What Your Business Gains When You Invest in Women's Growth

Jessica was making my dealership better before I had given enough thought to how we were helping her grow. When we gave her something to handle, she handled it properly. She cared about getting it right.

So we did what a lot of employers do with someone like that. We gave her more.

At the time, I thought that meant we were developing her. Looking back, much of what we handed her was work nobody else wanted to do. We got more out of a capable employee without being nearly as intentional about what she got from us.

It's an easy mistake to make when you are busy running a business. It's also an expensive one if you keep making it.

I think this is where companies need to look more closely when they talk about investing in their women. Start with the women you already depend on.

Helping them grow can mean fewer decisions coming back to your desk and more people prepared to lead within the business. But that starts with being honest about how much you are asking them to carry and how much you are doing to prepare them for what comes next.

____________________________________________

When being dependable becomes more work

We hired Jessica as a receptionist. She was a single mom who had never worked in automotive, and she had a lot to learn about how a dealership operated.

If you had asked me in those early months whether I saw a future leader, I probably would have said no. I could see someone learning a job. I hadn't yet recognized what else was there.

But Jessica asked questions. She listened when we coached her and learned from her mistakes. Over time, people came to trust her.

She knew how to connect customers with the right person and noticed when something wasn't being done properly. New employees could learn from her because she understood how we worked. She cared about getting things right, even when nobody was watching.

Those were signs of leadership. They were also qualities that made it very convenient to keep giving her things to do.

That's where I had to be honest with myself. Trusting someone with more work feels like recognition from the employer's side.

From the employee's side, it can eventually feel like the only reward for doing a good job is having to do more.

If you are the woman reading this, you may recognize that pattern. People come to you because they know you will handle it.

Being trusted matters, but you can appreciate that trust and still want a clearer path forward. Wanting to grow doesn't make you ungrateful for the job you have.

____________________________________________

What the business gained when we started developing her

With Jessica, we began explaining why the work mattered and how it affected the business. That gave her more to work with than instructions.

As her understanding grew, we gave her opportunities to make decisions herself. Her confidence grew through those experiences because she learned she could handle them.

Eventually, people stopped coming to me for things they could take to her.

She helped new employees understand our standards. When someone made a mistake, she explained what had gone wrong so they could approach it differently next time.

Her influence was reaching beyond the work on her own desk. She also helped others become more capable.

That was the part I had underestimated. Developing Jessica could improve the business well beyond her individual performance.

It meant other employees had someone who could help them, and fewer things needed my attention. The dealership could function better even when I wasn't there.

I had helped create the opposite arrangement earlier. When someone brought me a problem, I could often solve it quickly. It felt efficient, and I believed I was doing my job.

But every answer I supplied was another missed opportunity to help someone learn how to reach an answer themselves. Then I would wonder why so much kept coming back to me.

That lesson applies to developing any employee. My focus on women comes from how often I have seen capable women doing work their businesses depend on without anyone helping them prepare to lead.

Employers have an opportunity to build on ability that is already there.

____________________________________________

Fewer problems coming back to the boss

Businesses pay for a lack of development in the time managers spend handling things their teams could learn to handle.

Work slows down while someone waits for approval. An employee keeps absorbing assignments because we haven't prepared anyone else to take them on.

Those costs can be easy to overlook because they have become part of an ordinary workday.

Developing someone's judgment can change that pattern.

When she brings you a problem:

• Ask what she recommends and why.
• Work through her thinking together.
• Agree on which decisions she can make herself.

That takes more effort than supplying an answer today, but it gives her a better chance of handling the next situation without you.

The return shows up in the work that keeps moving while you attend to something else.

A stronger reason to stay and fewer replacement costs

A resignation makes the expense of losing someone harder to ignore.

Now someone has to cover the job while you find a replacement. You spend time interviewing and training a new hire.

The person who understood your customers and knew which problems to watch for has walked out with that knowledge. You may hire someone excellent, but they still have to learn what she already knew.

The cost of replacing a capable employee

Gallup estimates that replacing a leader or manager costs around 200% of their salary.

Using that estimate, replacing a manager earning $80,000 could cost roughly $160,000.

Your actual costs will vary, but the comparison deserves attention when a development request lands on your desk.

We scrutinize the cost of helping someone grow, then absorb the expense of replacing her when she leaves. [1]

Gallup also found that 42% of people who voluntarily left an employer said their manager or organization could have done something to prevent it.

A leadership program would not have solved every one of those situations. But employers have an opportunity to act before a woman decides her future has to be somewhere else. [1]

After selling my dealerships, I met women in dealerships across North America who reminded me of Jessica.

They were trusted and capable, already doing more than their titles suggested. Yet no one was necessarily helping them see where that could lead.

I kept thinking about how easily Jessica could have remained someone we relied on without ever becoming someone we intentionally developed.

____________________________________________

More people prepared to lead within your business

I understand that employers can't promise everyone a promotion. Development still matters when there is no immediate opening.

A woman can learn to handle decisions she currently escalates or become better prepared to lead the people already relying on her.

Those are meaningful opportunities when they come with support and appropriate authority. They also make the business stronger today.

The benefit reaches further when other women see that progress.

In an industry where they may see few women leading, watching someone earn trust and be given room to use it makes a future easier to picture.

Recruiting more women will accomplish little if the women already working for us cannot see how their careers can grow.

Of course, development must go alongside fair pay and a reasonable workload.

Paying for training while continuing to overload someone won't resolve the problem.

The employer has to make room for growth, and the employee has to take responsibility for using it. Both sides have work to do if they want the investment to pay off.

____________________________________________

Ask for support you can put to work

If you want your employer to invest in your development, connect the request to something happening in the business.

Perhaps difficult conversations keep getting passed to your manager because you aren't sure how to handle them.

Explain that you want to become more effective at handling those situations and propose a way to review your progress.

If you are the employer, start with a woman whose contribution you already value and ask where she wants to grow.

Then:

1. Agree on a responsibility she wants to handle more confidently.
2. Give her an opportunity to practice.
3. Review what changes in the work.

If she can resolve situations that previously needed your intervention, that's a practical sign the development is helping.

Over time, you can also look at retention and readiness for greater responsibility.

____________________________________________

Why I built Drive Her Forward around ongoing development

I created Drive Her Forward because women need support they can return to as they put leadership into practice.

A course can introduce a useful idea, but applying it to a difficult work situation often raises questions you didn't have while watching the lesson.

That's where an ongoing community can help.

In Drive Her Forward, women can work through real challenges and learn from other women's experiences.

They can consider how to approach a conversation before having it, then return to discuss what happened.

Accountability keeps the attention on applying what they learn. The point is to use that support to become more effective at work.

Our corporate offering gives employers a practical way to invest in women's leadership development through sponsored community membership or leadership workshops within their organization.

For a woman, it creates an opportunity to build her ability with her employer behind her.

For the company, the value comes from how she applies that growth: handling situations that once needed a manager's intervention and helping the people around her become more capable, as Jessica did.

I can see now how much we benefited from Jessica, and how much we needed to invest in her, before I fully understood it.

I want more employers to recognize that opportunity earlier.

If someone on your team came to mind while reading this, talk to her about her growth before the conversation is about her leaving.

And if you recognized yourself, bring your employer a proposal.

Contact Drive Her Forward to discuss sponsorship or a workshop that helps you put that development to work.

Explore Corporate Programs

Research Sources

[1] Gallup. 42% of Employee Turnover Is Preventable but Often Ignored. July 10, 2024.

Research includes a nationally representative study of 717 people who voluntarily left an employer in the prior 12 months. Replacement cost is an estimate, not a guaranteed cost for any individual company.

Gallup Research Source