There is arguably no one more important in an organization than the front-line leader. This rationale is simple according to Fred Hassan, who researched the front-line leader and found that “they make up 50% to 60% of a company’s management ranks and directly supervise as much as 80% of the workforce.” All projects, programs, products, services, operations, and teams responsible for anything and everything in the organization are managed by leaders on the front line. Arguably, no one is more important, indeed.

They are also, arguably, the most unprepared and ill-equipped to succeed.

These are the first level supervising managers of an organization and were most recently successful subject matter experts (SMEs) and individual contributors who were promoted into bigger roles, with broader responsibilities, and a lot more expectations that are a lot different now with people reporting to them.

The job of a leader is a challenging one, much more so than what any of them have previously experienced. Research shows that organizational executives believe only one-third of their front-line leaders are competent to make decisions and less than one in ten executives say they are investing enough in their front-line leaders to make them better.

So, the bottom line is this: Front-line leaders are vitally important, yet they are neither currently prepared to succeed nor are they being trained well enough to address the importance of their role. It’s a terrible recipe for the desired outcome of success and has been described as “The most pressing issue of our day.”

The Most Pressing Issue of Our Day

There are many things that can get in the way of organizational success. The most damaging of things is incompetence. The second most damaging is lack of confidence.

Now, to be sure, assigning anyone the role of front-line manager is a bet. An individual may have been labeled within the organization as “high potential” due to their competence and confidence in a prior role and with helping a team solve a tricky problem under pressure of limited time, competing priorities, demanding stakeholders and more ambiguity than clarity. Despite these challenges, they succeeded likely by aligning team members to a mission, leveraging collaboration for greater outcomes, and displaying a ‘anything’s possible’ positive mindset rather than casting a negative shadow of doubt.

Whether you are a newly minted front-line learning leader wanting to succeed or a training executive wanting your front-line leaders to succeed, here are some considerations to set you up for success.

1.     Don’t forget the fundamentals.

Regardless the industry, department or unit, all business is people business. In order to create a shared mission, joint purpose, guiding coalition, or meaning in work, it’s all about people. So, first, build rapport, relationships grounded in trust, respect, appreciation, care, concern, compassion, expectations, and understanding. As noted in my book “My Best Advice,” “Wearing the same uniform doesn’t make the team . . . Any group of people aligned on achieving a purpose has the potential to be great. Any group has the possibility of becoming a high-performing team and realizing greatness. The potential and probability of that actually happening is contingent upon leadership. Realizing greatness is the product of leadership influence.”

It’s important for front-line leaders (and executives), to consider what matters most in the first 30, 60 or 90 days on the job? Situational context is important: What’s working? What’s not working? What is high importance and high-impact as compared to everything else? Who’s who? What are our critical processes and critical touchpoints? What are our immediate decisions? And, what am I missing?

As a front-line leader, it’s best to get answers to these questions as quickly as possible. As an executive, it’s best to help front-line leaders navigate the organizational terrain in finding the answers.

2.     Accelerate learning while simultaneously aligning resources and defining success.

As you work on getting answers to the questions noted above, do so with intentional collaboration. Again, it’s not the uniform, patch, logo, seal, mantra or tagline that makes the team. The team and “teamness” are created by the decisions, actions and behaviors of the leader, executed consistently and collaboratively among others. So, whether a front-line leader or executive, be intentional, pick up the phone or go face to face (or screen to screen) whenever possible. Align leading indicators to mission and measure what matters most; always be working on the 3 Cs, which are clarity about what is being done and why, confidence in each person and the team to succeed, and community among the team in relation to one another and reliance on one another.

3.     Plan, secure and celebrate (early) wins.

The point of failure, disengagement, misalignment and lack of morale come from continued lack of success, recognition and meaning. It’s the leader’s role to establish goals, strategies, plans and motivation. Achieving a yearlong goal hinges on a milestone reached in week one and a critical decision made in month two, and a solution to a big problem unearthed in Q3, and hundreds (if not thousands) of other accomplishments, touchpoints, handoffs, joint decisions and more. Each is worth the acknowledgement of the people involved, a celebration of the win and encouragement to continue driving success.

Recognizing the people associated with the work builds credibility, belief and momentum. As a front-line leader or training executive, be mindful and intentional about recognition. An honest “thank you” goes a long way. A handwritten note of thanks may go even further. People want to be heard; they want to be appreciated, and they want to have meaning in their work. Providing this is a leader’s role.

4.     Get and give feedback.

Feedback accelerates learning, which increases the likelihood of success. Everyone benefits from the usefulness of a global positioning system (GPS). Whether you are trying to find the closest coffee shop or are on a much more adventurous trek, a GPS is vital. The function making a GPS successful is feedback. The satellites used for GPS tracking provide continual feedback relative to where you are and where you want to be. Whether you are a front-line leader or training executive, if you are looking to get somewhere, there is no better way to navigate than from feedback. The leader can seek feedback by asking, “What am I doing that I should continue to do?”; “What am I doing that I should change?”;  And, “What am I not doing that I should start doing?”

When providing feedback to your team members, ask yourself the following:

• Did I provide constructive feedback today that will help my team reach their destination?
• Did I show genuine care, concern and individualized consideration among each member of my team?
• Did I help align priorities and expectations to our destination today?
• Did I share information that provides meaning and purpose in our work together?
• Did I help my team reach their individual development goals and career goals?

Often, front-line leadership training is focused on nuts and bolts or blocking and tackling activities of the role such as budgets, timesheets, approving leave and allocating resources — especially time, the leader’s time and that of others –policy compliance, performance reviews and more. Certainly, these management activities are important. So, too, are the leadership capabilities noted above. Management and leadership are both important and are both in need of better development among those are the front line. Without better training, development, and preparation of competence and confidence, front-line leaders will continue to struggle. As a result, there will be misalignment of resources, lack of engagement, high turnover, and no sense of team.

Whether you are an executive yourself or are responsible for training managers (or both), take responsibility, be accountable, be intentional to help your front-line leaders succeed. As a classification representing 50-60% of your company’s management ranks and directly supervising as much as 80% of your workforce, they need it; they deserve it, and they are counting on it.