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It’s one thing to understand that businesses develop people as they make money. But you need to grow your business to develop the people you want to help.
But actually doing that is a different matter. Every situation that involves people comes with an unlimited number of possible outcomes. And every situation that involves money has a limitation on how far that resource can go.
Businesses make money while they develop people. But one of those things must come first. A lot of businesses develop people because that is how they make more money. But some businesses want to make more money so that they can develop more people.
All the good things in life involve people. It’s an old cliche, but you never get to the end of life and wish you had more money.
But people are expensive. All of the important events that involve people cost money. From marriage to raising children, making great memories to weathering life’s storms. None of these things are about money, but they all require money to happen.
It costs money to have people too. Health care, retirement, time off, sick days. These are all expenses your people want you to cover. These all add burdens to your responsibility and create expectations in your employees. People are often the most significant cost of doing business.
Yet the most valuable thing about people cannot be purchased with money. That thing is trust. Trust is valuable because it is the foundation of community.
Trust is essential for a relationship to form. The deeper the trust the more lasting the relationship, and the greater the opportunity to experience life’s joys and sorrows together. Trust is the foundation of lasting growth.
Trust is often built through handling money well, whether that is in a marriage, a partnership, or in achieving your goals together. When money is mismanaged, trust is lost. When trust is gone, no amount of money can get it back.
It’s risky to trust someone. They can always let you down, or stab you in the back. No contract can prevent someone from failing to do what they promised, and the cost of recouping that loss is rarely equal to the gains the relationship was intended to yield.
That risk can be understood in light of the potential for growth. But growth that is worth the effort must benefit the communities you want to serve.
But is growth always the right answer? When does growth for growth’s sake get in the way of your higher goals? How do you determine what community you should be helping? (Read more about community at RedemptiveLeader.com).
At MLA, we choose to work closely with business owners— hundreds of them across the 100+ companies we serve or have served. That breadth of experience helps us understand the particular challenges you face as you need to grow.
We understand that success means something different to each owner we work with, and success that is worth the effort must be understood from their particular vision of what’s good.
The Business Redeemed Process helps us understand what is good for each particular owner.