Developing people, helping them grow as contributors, and helping them feel pride in their work produces great benefits to your company. Among other things it:

• Improves productivity,
• Improves the morale,
• Reduces turnover, and
• Deepens and broadens your hiring pool.

Virtually all research into employee turnover reveals that opportunity for development is a key component to reducing turnover and increasing employee satisfaction. You should already be aware those two items greatly affect your costs and productivity.

The term Employee Development covers much ground these days, but today I'd like to focus on a piece of the ground that I rarely hear anyone talk about despite its direct affect on an employee's ability to work effectively.

That issue: Decision Making

Think about it.

Wouldn't you love to have a staff who made their decisions exactly the way you would if you were in their place? Wouldn't you love to have a staff who used their time exactly like you would (after all, time management is a decision)?

The greatest gift you can give your employees is teaching them how to make sound decisions. To do that, you will need to focus on something that may seem foreign to you: the process of decision making.

You see, most people focus on decision outcomes. They pass judgment on someone's decision making ability based on the outcome they witness. Outcomes are very deceiving.