Nothing is more important to the growth of any organization than finding, training, and retaining superior people. This is probably no big revelation to you. More than any of the rules I’ve discussed in this book, this concept is the most obvious. It is also the most irrefutable. However, everyone also knows that a proper diet and regular exercise is the key to a long and healthy life. Somehow, not enough of us take that irrefutable knowledge and put it into action. Instead, we look for the shortcuts and quick fixes: temporary programs with even more temporary results.
So, let me take this opportunity to make the following statement in the most emphatic way possible: Your job is people—period. End of story. I don’t care if you fancy yourself a marketing expert, a technology expert, or a financial expert. If you plan to lead an organization that’s trying to get to the next level, at some point, you become less involved in doing and more involved in leading. As I look back over my three experiences running fast-growth companies, it is now more apparent to me that I should have spent even more time on people than I did. And I spent more time on people than any of my contemporaries.
Tags: business, jobs, mind, organization