The leaders people remember years later aren’t remembered for the courses they approved. They’re remembered for how they made people feel capable.
It’s understandable to believe formal employee development requires investment into courses, programs, certifications, and offsites. And yes, there is a right time for external trainers and speakers like me since we do bring fresh insight, stimulate internal creativity, and offer great networking and team-building opportunities.
But I know from the time that I was a leader in corporate banking and from my over 20-years working with leaders and teams to build high-trust and high-preforming cultures that formal training is not the only way to develop people. In fact, if you’re relying only on budget to build skill, experience, and to energize your team, you’re missing some of the most powerful opportunities available to you. Some of the most important development doesn’t come from outside your team at all, it comes from the knowledge and experience your team members already have.
Development Starts with Safety, Not Spend
Here’s what it looks like when a leader genuinely cares.
Thought leaders like Simon Sinek have long emphasized that leadership isn’t about authority or resources, it’s about creating environments where people feel safe, supported, and inspired to grow as they tackle shared goals and individual goals. Dr. Christie Smith, one of my favourite thought leaders, makes a similar point: people thrive in cultures where they feel valued, included, and able to contribute meaningfully.
When people feel safe and when they trust they’ll be listened to, supported, and respected, people will share ideas, listen, learn and grow. When people don’t feel these things, they protect themselves. They stay quiet and avoid risk which means they are being encouraged by their environment to not work at their full potential and to eventually leave.
If you want your team to be active participants in their own development and to challenge each other, take risks, and grow out loud, they need to know:
- The unknown is never something to fear.
- Feedback is meant to help everyone grow, never to assign blame.
- Speaking up with respect is expected.
- Mistakes won’t define them.
- Helping each other is a shared value.
This is where Dr. Smith’s work on inclusion and belonging becomes especially relevant. Growth accelerates in cultures that value contribution over perfection, and collaboration over silos. In other words, development speeds up when people feel safe, respected, and supported… and when they feel all of those, they feel they belong.
Development Is Not an Event. It’s a Culture
Leaders generally take one of two paths with employee development. The first is to let it happen and to follow the organization’s or HR’s grand plan. The second is to take ownership of it, and in doing so, turbo-charge the growth of individuals, the team, and the department.
I’d encourage you to take the second path. Treat development as part of the everyday work for your team, and for yourself.
Here’s the guarantee: without direction and intention from you, growth will feel random. Building a culture where people are inspired to grow takes some out-of-the-box thinking and a real plan that invites and encourages everyone to participate as both learner and subject matter expert. This matters most when you have little to no budget, not despite it.
How Do You Know What to Prioritize?
This is the difference between managing a team and leading one. It’s not about what you can afford. Get your team involved directly. Sit down with them and ask:
- “Where do you want to grow?”
- “How can I support the skills and experiences you want to build?”
- “What do you need to do your work better?”
- “What trends are you seeing?”
- “What’s changing in our industry or with technology that feels like an opportunity for us to learn?”
Their answers will give you great insight into where to focus and help you integrate that additional insight into your strategic plan.
Conclusion
Once you have a foundation in place and your team feels safe enough to be curious, to speak up, and to try, that’s when the real work begins. And it doesn’t require a line item in the budget.
In the next article titled The A.C.M.F.R. Framework which is linked below, I’ll walk through five free, everyday practices; Ask, Coach, Mentor, Feedback, Recognize that can turn a safe culture into a genuine engine for growth.