My father was a Lutheran pastor. Once, early in his ministry, he preached the exact same sermon two Sundays in a row. As the congregation filed out of church every member, asked him why. He told each one the same thing: “Nothing much changed the first time I preached that sermon, so I thought I’d try it again.”
When it comes to leadership development for frontline managers, it seems like we’re preaching the same sermon over and over.
The Halogen study of first line managers
In 2014, Halogen Software sponsored a study by Harvard Business Analytics Services about “the role of frontline managers in organizations today.” It’s excellent. You can download a copy of it here. Don’t be prepared for any surprises, though.
Frontline managers are important
Seventy-seven percent of respondents said frontline managers are important in helping their organization reach its business goals. This isn’t a stunning, new finding. Pretty much everyone agrees that frontline managers are a key to good business results.
Frontline managers don’t get the leadership development they need
Here’s something else that’s not a new insight. Frontline managers don’t get much help.
“Overwhelmingly, respondents cited the lack of training and development of frontline managers as having either a ‘somewhat negative impact’ or a ‘significant negative impact’ on organizational performance.”
The bottom line
We know that frontline leaders are important. If they do better, our organizations do better. Those frontline leaders would probably perform better if we paid attention to their development. But we don’t.
Why we don’t improve frontline leadership development
After four decades of reading study after study like this, I figure it will suffer the same fate as the others. After a furry of interest, nothing will happen. Nothing. And I think I know why.
No business leader ever made it to the cover of a major publication because they improved leadership development for frontline managers. That work isn’t sexy. It’s hard, it’s mostly invisible, and it takes a long time. It’s far easier to announce a stunning new strategy and let your successor deal with frontline leadership development.
Maybe this time will be different, but I doubt it.
