A regional manager hands the biggest projects to the people who’ve already proven what they’ll do with them.
The ancient teaching reads like a lesson about money. It’s really a lesson about developing what you’ve been handed.
Three servants each get a different amount of capital. Two put theirs to work and double it. The third digs a hole and buries his, afraid to lose it.
When the master returns, he judges each servant by what they did with what they got, not by the size of the pile handed back.
The two who multiplied get more to steward. The one who buried his loses even that.
The leadership version is direct. Give someone responsibility and training, watch them turn it into more through sheer initiative and ownership, and they’ve earned more of both. Leaving your fearful or complacent people undisturbed feels like protection. It’s failure.
This isn’t favoritism. When that regional director pours the most into the people who keep proving themselves, she’s doing the most honest development there is. She matches investment to evidence of return.
That’s stewardship. Put your investment where growth is already happening, and have a harder, more honest conversation everywhere else. The others still matter. They just need something different from you. Develop what you’re handed. Then multiply it.
The multifamily talent you don’t develop doesn’t hold steady. It atrophies. Your job is to multiply what your people were handed, not manage its decline. — Mike Brewer
Discussion prompt: Who on your team has multiplied every responsibility you’ve handed them and is waiting for more? What’s stopping you from giving it?