Developing Employees Is Part of Getting the Job Done
Earlier in my leadership career, I placed a lot of importance on getting the job done. Set the expectation, do the work, meet the standard, and move on to the next thing. Results mattered to me then, and they still matter to me now. Leadership doesn't change the fact that work needs to get done.
What changed over time was my understanding of my responsibility for the people doing the work. I eventually realized that I wasn't there just to get things done. I was there to grow people, build a stronger team, and help create the kind of culture where people could do good work together.
Some of that realization came from leading people who challenged me. I've had employees who were very capable of getting the job done but needed development in other areas. One employee in particular could be intense and stubborn about how he wanted things done. His ability to accomplish the task wasn't the problem. The challenge was helping him understand that how he worked with the people around him mattered too.
Developing Employees Requires More Than Getting Results
If I had measured that employee only by whether the work got done, he would have looked successful. He could produce. He could accomplish what needed to be accomplished. But I began to recognize that results alone couldn't be the only measure of success.
Relationships mattered. Teamwork mattered. How other people experienced working with him mattered. Getting the job done while overwhelming everyone around you wasn't the same thing as getting the job done while contributing to a strong team. That changed what I needed to do as his leader. My responsibility wasn't simply to make sure he completed the task. I needed to help him become more effective in how he worked with other people while continuing to use the strengths that made him good at his job.
That's an important distinction when we're developing employees. A person can be technically strong and still have room to grow. In fact, some of our strongest performers may need us to look beyond their output and help them recognize how their approach affects the people around them.
Developing Employees Means Setting the Right Standards
I've always believed in setting high standards and achieving high standards. What I've learned is that leaders need to think carefully about what those standards actually include.
The quality of the work matters. Deadlines matter. Safety, customer expectations, and organizational requirements matter. But depending on the role, success may also require collaboration, communication, reliability, or the ability to work effectively as part of a team.
If the only message we send is, “Just get the job done,” we shouldn't be surprised when someone begins to believe that the result is all that matters. As leaders, we have to communicate the full expectation.
With this particular employee, that meant putting parameters around more than the work itself. He needed to understand that doing his job well also meant building relationships and being part of the team. I wasn't asking him to become a different person. I was asking him to recognize that his effectiveness wasn't measured only by what he personally accomplished.
This is where leadership becomes more than managing output. We have to be able to look at the person doing the work and ask where that person still has room to develop.
Give People Room While Developing Employees
Developing employees doesn't mean controlling every step they take. In fact, one of the lessons I've had to learn throughout my own leadership development is when to hold firm and when to get out of the way. I believe the best place to establish that balance is before the work begins. Set the standard. Establish the goal. Make sure you're both on the same page about what the end result needs to look like. Then give the person room to work.
Giving someone room doesn't mean disappearing. Follow up. Measure what's working and what isn't. Pay attention to both the result and the behaviors you're trying to develop. If something isn't working, coach it. If you see progress, acknowledge it. Then make adjustments and keep going.
Every person is going to have a different journey. As leaders, we don't have to control every part of that journey, but we do have a responsibility to stay involved enough to help people grow along the way. That's the beauty of leadership. When you're both on the same page about the standard and the end result, you can give people room to find their way there.
Developing Employees Is Leadership Work
One of the reasons employee development can get pushed aside is that getting things done feels more urgent. There will always be an email to answer, a deadline approaching, a customer who needs something, a project that needs attention, or a problem that has to be solved. Those things make it easy to spend our days managing what people produce instead of paying attention to the people producing it. But developing employees is part of getting the job done.
When we coach someone, give useful feedback, stretch their abilities, trust them with greater responsibility, or help them recognize how their behavior affects the team, we're building capability. Over time, that creates stronger employees and stronger teams. It also means the leader doesn't always have to be the person solving every problem, making every decision, or pushing every task across the finish line.
So here's a question I think is worth asking: Am I simply managing what my people produce, or am I intentionally developing the people producing it?
Choose one person you lead and think beyond what you need that person to accomplish this week. Where could that person be stronger six months from now because you led them well today? Maybe they need an opportunity to make a decision without you. Maybe there's feedback you've been meaning to give. Maybe they're ready for more responsibility. Or maybe, like the employee I described earlier, they're getting good results but need help recognizing how they affect the people around them.
Over the years, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what allows people to do their best work—not only what they're capable of doing, but where their aptitude, passion, and sense of purpose come together. Those ideas, along with lessons from my own experiences as a firefighter, coach, leader, and trainer, eventually became part of why I wrote The Sweet Spot.
A leader who focuses only on output may never discover what someone is capable of becoming. When we pay attention to the person producing the output, we have an opportunity to accomplish today's work while helping that person become more capable for tomorrow.
The work still has to get done. Standards still matter. Results still matter. But I would tell my younger self something today that I didn't fully understand then: You're not here just to get things done. You're here to grow people.
The people doing the work are part of the result.
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