Do Managers Consider The Development Of Employees More Important Than Business Results

In the past several weeks I spoke to many managers about managing the performance of their employees. The managers ranged from junior managers managing a small team to people who managed other managers and teams. I was intrigued by how each and everyone of them consistently talked about the need to understand the values of their employees. They also talked about the need to monitor, measure and develop the competencies of their team members. Not a single one of them talked about the need to measure business performance or business results.

I came away wondering if I just happened to talk to the nicest managers in town who put the development of their team members before business results. Do managers take performance on business results for granted now-a-days? Is there a underlying trend here?