Free food, foosball, and suggestion boxes. Every company is looking for that secret sauce that will drive employee engagement, their culture, and ultimately business results. What happens when you’ve invested in all those things and yet people still don’t seem so engaged? The real question is are you investing in the right people – your leaders – who are your true ambassadors of culture and executors of engagement?

Jayzen can help you transform your organization by unleashing the power of great people leaders and executives by architecting a holistic approach to development and building learning experiences that align directly to your company’s strategy.

Your challenge is clear: Your leaders don’t have time to go to “training” because they are "running the business." So, let’s give leaders what they need and when they need it. Flip the tables and invest in your people at those key leadership inflection points – being new to the organization, their first time leading a project, then a team, then a department –  when the new context requires new skills or a fresh way of applying existing ones. Importantly, it is those times when leaders in transition most want interaction with their manager, the organization, and other peers who are going through a similar experience. Feeding these leaders when they are hungry to understand how to gel in their role and be super successful right off the bat will pay dividends down the road. The initial investment in teaching people the best ways to drive engagement means you don’t have to go back and try to break bad habits later. Think about it: free food is great, but there is no replacement for having a manager that inspires you to be your best every day.

Let’s invest in that handful of top performers who have the potential to take your organization into the future. How can you help accelerate their exposure to those who can propel their careers, their visibility into your critical business imperatives, and their connection to other achievers who serve as their community of peers and practice? Position development as reward and not punishment for excellence. Show your stars the love before someone else does.

Finally, when you look out to your broader team of leaders who are established in their roles, stop throwing training to folks as a "check the box" activity or worse, a compulsory “look good” activity. Make sure the “why” you are developing people is clear – to give them the necessary knowledge, capabilities, and context to win now and in the future. Help them solve their challenges in the ever-changing business world. Look at your organization’s strategic imperatives and develop your leaders to deliver on that. What are the gaps between what they can do today and what they must do for the company to grow? If your success as a company hinges on being innovative and finding great ideas, start building leaders who seek out ideas daily and create environments where anyone and everyone brings solutions to the table ahead of implementing another suggestion box that you forget to check.

Change that development mindset and have your people saying, “I don’t have time NOT to learn and grow as a leader because my business depends on it!”