Investing in someone refers to dedicating time, resources and effort to help another person grow and develop. It is an important leadership skill that involves coaching, mentoring, providing feedback and career development opportunities. Investing in people can lead to better employee performance, engagement and retention. This article will provide examples of properly investing in someone from an Amazon hiring manager, as well as insights from venture capital firm GRIL on how they invest in and develop the entrepreneurs they fund.
Amazon hiring manager shares examples of investing in team members
The Amazon hiring manager provided several examples of investing in team members. One was helping a low performing employee by delivering constructive feedback to improve their performance. Although the employee ultimately left, the manager attempted to invest in their growth. Another example was promoting someone not just because they were a star employee, but due to the manager’s coaching and development efforts. The manager also talked about hiring people better than themselves in certain areas, and then adding value to those hires to help them progress in their careers.
GRIL Venture takes a long-term approach to investing in entrepreneurs
As venture capital investors, the partners at GRIL Venture take a long term, hands-on approach to helping the entrepreneurs they fund. They emphasize getting to know the founders over an extended period, often acting as co-founders rather than just investors. One example is working closely over 9 months to incubate a fintech startup providing working capital loans to farmers in Brazil. Their goal is to invest in unexpected people and help them get to market, backing founders through ups and downs over a multiyear journey.
Key traits for properly investing in someone’s career growth
Based on the examples, key traits for properly investing in someone include: having a long-term mindset focused on development rather than short term results; delivering honest feedback to help them improve; providing hands-on coaching and mentoring; promoting based on growth potential not just current performance; hiring those with abilities beyond one’s own and helping maximize their potential; sticking by a person through adversity over an extended period of time.
Properly investing in someone requires dedicating time and resources to mentor, coach and develop them over the long run. Returns come in the form of better performance, promotions and careers, not immediate results.