A couple of weeks ago, I read a brief quote that I found both funny and deep. It read as follows:

The CFO asked: What if we invest in our people and they leave?
To which the CEO responded: What if we don’t and they stay?

This brief exchange captured so well a false, yet still frequent dilemma of many companies. Fear of losing staff limits investments. then they leave in larger numbers… until the only ones who stay are the ones who cannot find anything else.

Investing in employees is a discipline. It is like sawing seeds… It does not look like much when you do it. Even worse, draughts or floods might occur, and then nothing great will happen at all despite sawing these seeds; yet, most of the time good things will come out of it… But if you don’t saw these seeds, then it is certain that nothing great will happen. Remember that the long way is faster, in the long run (check that article).

How about you? Do you invest in your people? How do you grow them?

Do you use any of the 6 cheap and easy ways to grow your people? (check this article)

If you train them well, if you spark something special, your people may amaze you. You may see, at work, things that don’t seem as though they belong to work, like AWESOME (check this post).

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