Frontline management: A guide to frontline manager leadership

• Frontline performance management: This area refers to optimizing individual and team performance on the frontline. Consistently high frontline performance helps ensure that an organization achieves the goals and objectives set by its middle and senior management.

• Frontline resource management: This area refers to balancing capacity with demand for frontline employees and materials. It focuses on maximizing productivity, cost efficiency, and innovation while fostering employee well-being and fulfilment.

The job title for people responsible for frontline management is often, unsurprisingly, frontline manager. However, depending on the discipline and industry, they might be referred to as first or second manager, first-line or line manager, office manager, store manager, charge nurse, factory supervisor, and construction supervisor.

Frontline managers are essential to employee satisfaction and retention. They often hire, train, coach, and evaluate frontline workers and recommend them for promotions. They interact with them every day, facilitating productivity and collaboration and helping solve job-related problems or escalating them to their superiors. They build a culture of trust and inclusivity.

As the people who most closely oversee sales and services, frontline managers also help define customer experiences. Whether in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, banking, or other industry, they help ensure that customer needs are efficiently met in personalized ways that reflect well on the entire organization.

Frontline manager skills for effective leadership

Frontline managers require excellent leadership skills. By implementing a comprehensive frontline manager leadership program, your organizations can provide managers with the foundational training and ongoing coaching they need to succeed. Leadership development for frontline management should cover the following essential skills:

• Communication: Frontline managers clearly convey information and ideas, listen to feedback, ask insightful questions, and resolve conflicts fairly. They build rapport with and facilitate understanding among people at all levels of the organization. They also diplomatically communicate with customers, clients, and partners.

• Listening and empathy: Active listening is key to effective communication and collaboration. Frontline workers feel respected and valued when they believe that their managers care about their experiences, perspectives, and concerns—and take their input seriously. Also, managers who empathize with workers’ experiences and feelings can more authentically help them do their best work.

• Flexibility: Frontline managers quickly adapt to and guide their teams through organizational change, whether it’s embracing a new business strategy, reporting structure, procedure, or technology. They’re also open to new, innovative ways of doing things, including considering suggestions for change from frontline workers.

• Problem solving: People at the frontline face new situations and challenges every day. Often, frontline workers can recognize potential problems and handle them on their own, but sometimes they need managerial assistance. Frontline managers are skilled at addressing a variety of problems, including customer complaints, employee conflicts, and unexpected resource issues. They take time to analyze situations and find innovative solutions and know when to reach out to their superiors for help.

• Goal setting: In both their personal and professional lives, people often assess their accomplishments through the goals they’ve set. Frontline managers help workers establish high but attainable individual and team goals that align with those of the overall organization. They also help define milestones for monitoring and measuring progress toward achieving those goals.

• Motivation: Frontline managers inspire frontline workers to meet—and exceed—their job requirements. Managers provide regular, meaningful feedback, balancing praise with constructive criticism. Managers also motivate workers to achieve the goals they’ve set and give them confidence to take on new challenges.

• Strategic thinking: Frontline managers stay focused on what they and their team need to do to drive the organization’s business strategy forward. They update frontline workers on strategic initiatives and help them implement them. They also offer strategic insights and recommendations to their superiors.

• Ethics: Frontline managers model exceptional personal and professional behaviors and consistently act in accordance with the organization’s mission and values. Their integrity helps build a supportive workplace culture and has a positive effect on their frontline workers, colleagues, and superiors—and the customers, patients, and other people they serve.

Frequently, managers naturally possess some but not all of these leadership skills. Leadership programs can help each manager build on their individual strengths while addressing areas of weakness.

Frontline management best practices

Life at the frontline is often fast-paced, full of multitasking, and sometimes a matter of life and death. Frontline managers who follow established best practices can help their teams perform optimally throughout the day. Here are several best practices for frontline managers to follow:

• Create a positive workplace culture. Establish a workplace of mutual trust and respect where diversity is celebrated and everyone feels valued and heard. A strong workplace environment gives frontline activities and relationships meaning and fosters fun and innovation.

• Establish clear objectives. Set well-defined objectives to help workers understand what they need to accomplish, such as for the day, month, and year. Meet with the team in person or virtually to answer questions, address potential hurdles, and assess progress.

• Keep communication channels open. Maintain open, two-way communications in which managers and workers can share important information, updates, and recommendations. Encourage workers to collaborate with each other to ensure work is accomplished efficiently and safely.

• Engage workers in decision making. When possible, include frontline workers in making decisions that will directly affect them. Employees often have on-the-job insights that frontline and other managers don’t—and that can result in better decisions. Even if their suggestions aren’t implemented, workers often feel appreciated for having been included in the decision-making process.

• Equip frontline workers with the right tools.Maximize productivity and operational efficiency—and help create excellent customer and employee experiences—by outfitting frontline teams with modern digital tools. That might mean digital walkie-talkies for construction crews, mobile point-of-sale systems for retail associates, or drones for rescue workers. Also, protect frontline workers, devices, and data with security solutions tailored to frontline needs.

• Provide mentoring and support. Managers should be available to assist workers when they need it. Real-time coaching can make a significant difference in helping employees acquire new knowledge and skills.

• Encourage professional development. Advocate for the team’s professional growth, which is critical to building and retaining talent. Help workers stay engaged and motivated by offering them training opportunities, important projects, and greater responsibilities. Help them map out career paths, and recommend eligible workers for promotions.

General strategies for frontline management