Developing People Isn't a Soft Skill

I read books like these because developing people isn’t a soft skill. It’s the skill. Developing people, giving them something to believe in, listening to their ideas, creating community and belonging while aligning people on a mission and inspiring the work has always felt like the whole point to me.

The books: Unreasonable Hospitality. Leaders Eat Last. Built on Belief.

Different industries. Different voices. Same truth: people want purpose. They want to be seen and heard. Commitment beats compliance every time.

What I keep running into is this: most leaders want this. They talk about culture, building belonging, and developing their people. They mean it.

But somewhere between the intention and the day-to-day it doesn’t show up. Culture is created no matter what. If you are not intentional about developing, empowering, and building belonging, your culture is operations, not people.

So leaders spin their wheels interviewing, hiring, onboarding only to see the next group of people leave. New hires come in excited to do great work only to be disenfranchised. Instead of stopping the cycle, it carries on. WHY?

The cycle breaks when leaders decide that people are the priority — not a value on a poster, but the actual work.