Employee development comes when you understand that the best way to learn is through life lessons. Trying to solve all of the problems that your business faces by yourself is not the solution. Your people need to fail in order to learn.
This industry is filled with micro-managers that can’t imagine letting anyone fail. Reviewing everything that happens in the business is an impossible way to grow. You need to hire smart people, give them the general direction of where you want to go and let them take you there.
I can’t tell you how many people I have met that don’t trust their teams and believe that they are the only one with the right answers. That is the furthest thing from the truth. In the end it comes down to trust and knowing that you hired a smart person that will figure out a good solution to the problem. Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, was once asked if he was going to fire a senior executive after he had just made a $5,000,000 inventory mistake? His answer, “why would I fire someone that I just invested $5 million in?”
Your people decisions will determine the success in your business. If you don’t think you have hired the right talent, go find better people. But, if you do have great people on your team let them do their job, let them fail and let them learn from their own mistakes. You cannot control everything and the only path to growth is trust and empowerment. Let your people grow!
