Invest in your people. Hire the best people. Train your people so that they could do their job better. Build a great culture that helps people bring their best self. Empower people so that they make their own decisions, take ownership of their work, learn to take responsibility and go fast. Create an environment to improve performance. Give the right incentive to build a momentum of positive competition. Practice transparency and accountability. Give them a purpose to run for. Show them their future. Offer challenges and opportunities to solve critical problems. Build a culture of relentless learning.
A long list of entrepreneurs and business leaders we interviewed at FS told us that investing in people is the most surefire path to growth and sustainability. Mamun Rashid, Managing Partner, PwC Bangladesh, and Tamara Hasan Abed, Senior Director, BRAC on why investing in people is critical for growth:
"The growth of any organization depends on the growth of its people. When your people are growing, you will grow naturally. That’s the nature and this understanding reflects in my management style when it comes to people and organization.
Leadership is not about the self, it is about the other people. In order to be effective as a leader, you have to create space for others, be able to take back seat and allow your people to take the lead. You have to be able to see things beyond what only visible and be able to philosophize."
"The best leaders and managers always develop people who work with them. I consider this a core responsibility of any supervisor – to actively create opportunities for people whom they supervise to enhance their skills and competencies so that they are able to grow into bigger roles.
This keeps people motivated, it creates a culture of learning and continuous improvement, it helps with retaining your best people, it helps you to stay ahead of your competitors, and it ultimately benefits everyone. When you have people in management roles who feel threatened to develop people under them, it’s best to plan their exit."
Next time when your growth flattens, pay greater attention to your people.
