Here's a question nobody asks: what if the best way to grow profits is to stop obsessing about them?
I spent 20 years climbing from managing small teams to leading organizations. The turning point came when I realized that revenue targets weren't my north star—people were. Every time I invested in growing my team, the profits followed naturally.
It sounds counterintuitive, but think about it. When people feel developed and valued, they perform better. They stay longer. They take ownership. They innovate. The opposite happens when you chase numbers at the expense of people.
The companies that crushed their targets weren't necessarily the ones with the smartest strategies. They were the ones where leaders genuinely cared about their teams' growth.
If you're managing people today, ask yourself: am I building a team that grows, or a team that just delivers?