.  For a sales person, this may mean some discretion in marketing expenditures to take advantage of opportunities.  For the service team, it may mean some software that will allow them to perform more efficiently.

Get Out of their Way!  One of the most simple, yet difficult things to do is just back off.  Talented people suffocate under micromanagement.  When I micromanage a person it tells them the following:  “I do not trust you” and “I think you are stupid”.  Talented people need some room to run and make mistakes so they can grow as a person and as a leader.  Let them run with a clear vision that you have set forth for the organization as well as a clear mission (whether short term or long term).  When they mess up, don’t rush to correct them but rather come along side them and encourage them towards where they need to end up.  When they fail, let them know about your own failures and that you did not make it to a place of success through the green fields of perfection.  Talented people will rejoice in your failures and it will embolden them to get up and go for it again after they fall down. 

Because our employees read these blogs, I am not at liberty to talk specifics; however, in conclusion I can share with you a few things that may help.  I have micromanaged and discouraged (take courage away) people on our team (especially from 2005-2008) and it not only lead to great turnover, but it set the stage for a one man band!  Have you ever listened to a one man band?  Sometimes they do alright, but they are never as good as a great band with different instruments and members playing in perfect harmony.  When you tear people down and hover over them, they will take no risk and retreat into a place where they do not get beat down.  This will set the stage for a leader to stoke their own ego by thinking “well if anything good is going to happen here, I am going to have to do it.”  This leader may well be very talented and can perform at a high level; however, the organization will never progress past that person’s output.  This is a great recipe for a small business to stay small and have a bunch of frustrated supporting roles.  Listen! Don’t get overwhelmed if you have a mess on your hands.  Take a step back and figure out why your organization exists and develop clear Vision.  Ask some people that are close to you and your organization.  Having clear Vision and then clear Mission is the starting place for developing your talented people.