“You don’t build a business. You build people – and then the people build the business.” – Zig Ziglar

The truth in that statement is so profound that I say to myself, “why don’t more business executives understand this?” I have been speaking a lot recently to executives and directors about the importance of developing employees. One of my favorite things to say is that an organization only grows as much as its people are allowed to grow.

Sometimes, I get a lot of head nods that indicate to me that at least some in the audience are agreeing with me. Then there are the dissenters that challenge me. Healthy debate, as long as it is respectful and constructive, is never a bad thing. But I must admit that I hear some pretty lame excuses from people that don’t think training or professional development are important. Here are 3:

Why should we hire consultants or trainers from the outside when we can do all of the training in-house? Not a terrible question; however, while your inside trainers are more than capable of teaching new hires the benefits of your organization’s specific products and services, they may not be as strong on the soft-skills – leadership, conflict management, project development, sales & service, etc. For stuff like that, you will benefit more from hiring an expert in those areas to come in with an objective point of view and a clean slate. This person will take an unbiased look at what is happening and will try to discover the root cause of the issue. Then, he or she can design a program to address the issue and provide solutions. Trainers from inside the organization may not be able to be unbiased and objective. Or, perhaps, they are part of the problem.

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