Investing in Others’ Growth

When we see others’ worth and we’re humbly willing to make ourselves available to them, the time we invest supports their growth in ways we may never fully comprehend. We can easily count the seeds in an apple, but we can’t count the number of apples that come from one seed. By valuing others and being available, we’re sowing seeds that reach beyond what we’ll see - and we’ll look at this in more detail soon when we revisit the legacy idea yet again. For now, I’ll add that investing in others’ growth isn’t limited to what they gain. Our investment in others yields mutual leadership benefits.

I’ve mentioned my friend Jake a few times to this point and how the support he provided me with in behavior-based safety all those years ago served as an opportunity for me to invest in his growth, although I didn’t recognize it as such back then; I was just doing whatever I could to keep my head above water. Gradually, the concepts and skills I shared with Jake moved from being out of complete necessity to being intentional in supporting his growth. He and I get to catch up occasionally still today, often after I’ve heard about an opportunity that he may be interested in. During each conversation, I get tremendous fulfillment from hearing about the impact he’s making personally and the people he’s actively mentoring. While he’s taken the action to get those results, I realize there’s at least a chance that he’d still be welding exhaust systems today if I hadn’t done all I could to be available whenever he had a question or an idea two decades ago.

That said, even those minor investments I was able to make in Jake’s growth have provided me with at least as much benefit as he’s seen from it. Much of what I learned through that process serves as a foundation for how Cindy and I support individuals engaged in our programs today. Some of that’s been based on what I saw yield great results right away, but even more tie to things I did way wrong. As much as I hate to admit it, a lot of ideas I pushed on him early on were based on my goals rather than his. Today, we’re very intentional about capturing each participant’s goals (and often their manager’s too) as they begin something like our IMPACT Leadership Academy. While that has a structured curriculum we follow throughout the 12-month engagement, we don’t stand a chance at helping them achieve a measurable return on investment if we’re pushing them in a direction that’s different from their actual goal. Had I understood something that simple as Jake and I worked together twenty years ago, it’s hard to tell how much further along he’d be today. I’m just thankful he put up with me through it all!

Here’s the kicker: Jake worked for several different supervisors during that same time who could have had at least as much impact as I did, and likely more based on their formal education and years of experience. But I could name at least three who barely acknowledged him. In a best case scenario, they neglected him because of all the other tasks that demanded their time. If we were to consider the worst case, you could make a case that they had no interest at all in helping anyone on their teams grow. Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not suggesting they were bad people. In fact, I’m still friends with each of them today. I am, however, saying that by neglecting to invest in others’ growth, they absolutely missed out on opportunities for mutual leadership benefits.

Leading with humble availability and investing in others’ growth, even with the best of intentions, is never easy. We’ll look at how keeping an open door is crucial in that process next. Until then, I’ll challenge you to identify the people whose growth you can invest in. Hint: they don’t have to report to you! Jake and I have always been peers. To that end, I’ve never had a direct report in any role.