Why Not Do Frontline Leadership Training?
If your frontline leaders have strong leadership capabilities, then their teams are more likely to be highly productive.
Why Your Frontline Leaders Need Frontline Leadership Training
Over recent years, there have been many articles discussing leadership training in organisations, and whether the money is well spent. Some question whether training is aligned with organisational goals, while others cite concerns about the lack of follow up after leadership training has taken place.
Our concern has always been the general approach to who gets leadership training. There is an unfortunate tendency to restrict leadership training to senior executives, with the justification that these individuals make higher-risk decisions that have a greater influence on an organisation’s future.
No arguments there, but what about your frontline leaders? Their actions are significantly more perceivable by customers, who you ultimately depend on for success.
Closer to the Action
Frontline leaders are responsible for the teams that your customers interact with, from customer services to accounts. Whether your organisation produces goods or delivers services, these teams are ultimately responsible for what goes in front of the customer.
If your frontline leaders have strong leadership capabilities, then their teams are more likely to be highly productive. They will be better at achieving objectives and solving challenges, all of which builds customer trust and your organisation’s reputation.
It can even be argued that the new world of greater remote working demands even better frontline leaders to maintain the same level of motivation and productivity within a displaced team.
Missed Opportunities
Unfortunately, frontline leaders rarely get much training, and much of it is unlikely to be about leadership. When pushing the case for frontline leadership training, HR professionals often come up against resistance over costs, primarily because it can be hard to measure return on investment.
Our advice is to take a different tack. Instead of focusing on returns, calculate what economists call ‘opportunity costs’, which is a measure of what organisations lose because of missed opportunities.
Lost Productivity
This is by far the most important opportunity cost of not providing leadership training for your frontline leaders, simply because you miss out on improving everything that is essential to profitability.
The decisions of your frontline leaders dictate the success of organisational processes, and any efforts to bring about change within an organisation. They have a direct impact on morale, which affects team output, overheads and staff turnover. A frontline leader who can inject innovation and nurture staff to do better can be worth their weight in gold.
Recruitment
Finding talent becomes more expensive and challenging the further up the ladder you look. Organisations can spend a great deal of time and budget finding senior leaders. Even then, it can be hard to get tangible proof that they will fit in and flourish in the way you need them to.
But what if you had a pipeline of leaders already in the organisation? Your frontline leaders already know your business well, have proven themselves, and don’t require an expensive recruitment commission. Seeing employees moving up the business can also boost morale throughout the organisation.
Litigation Costs
It is also worth considering the cost of court cases and tribunals in your calculations because good frontline leaders inherently reduce risk for organisations.
Externally, customers are less likely to have a need to bring litigation because teams are well-managed with an excellent paper trail. Internally, good frontline leadership minimises the risk of grievances and discrimination that can lead to expensive employment tribunals.
How Can Training Help?
Leadership training will have a huge impact on your frontline leaders, particularly those who have the seeds of leadership success that make them tomorrow’s rising stars. You may enjoy this inspiring story about how to foster bold leadership potential in your organisation.
How to foster leadership potential in your organisation
This article was originally contributed by Wally Bock
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