If you Want Your Organization to Thrive, Spend Time with Your People
By Lisa Diaz, Founder
One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is the power of investing in the people on your team. While professional development opportunities and training for team members are certainly investments, that’s not the type of investment I mean. I mean a time investment.
As a leader, you’re busy. You’re managing people, budgets, projects, and the flow of your organization which means it is hard to carve out time for one-on-one time with the people on your team–especially when that time is not directly tied to one of the to-do’s on your long list.
But the time spent investing in your employees will have an immeasurable return.
When you bring a new staff member onto your team, elevate someone into a leadership role, or assign other new responsibilities or work, investing in their growth early on is key. It may look like weekly meetings with a staff member, scheduling extra time to help them work through a process, or just taking the time to talk about what they’re learning as they start their new position or work. What I’ve found is that taking the time to walk side by side with team members builds capacity and confidence in those individuals to be more efficient and effective as a result.
Spending time with team members is not just for new staff or someone elevated into a new role; it can and will benefit even your most seasoned and exceptional team members. The one-on-one time I spend with our team not only heightens my relational capacity with individual team members but also allows me to continue to invest in their growth and allows team members to invest in my leadership growth as well.
Making time for one-on-ones leads to individual team members’ success, and our organization is more successful in the long run– even if it takes reprioritizing time, which I know is not easy, but the impact is worth it!
What might this look like for you in your leadership day to day? Is it starting with setting aside a couple of hours once a week? Or asking your team to find a spot on your calendar once a month? How will you carve out time to invest more in the people that move the work forward?