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Respecting Frontline Employees: How Hard Can It Be?
In most organizations, “respect” is a topic that gets plenty of attention. Employee handbooks state clearly that each person will respect others. So everything is understood and everyone respects everyone else, right? The thinking seems to be that if we just say it needs to happen, it will. Then why do we hear the recurring complaint from frontline employees that they do not feel respected?
Respect doesn’t just “happen” because of some section in the handbook. We may respect a title, for example, like “President” or “C.E.O.” But respecting the title a person holds is not the same as respecting that person. Perhaps we show respect for the person with the title, but we may not actually respect that person.
As stated by dictionary.com respect means: “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability: I have great respect for her judgment.” So as I understand it, this means that we give worth to how a person conducts himself or herself. The human element in the definition cannot be ignored. When we respect someone we have decided that that person has worth.
In many businesses, the front line employees are often the first and only representatives of the company that the customer ever sees. They are the customers’ impression of the company. They are counted on and missed when they are absent. They affect almost every aspect of the business and are important to its success.
So, what is the “worth” of a front line employee? When front line employees are no more than a cog in the business it is easy to treat them as such, even if it is inadvertent. The employees will feel no less demeaned and devalued, and ultimately demotivated in spite of good intentions. In essence, as the foundation that keeps the business going, their “worth” is immeasurable. Most certainly, they deserve respect before anyone who happens to have a title.
My suggestion? Notice and praise your front line employees, treat them with dignity and respect them for their critical role in the business. They’re worth it!
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Liz Cosline
SongofOneUnexpectedLife-S.O.U.L.
http://songofoneunexpectedlife.info
twitter.com/lizcosline
http://coslineliz.weebly.com/addressing-employee-issues.html
Front Line Management – It’s Not Your Fault
Over the years of being in management I have talked with several different administrators, read reports and surveys, and now have been reading the 2010 surveys. It has not changed in the last 20 years. This is very interesting on how the problem has been noticed and yet has not been fully corrected. Yet it is my belief that thought there is a sense of the problem it has not yet been fully identified. The result of this however is many, if not all businesses, running at an average level. Luckily that is enough to keep going and to make money but it is not excelling.
The front line is the key to any organization and yet spends a lot of its time in corrective actions. The are many disciplinary actions in companies which are costly, there are corrections of problems, and the thing about mistakes is they happen but when not reported they become more costly. Not reporting occurs when there is not a good relationship with the front line manager.
Speaking of the front line manager, these are often the employee that was really great at the front line job and is now promoted. This is great but then this person is often left with figuring out how to be a manager. The front line manager gets it from both sides. Now trying to meet the needs of the employees, while learning what it take to manage and keep the boss happy. From my experience and continuing to read it is evident that these managers do not get enough training.
Yet it’s not as simple as just more training, even though this is not simple at all. What are the things they need to be trained in? This is the part that is still getting identified and figured out. There is one thing becoming known however, the front line manager is at a disadvantage.
What Makes a Person Successful?
Success is talked about throughout society and people seem to be working towards being successful with almost every job that is done. It is interesting that people even decide at an early age at times which profession will be looked at as a successful one. A prestigious job so to speak is one that seems to say successful by just the title. But this doesn’t always make a person successful. There are examples where poor jobs were done by people with impressive titles. Mostly it is people doing regular jobs everyday and trying to do them well.
However the workplace is not the only gauge of success. Sometimes people spend so much time at work that the home structure suffers. Is this success? Or at times people are late for work a lot or do not complete the job in a correct manner. That can’t be success. Success is at times gauged by awards but this is a fleeting reward though a terrific reward for a good job it never means a person can stop there. Plus a person can be a success without ever receiving an award.
Success is something that must be decided individually. The workplace can assist in this in explaining what is wanted and needed at the job but it will really be the person doing the job that completes this work. Each day this is done is a success for the day. Success needs to have the home life included in its definition seeing that life is also dealt with there. There needs to be a balance of fun and relaxation in regards to life and to evaluate success. When one aspect is sacrificed for another aspect of life though someone may seem successful, sometimes the price is too high.
When looking at success a person needs to take into consideration the happiness that will come from the life lived. If there is not a balance in regards to life something will fail along the way. It doesn’t have to be one way or the other.
Maintenance of a Team
Sometimes a team has to be trained or at least some members have to be trained. Then there are times when discipline of a team is necessary. New projects may have to be implemented or a change in a procedure may occur. There may be some problems that have to be solved. When this occurs things need to be resolved in a productive way and as soon as possible.
But what about the times that everything is running very smoothly with a team that just gets things done and seems to need very little attention. The tendency is to let the team simply function and feel good about how they are doing. By all means feel good. When people have aces on the team often more work is put on them and they are left alone. This does not continue to work over time though. When people are doing well they need to know that and to know that leadership is still interested.
This is done by taking a few minutes each day asking how the day is going, having a reporting system, and also noticing what is going on, This is called maintenance of a team. The minute a team feels that the interest and the attention has gone away for the most part, the team performance will begin to slide ever so slightly. Showing the pride a leader has in the team goes a very long way.
Teams want to succeed yet also need to know that the leader notices the accomplishments. Teams want to win and in a business environment the cues from the leader is how this is evident. Once a team is at the top it is only through maintenance that this will be maintained.
What Gets a Team Noticed
Most of the time when a manager, supervisor, or coach takes over a team they are not building it from scratch. Instead a team has been a team for awhile or at the very least a group of people have been together for awhile. At times this is looked at as the team already exists and just needs to go on with maybe some tweaking along the way. I’m going to suggest not to look at it this way. I’m suggesting to look at it as building a new team.
Before anything is done in changes take the time to observe this team as a whole and the individual member of the team. Tell your boss that you are going to do this. This does a few things. First it allows you in a relaxed manner to get to know people a little, the team members relax and act more themselves, you see what works and get a sense of what needs to be changed, and the group did not feel like everything was going to change immediately. Most often this is the start of a good relationship.
Don’t just change things for the sake of changing things. See what works and leave it alone for awhile. As you have your goals of where the team needs to go, you can now use your observations of the individuals to put them in the roles you think will be the strongest. This is also a great time to give people something new because it naturally gets people recharged. It is terrific to explain why this is happening and showing the goal you have in mind that you want to see the team reach. This is not always a concrete goal but might be simply seeing the team come together more, help each other, or being precise.
Going a little slower allows the member of the team to feel you are a part of the team before changes were made. I find there is less resistance this way with the flow coming easier.
Liz Cosline
Manage of Lead
In my experience in the supervisory and management world I have found that getting the job done in a consistent day to day way, comes down to the view of the managing person no matter what the actual title the person holds. I have separated these views by using the words manage and lead.
There is always talk about how to motivate employees to get the job done in a consistent manner. Often I have seen that people in management take care of tasks. There seems to be a view that these people are the ones that give out a work assignment and then see if it is getting done, make the corrections along the way, and then close it out when it is completed. Though this is part of the job there is no interaction set up here for the employee. In this scenario the employee isn’t involved in the process except to complete the task. Many times managers will let the day go along until of course a reaction is needed to a problem. This is often referred to as “putting out fires”. It is the managing person that now has to correct this.
Often I have seen that communication with employees many times is insufficient. I have seen managers with a feeling that knowledge is power. I believe this to be true when it is shared with the employees. Employees should not know everything about the company but they should know the goals of the company, the information about their jobs, where to find what is related to their jobs, and how to get problems solved.
This is where management turns to leadership. A leader will take obstacles out of the way before they become a problem. A leader will check with the employees or team members to see how the job is going. A leader will listen to the team members. A team member bringing a problem should also always have an idea for a solution but need to know someone is listening. The big picture of the goals and measurements should always be given to the employees with feedback from time to time, so they can see they are succeeding.
To have employees motivate themselves there needs to be an investment from the employee. In other words there needs to be a reason that benefits the employee. Getting paid for a job starts the investment but will not be enough to go the extra mile for most all of the time. Money is a short term motivator. Instead through the actions and words of the leader the employee will see if he/she matters or not. This can be done by reminding the employee or team member that whatever job is being done is necessary to the whole. It is good to tell the employee that whatever is accomplished counts towards that employees reputation. The employer needs to show that it is very important to the goals of the company to have everyone contribute.
A workplace is not much different than a sports team. Coaches do not usually play the game. But they do give the players the resources and training to play the game well in most cases. But mostly a good coach believes that the team can get it done.
Liz Cosline
Motivational Business
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