Front Line Leadership Do’s and Don’ts

Is there any more demanding role in your organization than that of a Front Line Leader? After all, it’s a Front Line Leaders job to understand the strategies formulated by the Senior Leaders, then turn around and carry out the necessary tactics to make it all happen. Yes, the real battle is at the front lines, where operations are conducted in real time, where employees need to produce at high levels and get results, and where the entire organization ultimately succeeds or fails.

by Connor Jordan

Some Front Line Leaders are completely new to the role, some are more experienced supervisors or managers, and yet others are informal leaders who lead without occupying an official spot on the org chart. Regardless of individual backgrounds or experience levels, today’s Front Line Leaders face a combination of outside influences and challenges. The ever-changing makeup of the workforce brings various views on life and work, technology is constantly changing the ways in which we communicate, and competitive industry pressures from a down economy and overseas competition can all cause some serious headaches.

Watch the Video – “Equipping Front Line Leaders: the Tools and How-To’s”

And the stress doesn’t stop there. Front Line Leaders are sandwiched between a manager of their own and a team on the front lines. There’s pressure from the top and the bottom. The list of challenges can go on for pages and pages, so let’s just focus on a few basic do’s and don’ts to help you both manage your manager as well as guide your team.

The Do’s and Don’ts

What to do:

Maintain Focus. The primary measurement by which a Front Line Leader is judged is productivity. Maintaining focus in the right areas is critical. To keep yourself and the team focused, you must have a scorecard displaying the goals and actual performance outcomes. This will keep you and your team connected to the mission and also serves as a reference point when reporting to the boss.

Inform the Tribe. Employees on your team should know everything that you know relating to the organization’s success or failure. Key information about decisions, changes in policies, and other important business news should be openly discussed. Failing to have this open forum about the business will lead to rumors, hearsay, and lost time trying to correct mistaken information after the fact.

Involve Everyone. A great way to increase productivity is to leverage the strengths and experiences of each member on the team. By delegating assignments evenly, you can drive employee engagement, which also leads to higher productivity. Involving everyone helps Front Line Leaders get input from various sources and allows for necessary adjustments to be made more efficiently.

What NOT to do:

Put Out Fires. Many Front Line Leaders mistakenly believe that it is their job to put out all the fires. Not so. You can allow the team to form and execute solutions to problems. Giving this leeway and support will naturally raise employee motivation and engagement levels.

Ignore Conflict. Most workplace conflict is due to lack of clarity in what is to be done and by whom, which leads to confusion and a breakdown in trust, which destroys productivity. If you control the confusion you can minimize the conflict. Be sure that everyone is very clear about the tasks to be completed, project due dates, news from the top, and what is to be expected.

Accept the Limitations.  One major productivity killer is an organization’s own culture. An organization’s culture can sometimes create unintended barriers and lead to a mindset of “that’s the way we’ve always done it” even when new thinking and new action is required. To overcome these limitations, encourage risk-taking and problem solving by your team members. They may not have a 100% success rate, but at least you’ll have a more innovative and productive team culture not bound by cultural limitations.

Connor Jordan on Twitter as @cjordan17

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