Leadership development as a benefit

Way back in 1968, when I got out of the Marines and joined the civilian workforce, companies hired people and trained them. When you joined a company, you expected them to have a leadership development program. Jacob Morgan, describes the change from then to now this way in his article, “How to Develop the Future Employee.”

“It used to be that being an employee was a fairly well-defined process: people joined a company and stayed with that organization for their entire career, working their way up the ladder and building a nice retirement package. However, that career path is fast becoming the exception rather than the norm, as the idea of what it means to be an employee is constantly changing. Today’s employee often forgoes the traditional contract between a single organization and has more freedom to change their career.”

I think we can lay a lot of the blame for that change at the foot of corporations. They chugged the “increasing shareholder value is the only important metric” Kool-Aid. They started chasing short-term results at the expense of everything else. When that happened, training and leadership development became expenses instead of investments.

Instead of cutting back on development because you will spend money on some people who leave, why not see the current situation as an opportunity? Make training and development a benefit to attract quality people.

Leadership development as a benefit for them

Talented, hardworking, and ambitious people gravitate to companies that will help them get better. Create a great leadership development program and trumpet its virtues to attract those quality hires. Invest in them and help them grow and develop.

Leadership development as a benefit for you

Some of them will leave, sure, but more of them will stay and you’ll have a more effective and more profitable company.

Wally Bock

Wally Bock is a coach, a writer and President of Three Star Leadership.