Hello everyone. It has been quite a bit of time since I last posted something here. Michele and I bought a new home in a wonderful neighborhood. We are so blessed to have met some new friends. I am also blessed to be working on a project to develop leaders and help them grow and develop teams that are inspired and successful. I hope that you will give me some feedback on a few questions that will help when building this new opportunity.
- 1. What are some key challenges in a typical ‘day in the life’ of a first line leader?
2. What is the role or expectations of first line leaders in supporting strategic growth
3. What is the impact on first line leaders when their company is in growth mode?
4. What are some key challenges in leading and inspiring teams?
1. Leadership Experience / Training – Too often a star employee is promoted to a leadership position because they were a star employee, not because of their leadership skills. The expectation is that because they succeeded in the company’s core mission that they will easily succeed in leadership. Without the proper leadership training i.e. how to communicate, set goals, handle confrontation, etc. they will struggle.
2. With respect to managing employees who are the heart and soul of any business, the first line leader must be able to communicate the vision of the company to the employee. This must be done in a way that keeps the employee motivated and excited. The front line leader has to get the employee to buy into the plan thus making them a productive worker / group of workers.
3. Growth mode is the most exciting yet toughest period for a company. There are a lot of frustrations as systems and policies that used to be able to handle the smaller workload no longer are viable. Often, the best ideas for improvements or change come from the workers. The Front Line Leader must have great listening and reasoning skills to hear and then either act on or communicate the ideas to higher level management. The worst thing would be to have a Front Line Leader that is not receptive to change. The “This is the only way to do it” mentality.
4. I feel the biggest challenge is putting your best employee on your biggest task. We like to get into production ruts where we have great employees doing great jobs and we don’t want to move them because they’re great at what they do. But when a real challenge comes along, it may be the perfect time to reward that great employee with the new opportunity. As far as inspiring, every person has something different that makes them tick. You have to find out what that is for that person and then put them in the right seat on the bus that allows their skill set to shine.